The specially-presiding judge in the criminal case against three former Penn State administrators officially dismissed a felony charge of perjury against former athletic director Tim Curley.

Perjury charges against former president Graham Spanier and vice president Gary Schultz were quashed earlier this year, as well as conspiracy and obstruction against all three, leaving misdemeanor charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and child endangerment. After the court denied the state's petition to reinstate the quashed charges, then-Solicitor General Bruce Castor said the Attorney General's Office would drop the perjury charge against Curley as well.

The charge, however, remained on the table until Wednesday, when Attorney General Bruce Beemer and deputies Laura Ann Ditka and Patrick J. Schulte filed a motion stating that they did not wish to pursue the count. The filing stated that it was clear the Superior Court "also intended to quash the perjury charge" against Curley.

On Thursday, Judge John Boccabella, who took over the case in July, granted the motion and dismissed the charge.

When Jerry Sandusky was charged with child sexual abuse in November 2011, Curley and Schultz were charged with perjury related to their testimony before the investigating grand jury in the case, as well as child endangerment and failure to report for what prosecutors claimed was their handling of earlier reports about Sandusky and possible abuse. Spanier was charged the following year on similar grounds and at the same time Curley and Schultz had the obstruction and conspiracy charges added.

Pennsylvania Superior Court quashed some of those charges after attorneys for the former Penn State officials successfully argued that former university counsel Cynthia Baldwin's own grand jury testimony violated their attorney-client privilege, and that she did not explain to them that she was representing the university and not them individually when each testified before the grand jury investigating Sandusky.

Prosecutors continue to argue that a conspiracy charge against Curley and Schultz survived the Superior Court's quashal because it relates to the remaining charge of child endangerment. The state says the alleged conspiracy was ongoing from the time former football assistant Mike McQueary told the men in 2001 that he had seen Sandusky abusing a boy in a locker room shower until Curley and Schultz were charged in November 2011. Attorneys for the former Penn State officials say the alleged incident is focused solely on 2001 and past the statute of limitations, and that there is no evidence they conspired over the ensuing decade.

Curley, Schultz and Spanier are seeking to have all remaining charges dismissed and were in Dauphin County Court on Thursday as attorneys for both sides argued pre-trial motions.