Mike McQueary was the first witness to testify in today’s preliminary hearing regarding the perjury charges of former Penn State Athletic Director, Tim Curley, and senior vice president for finance and business, Gary Schultz. Schultz also oversaw Human Resources and the University Police Department until he retired in 2009.

With both of his parents seated in the courtoom, McQueary approached the stand, and according to many media members, looked calm and confident. He began by going over his personal background to introduce what he saw at the Lasch Building on the night of March 1, 2002 between Jerry Sandusky and Victim 2. “I was watching a movie and decided I was going to check out some tapes of recruits.” This prompted McQueary to drive to the football building around the nine o’clock hour.

After parking his car and entering the support staff locker room, McQueary testified to hearing “rhythmic slapping sounds.” Even before witnessing anything more, McQueary admitted to feeling “embarrassed” at what he was hearing because he assumed people were engaging in sexual acts. His locker was directly next to the shower room door, and this is when he first saw Jerry Sandusky behind a boy, who he believed to be between the ages of ten and twelve, in the shower. McQueary went on to describe Sandusky’s position as “extremely sexual” with both hands wrapped around the boy’s waist.

He did not see insertion or hear any sexual verbiage but did notice, after checking a second and third time, that Sandusky had not changed his position. “Jerry was having some type of intercourse with him. That’s what I believe I saw.” Only six feet away from the showers, McQueary then saw that Sandusky and the boy had been separated and immediately took off for his upstairs office where he contacted his father, John McQueary, who told him to come talk to him.

McQueary drove to his father’s house, and the decision to contact Joe Paterno was made around 11 p.m. A meeting was set up for 8 a.m. the following morning where McQueary described an act “extremely sexual in nature” to Paterno but never used the words “rape” nor “intercourse” in his description. At the conclusion of the meeting, Paterno assured McQueary that he “did the right thing” by coming to him and that he would need to look into it more.

Nine to ten days after McQueary’s meeting with Paterno at his house, Curley contacted McQueary via phone to arrange a meeting that would feature Curley, Schultz, and McQueary at the Bryce Jordan Center. It was at that meeting where McQueary told them what he told Paterno, recounting the body positioning of Sandusky and the alleged victim while using the phrase “extremely sexual.”

Four to five days after that meeting took place, Curley once again contacted McQueary to tell him that he had spoken with The Second Mile, Sandusky’s charity foundation, saying Sandusky was no longer permitted to bring children around the football program.  McQueary said he found the incident “not right”; however, he never brought it up again to Paterno, Curley, or Schultz from that point forward aside from informally telling some people around him ” I don’t think Jerry should be working around here.” McQueary added that he has not been in that locker room in eight years, pointing out that full-time coaches are assigned to a different locker room than graduate assistants.

McQueary remained on the stand for cross examination, beginning with questions from Tim Curley’s defense attorney Caroline Roberto. Much of the same testimony that McQueary provided to the prosecution was recounted here with some more details. McQueary said he intentionally slammed the door of his locker in order to let Sandusky know that someone was present in the locker room. He once again reiterated that he did not use the term “intercourse” but did use the term “fondling” when talking with Paterno. “In my mind, you don’t go to Coach Paterno, and describe in detail, horrible sexual acts,” McQueary added. When questioned about not going directly to the police, McQueary acknowledged it was considered but decided not to. He would add that he believed Schultz was part of the police. “Sitting next to Tim Curley in the meeting, that was the police in my mind.”

Schultz’ attorney, Tom Farrell, similar to Roberto, pressed McQueary about not calling the police and attempted to prove through a line of questioning that Schultz did not qualify as part of the police force, saying that his client never carried a gun. McQueary cited an example of seeing Schultz oversee and organize police while attempting to break up a riot on Penn State’s campus outside of Old Main.

When asked again about the alleged victim, McQueary said that was unable to recall any real kind of details about the boy’s appearance, not having looked long enough. “I didn’t sit there and stare, so I can’t tell you accurately.” The same questioning persisted with details regarding Sandusky’s body.  “I don’t know if he had an erection. I didn’t stare down there.”

After two hours and eight minutes, McQueary’s testimony was over; however, the hearing continues with more witnesses testifying including an expected written testimony from Paterno later on.

Stay tuned for more details throughout the day.