BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - A jury awarded a former Penn State assistant football coach $7.3 million in damages Thursday, finding the university defamed him after it became public his testimony helped prosecutors charge Jerry Sandusky with child molestation.
Jurors deliberated for about four hours in Mike McQueary's defamation and misrepresentation lawsuit.
Judge Thomas Gavin still must decide McQueary's whistleblower claim that he was treated unfairly as the school suspended him from coaching duties, placed him on paid administrative leave, barred him from team facilities and then did not renew his contract shortly after he testified at Sandusky's 2012 trial.
McQueary remained stoic as the verdict was read, and he and his lawyers made no comment as they left the courthouse.
A Penn State spokesman said the university would not comment on the case and the jury's verdict until a final decision is rendered on all counts.
McQueary had been seeking more than $4 million in lost wages and other damages, saying he was defamed by a statement the school president released the day Sandusky was charged, retaliated against for helping with the Sandusky investigation and misled by school administrators.
Jurors awarded him $1.15 million on the defamation claim and $1.15 million on the misrepresentation allegation that two administrators lied to him when they said they took his report of Sandusky seriously and would respond appropriately. They also awarded $5 million in punitive damages.
Sandusky, a former defensive coach at Penn State, was convicted of sexual abuse of 10 boys and is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. He maintains his innocence.
The defamation claim involved a statement issued by then-Penn State president Graham Spanier expressing support for the two administrators when they were charged with perjury for allegedly lying about what McQueary told them in the weeks after the 2001 incident.
A state appeals court earlier this year dismissed the perjury charges against the administrators, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President Gary Schultz. But Curley, Schultz and Spanier still await trial in Harrisburg on charges of failure to properly report suspected child abuse and endangering the welfare of children.