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Legal Ethics Keyed to Rhode, 8th Ed.
Commonwealth v. Spanier
Citation:
132 A.3d 481 (2016)Facts
Graham Spanier was the President of Pennsylvania State University during a period when allegations surfaced about Jerry Sandusky’s sexual misconduct with minors on campus. In 1998 and 2001, incidents involving Sandusky and minors were reported to university officials. The 2001 incident, witnessed by assistant coach Michael McQueary, was reported up the chain of command to Spanier, who claimed he was only told about “horseplay” in a shower. When a grand jury investigation into Sandusky began, Cynthia Baldwin, Penn State’s general counsel, accompanied Spanier to his grand jury testimony in April 2011. Before Spanier’s testimony, Baldwin told the supervising judge she represented “the university solely,” but this was not disclosed to Spanier. During his testimony, Spanier identified Baldwin as his counsel. In October 2012, Baldwin testified before the same grand jury about her communications with Spanier, claiming he had lied to her. Based partly on Baldwin’s testimony, Spanier was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and other crimes. Spanier filed motions arguing that Baldwin’s testimony violated attorney-client privilege.
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