Joan Coble wasn’t used to her boss Gary Schultz, senior vice president for finance and business, using a stern tone with her. So the one time he did during the 14 years they worked together, she knew she had to listen. That meant she had to stay away from the file labeled “Sandusky, Jerry.”

Some of the more confidential files, usually involving employee misconduct or senior executive contracts, were kept under lock and key at the bottom of Schultz’s bookcase.

Coble was the only other person aside from Schultz allowed access to all of the information, the exception being the file marked ‘Sandusky, Jerry.’ She testified Schultz told her “only you and I can access…don’t look at it.”

“I just remember thinking at the time ‘I wonder what Jerry has done,” Coble testified Monday. “But then I thought a few weeks later that it couldn’t be that serious because he continued to coach.”

In fact, she said she assumed Sandusky was getting a new contract. The reality of the situation involved child sexual abuse allegations.

Coble did not disobey Schultz and felt she did not need to worry further about it.

Schultz’s attorney Tom Farrell questioned Coble about if she instructed the woman who would replace her as administrative assistant to not look at the Sandusky file. Coble testified that she did not.

“It didn’t come to mind to single that out to her now,” she testified, adding that Schultz’s instruction to not look at the file had occurred years earlier than her retirement in 2007.

Coble was also asked during her testimony to identify the handwriting of her old boss and read notes aloud that involved Sandusky’s misconduct with a young boy.

The note, dated February 12, 2001, was marked confidential and was penned following a conversation with Mike McQueary. McQueary told Schultz during a meeting at the Bryce Jordan Center that he had seen Sandusky in the shower with a 10 or 12-year-old boy.

Schultz wrote in the note that he should review the 1998 investigation involving Sandusky behaving inappropriately with a young boy. He also wrote that athletic director Tim Curley should meet with Sandusky.

Coble confirmed that the notes were in fact written by Schultz.

Following questioning from attorneys, District Judge William Wenner, who is presiding over the case, met with attorneys for a private discussion. The court will remain in recess until 3:15.