The Latest: Penn State ex-official denies retaliation claim

BELLEFONTE, Pa. – The Latest on the trial of a former assistant coach’s lawsuit against Penn State (all times local):

6:10 p.m.

A former Penn State athletic director is denying a claim by a main witness against Jerry Sandusky that he was terminated as an assistant football coach because of his role in the child molestation case.

Jurors in Mike McQueary’s defamation and whistleblower lawsuit against the university were read a deposition Wednesday from Dave Joyner, the athletic director when McQueary’s contract wasn’t renewed at the end of June 2012.

McQueary’s lawsuit includes a claim he was retaliated against because of his role in helping convict Sandusky.

But Joyner says McQueary wasn’t kept on because a new coach revamped the coaching staff, and there was no position available for him.

Joyner says he decided to grant McQueary 18 months’ pay as severance because he thought it was the right thing to do.

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12:45 p.m.

An investigator says threatening emails and calls about a witness who helped produce child molestation charges against Jerry Sandusky weren’t enough to make him fear for the man’s safety.

Anthony Sassano, with the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, testified Wednesday, the third day of trial in former assistant football coach Mike McQueary’s whistleblower and defamation lawsuit against Penn State.

McQueary claims he was damaged when the school put him on leave after Sandusky was charged in 2011. McQueary had told authorities he saw Sandusky abuse a boy in a team shower a decade earlier.

The university says its handling of McQueary was justified by safety concerns.

But Sassano says investigators decided McQueary and the public weren’t at risk when Penn State played Nebraska a week later. There has been evidence of overt threats on his life, while others made vague warnings of consequences at the game.

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1 a.m.

A former assistant football coach’s lawsuit against Penn State will resume with more testimony from the man who put him on paid administrative leave days after Jerry Sandusky was charged with child molestation.

Mike McQueary’s lawsuit will continue Wednesday with the questioning of Mark Sherburne, who briefly took over as athletic director after his predecessor was charged with perjury.

McQueary is seeking more than $4 million in lost wages and other claims.

He says he was defamed by a statement from the school’s president after Sandusky and two of the president’s top lieutenants were charged in 2011.

The lawsuit says McQueary was retaliated against for his role in the investigation and prosecution of Sandusky, and misled into thinking officials took seriously his report that he saw Sandusky abuse a boy in 2001.