Penn State ex-president asks US court to overturn conviction
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier is asking a federal magistrate judge to overturn his conviction.
In this June 2, 2017, file photo, former Penn State President Graham Spanier departs after his sentencing hearing at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier is asking a federal magistrate judge to overturn his conviction, less than a week before he is scheduled to start serving two months in jail.
Spanier was in a Scranton, Pennsylvania, courthouse Thursday as his lawyers argued it violated the U.S. Constitution to convict him under a 2007 law for mishandling a complaint about former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy in 2001.
The attorney general’s office wants U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick to do what state courts have done and uphold Spanier’s misdemeanor conviction for child endangerment.
Mehalchick didn’t indicate when she will rule. It’s unclear if she might order a new trial or take some other action.
The 70-year-old Spanier was forced out shortly after Sandusky was arrested in 2011 for child molestation.
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