Convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky is entitled to his $4,900-a-month Pennsylvania State University pension, a state court ruled Friday. The Commonwealth Court panel said the State Employees' Retirement System wrongly forfeited the former assistant football coach's pension after he was convicted of sexually abusing boys.
Sandusky retired from Penn State in 1999, but the board said he was a "de facto employee" of the public university through 2008, a period in which the abuse occurred.
"Because we find that nothing in the record in any way establishes that Mr. Sandusky was a PSU employee when the underlying criminal acts were committed, we reverse the Board's decision," the ruling says.
Sandusky had collected the pension before he was convicted of child sex abuse charges in 2012.
The court reinstated Sandusky's pension and ordered the board to pay back interest.
The board of the Pennsylvania Employees' State Retirement System has 30 days to determine whether to appeal Friday's ruling to the state Supreme Court, said spokesman Jay Pagni.
"We are currently reviewing (the decision) and we'll provide that analysis to our board," Pagni said.
Sandusky, who is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence, also received a $168,000 lump-sum payment when he retired.
The coach has been fighting to have his pension restored since 2012. Attorney Charles Benjamin, who represented Sandusky in his fight for his pension, said Sandusky's wife Dottie was pleased to hear the court's decision.
"I spoke with her this morning and obviously she's happy to hear that the pension has been restored," he said. "And I'm sure that Jerry is also." Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys he met through his work with the Second Mile _ his charity for at-risk youth _ between the mid-1990s and 2008.
The retirement system contended that Sandusky and the State College-based charity maintained strong ties to Penn State, even after the coach's employment ended.
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