The State College police chief said Wednesday that former Penn State graduate assistant Mike McQueary never reported allegations of child sex abuse against Jerry Sandusky to the department.
"Absolutely not," State College Police Chief Tom King told NBC News when asked if McQueary had ever come to them with allegations concerning Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team.
"We don't have any records of him coming to us," King said.
McQueary, now an assistant football coach, wrote in a Nov. 8 email to a friend that he stopped an alleged sexual assault by Sandusky on a 10-year-old boy in 2002 and discussed it with police afterward.
"I did stop it, not physically ... but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room ... I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police .... no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds ... trust me," he wrote.
The contents of the email were reported Tuesday by The Patriot-News, The Associated Press and other media outlets.
Pennsylvania State Police would not comment on whether McQueary spoke with them after the 2002 incident, citing an ongoing investigation.
The university also has its own police force. Penn State administrators said they were looking into whether McQueary contacted campus police.
McQueary's statements in the email appear to be at odds with a grand jury report that states that he saw Sandusky sexually assault a young boy in a shower at Penn State but never told law enforcement.
The summary of the testimony to jurors says McQueary witnessed the act, then left the locker room to call his father. He talked to head football coach Joe Paterno the next morning, and 10 days later told former athletic director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz, who oversaw campus police, the indictment against Sandusky said.
Sandusky is charged with abusing eight boys, some on campus, over the span of 15 years. He told NBC's Rock Center on Monday that he is not a pedophile but should not have showered with boys.
Paterno, who has been fired, has not been charged with any crime, and state prosecutors have said he is not a target. Curley and Schultz are accused of breaking the law by not going to police but maintain their innocence.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that close to 10 additional suspected victims have come forward to the authorities since the arrest of Sandusky on Nov. 5.
Maria Finn, spokeswoman for Pennsylvania State Police, told NBC on Wednesday that the numbers reported by the Times and others "are wrong." She did not elaborate.
Finn said phone calls continue to come in to a police tip line.
A new out-of-county judge has been assigned to preside over Sandusky's preliminary hearing on Dec. 7. The move came after media reports said the Centre County District Court judge who freed Sandusky on $100,000 unrestricted bond pending trial, Leslie Dutchcot, volunteered with Sandusky's Second Mile charity and may have benefited from a fundraiser organized by a Second Mile official.
Judge Robert E. Scott, a senior judge of Westmoreland County, has been assigned to hear the the case. He has no known connections with Pennsylvania State University or the Second Mile charity, state court officials said Wednesday.
Sandusky met many of his alleged victims through Second Charity, court documents say.
Fresh Air Fund, a New York City-based nonprofit serving disadvantaged youth, said Wednesday a review of records indicates as many as six of its children may have stayed at Sandusky's home — one in the mid-1990s and the rest in the 1970s, NBC New York reported Wednesday. There are no known allegations of abuse involving the Fresh Air Fund children.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press analysis of state public pension records shows Paterno's long service at the university theoretically puts him in line for a pension of more than $500,000 a year.
Paterno's pension records obtained Tuesday from the State Employees' Retirement System credit him with more than 60 years in the system. The formula used to determine benefits makes him eligible for a pension equal to 100 percent of the average of his three highest-salary years.
His pay rose from $541,000 to $568,000 over the past three full calendar years.
When Paterno retires, he will have to make a set of choices to determine his pension, including whether to designate a survivor to receive benefits after he dies and whether to obtain a one-time, lump-sum payment of his own contributions.
State Employees' Retirement System spokeswoman Pamela Hile said Internal Revenue Code and Retirement Code benefit limits may also apply, so the agency does not issue estimated pension benefits ahead of time. There also is a long-service supplement that could boost Paterno to 110 percent of his final average salary.
A 2006 report on Pennsylvania state pensions said the largest pension at that time within SERS was $254,000, being collected by a Penn State surgery professor who had withdrawn a $554,000 lump sum.
Separately, The New York Times reported Tuesday night that Paterno transferred full ownership of his house to his wife, Sue, for $1 in July. The couple had previously held joint ownership of the house. Paterno's attorney Wick Sollers told the paper in an e-mail that the transfer had nothing to do with the scandal but was part of an ongoing "multiyear estate planning program."
Paterno, 84, lost his job as head football coach last week.
The retirement system also confirmed Tuesday that Sandusky collects a $59,000 annual pension and withdrew $148,000 upon retirement.