PENN STATE

Jury Gives $7M in Damages to Sandusky Whistleblower

Mike McQueary was fired after calling Sandusky a child molester.

Former Penn State University Assistant Football Coach Mike McQueary has been awarded $7 million in damages by a jury over allegations that the school fired him in retaliation for implicating Jerry Sandusky in his child-molestation scandal. The $7.3 million is in both compensatory and punitive damages. McQueary claimed a loss of reputation, in addition to his dismissal from his salaried coaching position for his role as a whistleblower. He sought upwards of $8 million total in damages. McQueary had been working for eight years as a coach for wide receivers under Joe Paterno when he told investigators in 2011 that he had seen Sandusky having sex with young boys in Penn State’s locker-room showers. In interviews with detectives, he also implicated several other department officials and alleged a coverup. Sandusky remains in prison, following his 2012 conviction on charges that he molested 10 boys.