Joe Paterno Told About Jerry Sandusky Abuse In 1976: Court Documents

Until the day he died, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno maintained he was unaware of child abuse claims against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky before 2002. An independent report published after his death said he knew in 1998.

New court documents say he knew even before then.

A child told Paterno in 1976 that he had been molested by Sandusky, the documents say, raising further questions about exactly how much the legendary coach knew about his assistant's serial sexual abuse of children.

The allegations were made in a court order related to an insurance case that Penn State is working through to recoup the more than $60 million it has paid as part of the Sandusky case.

Judge Gary Glazer wrote that the school's insurance company is claiming "in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky."

Sandusky was convicted in 2012 on 45 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 boys between 1994 and 2009 and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

"There is no evidence that reports of these incidents ever went further up the chain of command at PSU," Glazer added about Paterno's handling of the explosive claim.

PennLive first broke the story Thursday night and posted the full court filing online.

It is not known what specific allegations the insurance company is referring to, but PennLive reported that they are contained in victim's depositions currently under seal.

Paterno's son, Jay, a staunch defender of his father's legacy since the scandal was brought to light, denied the allegations in a Facebook post Thursday night shortly after the story broke.

"Because of a single sentence in a court record of an insurance case, Joe Paterno's reputation has once again been smeared with an unsubstantiated, forty year old allegation," Jay Paterno wrote. "In response to this allegation and the subsequent media hype, the Paterno family is demanding a full public review of the facts."

Penn State has paid out around 30 civil settlements to victims as part of the abuse, and a Penn State spokesman would not say whether the 1976 incident was one of those settlements, according to PennLive.

The scandal, which broke in November 2011, rocked the Penn State campus, which had long held up Joe Paterno as a deified figure in the schools storied football history.

Paterno, in his 45th year of coaching Penn State, was fired for his alleged role in covering up the scandal. His statue was taken down from campus, and Paterno died two months later.

A report from former FBI director Louis Freeh, released in July 2012, said that Paterno failed to send allegations of the abuse higher up the chain of command.

Sandusky met all of his victims through his Second Mile foundation, a nonprofit for underprivileged children in Pennsylvania.

• Read more about the latest allegations from PennLive.com
• See the full court documents below (the allegation in question is on page four):

Image via Quintin3265, Wikimedia Commons