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Cynthia Baldwin: Graham Spanier ‘Is Not a Person of Integrity’

StateCollege.com’s Jennifer Miller contributed to this report.

Newly released court documents shed light on former Penn State Counsel Cynthia Baldwin’s testimony in 2012 before a grand jury investigating the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

The judge and prosecutors were clearly aware that Baldwin’s testimony before the grand jury could be seen as a conflict, in which she accused former President Graham Spanier of lying to her about his knowledge of the 1998 and 2001 Sandusky incidences.

“He is not a person of integrity,” Baldwin testified. “He lied to me.”

Judge Barry Feudale, Attorney General prosecutor Frank Fina, Baldwin’s attorney, Charles DeMonaco, and the university’s attorney, Michael Mustokoff, met in the judge’s chambers on Oct. 22, 2012, to discuss concerns raised regarding Baldwin’s pending grand jury testimony.

Dauphin County President Judge Todd Hoover unsealed a transcript from that meeting on Monday. Hoover is presiding over the criminal case for Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and retired Senior Vice President for Finance Gary Schultz.

The three administrators say they believed Baldwin was representing them when they testified before the grand jury investigating the Sandusky scandal. Baldwin later testified before the same grand jury. Many believe she violated attorney-client confidentiality, which has caused significant grief for the prosecution and those following the case.

Spanier’s grand jury testimony was also released. It’s clear her was under the impression that Baldwin was representing him in the grand jury room.

“Sir, you’re represented by counsel today?,” Feudale asked.

“Yes,” Spanier said.

“Could you just identify counsel?” Feudale continued.

“Cynthia Baldwin sitting behind me,” Spanier replied.

Baldwin did not object to that identification, and occasionally interjected during the interview.

The transcript unsealed on Monday, reveals how the judge and prosecutors handled those concerns, which Schultz and Curley’s attorneys raised leading up to Baldwin’s testimony.

“Your Honor, we just want to put this issue on the record,” Fina said. “So we want to have clarity before she (Baldwin) testifies as to the parameters of her allowable testimony and hopefully having her testify in a way that does not step on or interfere with any privilege.”

The Oct. 22 transcript shows Judge Feudale and Fina were aware of the concerns and expected Spanier to raise similar concerns in the near future. Fina noted a waiver of attorney-client privilege by Penn State allowed Baldwin to testify. Specifically, he said Baldwin could talk about issues related to Sandusky, his relationship with the university and any of his conduct known to the university, but not about her representation related to Spanier, Curley and Schultz.

“And it extended to the contacts between the university and this grand jury and investigators, again, looking into Gerald Sandusky, his personal conduct – any alleged misconduct and indeed also the acts of the university in compliance or non-compliance with investigative efforts,” Fina said. “All of those issues were opened up to us to discuss with Miss Baldwin.”

This new testimony also sheds light into Baldwin’s interactions with Spanier while the Sandusky investigation unfolded. Spanier has been criticized for nor properly apprising the Board of Trustees about the investigation and subsequent grand jury subpoenas. Spanier told the trustees that he couldn’t get into the details of the grand jury probe, but Baldwin says that was a lie and that she told him his grand jury testimony did not need to be secret. Former trustee Dave Jones reached out to Spanier after news broke of the investigation in March 2011, but he was rebuffed.

“The running joke in Old Main was that I had my own path up the stairs and across the rug to Graham’s office,” Baldwin said. “Everything that I knew I was passing on to him so that he would be aware of everything that was going on with this particular matter.”

It’s also worth noting that, although irrelevant to the Baldwin issue, Fina says that there was a 1984 allegation against Jerry Sandusky, which is nearly a decade earlier than any current public allegation. Fina says that his office has been unable to find any paperwork on that incident.

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Here is the complete transcript from the Patriot News for Baldwin:

And here’s Spanier’s:

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About the Author

Kevin Horne

Kevin Horne was the editor of Onward State from 2012-2014 and currently holds the position of Managing Editor Emeritus, which is a fake title he made up. He graduated from Penn State with degrees journalism and political science in 2014 and is currently seeking his J.D. at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. A third generation Penn Stater from Williamsport, Pa., Kevin is also the president of the graduate student government. Email: [email protected]

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