Former Penn State President Graham Spanier has dropped the lawsuit he filed against the university, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Centre County court.
No reason is given for the drop of the lawsuit.
On May 24, Spanier filed a complaint against the university, requesting it provide him with copies of emails it provided to former FBI Director Louis Freeh who was conducting an independent, internal investigation of Penn State with regard to how administrators handled reports of child sexual abuse involving Jerry Sandusky.
According to court documents, Spanier and his legal team wanted the emails in order to prepare Spanier to be interviewed by investigators with the Freeh Group. His attorneys claimed in letters provided in court documents that, in their opinion, Spanier should have been granted access to the emails prior to his grand jury appearance in April.
“To intentionally withhold them from him at this stage is simply not well founded in legal practice or common sense,” his attorney wrote. “It smacks of game playing and would constitute fundamental unfairness and prejudice to Dr. Spanier.”
The emails contained information revealing that Spanier — along with the late former head coach Joe Paterno, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz — knew about two incidents involving former assistant coach Sandusky acting inappropriately with a boy in a Lasch Football Building shower.
Penn State responded to Spanier's complaint saying it could not release the emails to Spanier for his review because it was under order from the state Attorney General to not release evidence related to the ongoing investigation. The university claimed Spanier was circumventing the Right to Know law by asking the university for emails that were technically in possession of the Office of the Attorney General.
Spanier’s attorneys responded saying that the university was not legally obligated to withhold information from him and that Penn State was complying with a mere request by the Commonwealth. A hearing had been scheduled to discuss the suit for Aug. 17 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte.
According to court documents, the motion filed Wednesday was a voluntary discontinuance of Spanier's action against Penn State.
University spokesman David La Torre said the university is not commenting on the dropping of Spanier’s lawsuit.
