Former Penn State football assistant coach and convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky is entitled to receive his full $4,900 Pennsylvania state pension because the crimes for which his pension was revoked were not committed while he was a public employee, a court ruled Friday. Sandusky, who was convicted in 2012, retired from coaching in 1999 but for several years afterward maintained an office on the Penn State campus, where he often conducted work related to his Second Mile charity—the organization through which he made contact with his victims.
Some of the crimes of which Sandusky was convicted were committed before he retired, but Pennsylvania law did not stipulate until 2004 that child sex crimes are an offense for which pensions can be revoked. The current case thus hinges on crimes committed after the date the law was changed.
“Mr. Sandusky’s performance of services that benefited PSU does not render him a PSU employee,” wrote Judge Dan Pellegrini in announcing the unanimous decision of a court panel to overturn the 2012 decision by the State Employees’ Retirement Board that revoked Sandusky’s pension. Per the AP, “the judges ordered the board to pay back interest and reinstated the pension retroactively, granting [Sandusky] about three years of makeup payments.” The ruling can be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
