BELLEFONTE - Former Penn State President Rodney Erickson told a Centre County jury Monday that he made the Nov. 10, 2011 decision to take Mike McQueary off Penn State's active football coaching staff for safety reasons.
"We were receiving a regular stream of threats and some of the most awful, vile hateful emails that I've ever seen," noted Erickson, who had just received his own battlefield promotion to president in the aftermath of Jerry Sandusky's arrest on child sex abuse charges.
"We'd had a riot the night before downtown, where students had torn up a lot of property... We simply felt that under the circumstances that would be the best way to keep Mike safe, and minimize the chances of any general disturbances, otherwise," Erickson said as McQueary's whistleblower suit against Penn State entered its second week.
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Erickson took the stand after some mop-up cross-examination of McQueary that largely rehashed testimony from Friday.
The essence of McQueary's case, is that he – as the only PSU football assistant to speak out to investigators on Sandusky allegations, and therefore something of a lightning rod for public reaction - was singled out and treated differently by the university than other Paterno staffers who did not come forward.
For a whistle-blower suit to succeed, the plaintiff must prove a direct connection between a termination and a good faith report by the employee of wrongdoing that was adverse to his employer's interest.
If that's established, then the burden shifts to the employer to prove that there were other reasons for whatever job action is at question, besides retaliation.
Judge Thomas Gavin, who will rule on the whistleblower count, quizzed Erickson Monday on his awareness of the state's whistleblower law when taking actions pertaining to McQueary.
Gavin has been exploring the question of whether safety was used as a pretext for the university's actions against McQueary as it tried to cut cords with anyone connected to the Sandusky scandal.
Erickson said he had been briefed about the law because McQueary was a prosecution witness, and noted it was one reason Penn State made sure to continue paying McQueary everything he was contractually entitled to.
But McQueary's failure to return to Penn State employment in the long run, Erickson contended, was always going to be determined more "by who was the next football coach" than by anyone at Old Main.
Asked if McQueary would have been taken off leave had O'Brien wanted to hire him, Erickson said that was "certainly possible."
Erickson noted that O'Brien, hired in January 2012, was prepared to come in to State College with a full staff of assistants.
He did say that he interjected at that point with the new coach, recommending that O'Brien retain Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden in order to provide some continuity in the football program.
Pressed on why he recommended those coaches specifically, Erickson said it was because he believed they "were a step above the rest (of Joe Paterno's 2011 staff) in terms of their national reputation."
McQueary is seeking $4 million in damages from Penn State – his estimate of the value of a lost Division I coaching career – because of what he sees as mistreatment by the university for his role in the Sandusky scandal.
Besides the whistleblower count, McQueary argues Penn State administrators' collective failure to act on his initial 2001 report was an intentional misrepresentation that's branded him as part of a Sandusky cover-up, and caused him "irreparable harm to his ability to earn a living, especially in his chosen profession of coaching football."
McQueary was placed on administrative leave within days of Sandusky's November 2011 arrest, initially, Penn State officials said, because they had security concerns about him continuing to coach in the aftermath of Joe Paterno's firing.
He let go at the expiration of his contract in June 2012. He was, however, eventually paid an 18-month severance at his old salary, which ran through calendar year 2013.
The university asserts that it paid McQueary his severance benefit even though it wasn't technically triggered because McQueary wasn't formally dismissed until after the expiration of his 2011-12 contract.
Attorney Nancy Conrad, representing Penn State, countered the university wants justice for all in the Sandusky scandal, did act out of concern for McQueary in placing him on leave.
Conrad has also added that if McQueary is perceived as a guy who didn't do enough to stop Sandusky because he didn't go directly to the police in 2001, that's a perception that the university could not control.
But, "he should not be permitted to exploit the tragedy of the crimes of Jerry Sandusky for his own personal gain."
