Mike McQueary exits courthouse

Former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary exits the Dauphin County Courthouse on Monday in Harrisburg. The hearing in Harrisburg is to determine whether there's enough evidence against former president Graham Spanier, retired university vice president Gary Schultz and then-athletic director Tim Curley to be tried on charges they covered up an allegation that the retired top assistant football coach was sexually preying on boys.

(AP Photo | MATT ROURKE)

The morning that Joe Paterno was fired as Penn State's head coach, Mike McQueary testified Monday, his old coach gave him one last piece of advice.

In the years after McQueary told Paterno that he had seen Jerry Sandusky engaged in a "very bad sexual act, a molestation act with a minor," Paterno approached him a few times and said how Sandusky was a sick guy, McQueary testified.

In 2010, as rumors of the investigation into Sandusky swirled through State College, Paterno's discussions became more detailed. At one point, the legendary coach told McQueary "Old Main screwed it up," McQueary testified.

Then the Wednesday after Sandusky was arrested for using his connections to Penn State and the Second Mile to groom young boys to sexually assault -- hours before the university trustees fired him over the phone -- Paterno walked up to McQueary on the practice field between kicking drills, McQueary said.

"He said the university is going to come down hard on you," McQueary said. "'Don't worry about me. They're going to try to scapegoat you. Trust your lawyers. Don't trust Cynthia Baldwin. Don't trust Old Main.' I'm sorry, but that's what he said."

That's how the preliminary hearing for former Penn State President Graham Spanier, former university vice president Gary Schultz and former Athletic Director Tim Curley began in Dauphin County Courthouse Monday. The former officials are charged with perjury and failure to report child abuse.

McQueary, the former Penn State quarterback who went on to become a graduate assistant then assistant coach for the Nittany Lions, has grown into a much more comfortable and assertive witness as the various hearing in the Sandusky case have played out. In his hour on the stand Monday, McQueary repeatedly asked for questions to be clarified and for terms to be defined, so he could make as precise of an answer as possible. More than once, he remarked that people often take things out of context.

Prosecutors led McQueary through what is now a familiar story.

In February 2001, McQueary saw Sandusky molesting a boy in a Penn State football locker room shower. He called Paterno around 8 a.m. the next morning, a Saturday, because "I had seen something terrible the night before at the Penn State football facility that I needed to bring to his attention right away."

The old coach slumped in the chair in his kitchen when McQueary told him what he saw, McQueary said. Then, McQueary said, Paterno told him he had done the right thing, he would need to think about it, talk to some people and he would follow up.

Penn State preliminary hearing day 1 25 Gallery: Penn State preliminary hearing day 1

About 10 days later, McQueary testified, Curley called and set up a meeting. In a small Bryce Jordan Center conference room, McQueary told Curley and Schultz about the shower. He didn't recall if either Curley or Schultz asked any questions, but he didn't remember an extensive list, or questions about the boy's identity. He made it clear it was molestation and it involved a minor, McQueary said. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes.

When asked about going to the police, McQueary said that by talking to Schultz, who oversaw Penn State's police force, "I thought I was talking to the police."

After that Curley called him and said Penn State had told The Second Mile about the incident and told Sandusky not to bring boys on campus, McQueary said. He couldn't remember if Curley said they were also taking away Sandusky's keys.

As the years passed, McQueary said he had "severe reactions" to Sandusky's continued presence around the program.

"I objected informally and unofficially to co-workers," McQueary said. "Why do we allow him in the facility?"

McQueary was asked if he could recall specific people he told that to; he said he could not.

The night he saw Sandusky in the shower with the boy, he also met with his father and a family friend. Through tears, McQueary testified he told his father, "you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on."

During cross-examination, when asked if Paterno had used those words -- "Old Main screwed it up" -- McQueary replied "Absolutely. I'm sorry, but absolutely."

McQueary testified that he didn't confront Curley or anyone else about their handling of the Sandusky case because it was not his personality nature to question authority.

Curley's lawyer pressed McQueary about why he hadn't called police himself. McQueary interrupted her and said "Are there things I should have done? Yes … I'll point the finger at myself before anybody else."