Biden Judicial Nom Let Penn State President Who Ignored Sandusky Rape Accusations Walk Free
14th September 2023
The judge who vacated the conviction of the disgraced former president of Penn State University after he was found guilty of covering up Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of minors could soon get a promotion.
Senate Democrats are primed to confirm Karoline Mehalchick to the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Thursday. Mehalchick, who serves as a magistrate judge in the state, has a history of contentious rulings: She has had at least 31 decisions reversed in less than a decade on the bench.
But no ruling was more controversial than her 2019 decision to let then-Penn State president Graham Spanier off on a technicality after a jury found him guilty of child endangerment in 2017. Mehalchick ruled that prosecutors had misapplied the child endangerment statute to Spanier, who in 2001 did not notify police that Sandusky, then-Penn State’s assistant football coach, raped a child on campus.
Mehalchick’s ruling let Spanier walk free for over a year, until an appeals court reinstated his original sentence. Sandusky was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.