Penn State officials head to court on perjury charges

Hours after stepping down, two top Penn State officials charged with perjury are set to surrender on allegations they failed to alert police–as required by state law–about claims of sexual abuse by the football team’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky.

Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are expected to surrender today at a Harrisburg district court. Their departures from the university were announced last night after an emergency meeting of the Board of Trustees.

Curley, the athletic director, has requested administrative leave so he can focus on his defense. Schultz, the school’s senior vice president for business and finance, will go back into retirement.

Both men say they are innocent of any wrongdoing in connection with the probe into whether Sandusky sexually abused eight boys over 15 years.

Sandusky was arrested Saturday on charges that he preyed on boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youths. The charity said in a statement yesterday that Sandusky had had no involvement with The Second Mile programs involving children since 2008, when Sandusky told the foundation that he was being investigated on child-sex allegations.