McQueary Defends Himself in Penn State Abuse Scandal

Mike McQueary, the coaching assistant who witnessed Jerry Sandusky raping a child in the Penn State locker room in 2002, told CBS's Armen Keteyian that the case has left him, "all over the place -- just kind of shaken ... like a snow globe."

Mike McQueary, the coaching assistant who witnessed Jerry Sandusky raping a child in the Penn State locker room in 2002, told CBS's Armen Keteyian that the case has left him, "all over the place -- just kind of shaken ... like a snow globe." Standing on his front porch, McQueary said he couldn't say much about the case itself, which has yet to reach trial. "This process has to play out," he told Keteyian. "I don't have anything else to say."

McQueary, of course, is shaken because of the death threats he received following to release of the grand jury report, which was interepreted to mean that McQueary failed to stop one of Sandusky's alleged rapes while in progress earning scorn from those disgusted by the case. While not saying much in the in-person interview, McQueary has since been placed on indefinite leave, but he seems to be fighting to restore his public image. According to the AP, McQueary wrote to a friend that "I did stop it, not physically ... but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room." He goes on to say that he contacted police as well. The Morning Call, a newspaper in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, reports they obtained an e-mail McQueary wrote to a friend in which he claims to have take more action than the grand jury report suggests. He "did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police."

McQueary may be finding himself in a catch-22 here: if he does admit to stopping and reporting the rape, he restores his public image but may perjure himself. "If in fact he did go [to police] and he didn’t say that to the grand jury, then he would be sujbect to perjury charges,” former prosecutor Robert Gillespie, Jr. tells The Daily.

Over at ESPN, meanwhile, a review of Pennsylvania state pension rules concludes that fired head coach Joe Paterno, 84, will be eligible for a more than $500,000 a year pension, while Sandusky is collecting $59,000 annually.