Jerry Sandusky Deserves To Receive Pension, Says Lawyer

Jerry Sandusky may soon receive tax-funded pension payments, despite his 2011 arrest and subsequent conviction of child molestation. Pennsylvania Retirement Systems attorneys are arguing now in court that Sandusky should no longer receive these retirement benefits.

While this may seem like a cut-and-dry issue, there are several factors at play that will determine if Jerry Sandusky will again receive pension payments. Here is the deal:

• If a state employee is indicted of certain felonies while an employee, he forfeits his rights to receive his state pension.

• Sandusky technically retired from coaching in 1999 — more than a decade before his arrest.

• Pennsylvania retirement systems lawyers are claiming that Sandusky (though technically retired) continued to receive payments from Penn State University long after his retirement — even up until the time he was arrested.

• Because Sandusky was still receiving payments from Penn State, the retirement systems office is claiming that Jerry Sandusky was an employee when he was hired and thus should no longer receive pension payments.

According to Sandusky’s lawyers, their client wants to keep receiving his pension payments and by law should receive them. The lawyers content that any money given to Jerry Sandusky after his retirement was meant for paying speaking fees or to cover travel, meal, and lodging expenses.

Of course, the lawyers for the state are having none of that and claim that Jerry Sandusky was receiving payments for much more than speaking fees and travel expenses. Here’s what they said:

“The letter agreement puts the lie to Sandusky’s contention that he ‘retired’ in 1999. If anything, in June 1999, Sandusky retired from his position as football coach, but then continued as a PSU employee in a new ‘outreach’ position.”

So perhaps Sandusky was no longer an actual football coach in 1999, but he definitely was still part of the Penn State football program and received payments, the state lawyers contend.

Sandusky’s pension has not been received since 2012, but his lawyer filed a motion in March to have the pension for Jerry Sandusky reinstated, saying that his client should receive it in accordance with law.

No that state attorneys have responded to the motion, an arbiter will now have up to 30 days to determine if Jerry Sandusky should receive pension payments from the state of Pennsylvania.

What do you think? Would you want for your tax dollars to pay the pension for a convicted abuser like Jerry Sandusky? Let us know in the comments.

Image via ABC News