His name was Hussien.

To Amine El Khalifi, the Virginia man was his alleged connection to al-Qaeda-style sympathizers in the USA.

The two shared a belief, according to federal court records, that the war on terrorism was actually a “war on Muslims.”

El Khalifi wanted to be “ready for war,” so he accompanied Hussien last December on a short trip from Alexandria, Va., to Baltimore to meet a man who could help.

The man, known as “Yusuf,” was actually an undercover FBI agent, one of two key players in an elaborate sting operation that would result in El Khalifi’s arrest last Friday on charges that he plotted to detonate a suicide bomb inside the U.S. Capitol.

El Khalifi is due back in federal court for a detention hearing Wednesday. His attorney did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The operative who delivered El Khalifi to federal investigators, Hussien, represents part of an increasingly active informant pool that’s helping the FBI identify suspects involved in alleged plots against the USA from within.

Since the 9/11 attacks, when virtually no anti-terror intelligence network existed, federal authorities have tapped into a vast network of informants — many of them in the U.S. Muslim community — who have assisted in the arrests of suspects from D.C. to Portland, Ore.

Civil rights advocates and some defense lawyers have complained that the tactics smack of a disproportionate focus on Muslims.

“We are getting regular calls from people across the country who are being approached by the (federal government) to act as informants,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which advocates for Muslim civil liberties in the USA. “And we are concerned about what kind of pressure is being used to get that cooperation.”

“We do not investigate people based solely … on their race, ethnicity, national origin or religious affiliation,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said. “Our internal guidelines expressly prohibit this conduct as well as such tactics to recruit informants.”

Court documents highlight major roles informants play in helping to identify what the government contends are potentially fatal plots.

In the complaint lodged last week against El Khalifi, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Steven Hersem noted that the informant not only brought the suspect to the FBI but accompanied El Khalifi and the undercover agent Friday on the drive toward the Capitol where the suspect was arrested.

Some recent examples of other investigations that relied on informants:

•Last October, a U.S. informant was crucial to exposing an alleged $1.5 million murder-for-hire scheme to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in an assault to be launched at a Washington restaurant, according to court documents.

•In separate plots in 2010 targeting a military recruiting center in Maryland and a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., government informants identified suspects on the Internet whom undercover agents engaged in detailed ruses culminating in the delivery of dummy bombs to their alleged targets.

•The same year, Abdul Kadir was sentenced to life in prison in connection with a plot to blow up fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport, an operation that had been infiltrated by yet another government informant.

Security analyst Clark Ervin, a former Department of Homeland Security inspector general, said the cases represent a “payoff” for the FBI’s post-9/11 effort to thwart attacks by infiltrating terror plots.

The 9/11 Commission, the panel formed to investigate the circumstances leading to the deadliest assault on U.S. soil, found that before the attacks in 2001, the FBI “did not have an effective intelligence collection effort (in terror cases).”

“It takes a long time to (develop sources),” Ervin said. “But these recent cases show there has been progress.”

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

A 29-year-old illegal immigrant from Morocco was arrested and charged Friday with an alleged plot to carry out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Amine El Khalifi, who had been living in Alexandria, Va., was apprehended while on his way to carry out the alleged attack armed with an automatic weapon and an explosive vest device, according to federal court documents. Neither of the devices was working, however — El Khalifi had obtained them from undercover federal agents, who had rendered them useless.

“Amine El Khalifi sought to blow himself up in the U.S. Capitol Building,” said Neil MacBride, the chief federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia. “El Khalifi believed he was working with al-Qaeda and devised the plot, the targets and methods on his own.”

Following his arrest, El Khalifi made his initial court appearance before U.S. District Judge T. Rawles Jones Jr. If convicted, the suspect faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Prior to his arrest Friday, El Khalifi had been the subject of a two-month undercover FBI investigation after agents were alerted to the suspect by an unidentified informant.

The informant told the FBI, according to court documents, that the suspect “sought to be associated with an armed extremist group.”

In December, El Khalifi was allegedly introduced to an undercover agent, posing as an al-Qaeda associate. The meeting led to discussions about plans to attack a D.C.-area restaurant, followed by an assault on a military installation.

Last month, according to court documents, El Khalifi allegedly modified his plans, choosing the U.S. Capitol Building instead of the restaurant as a target of a suicide bombing.

Posing as terror associates, undercover agents staged a test bombing at a West Virginia quarry on Jan. 15, when El Khalifi allegedly “expressed a desire for a larger explosion in his attack.”

At that time, El Khalifi is alleged to have personally selected Feb. 17 as the date of the operation and in the month before conducted surveillance at the Capitol and chose the location where he planned to launch the attack.

“El Khalifi also asked (the informant) to remotely detonate the bomb he would be wearing on the day of the attack if El Khalifi encountered problems with security officers, and to provide El Khalifi with a gun that he could use during the attack to shoot any officers who might stop him,” the documents stated.

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

A Pennsylvania judge eased bail restrictions Monday for accused child molester Jerry Sandusky, allowing him visits with most of his grandchildren.

Judge John Cleland in Belleftone also rejected prosecutors’ requests that a jury in the upcoming May trial of the former assistant football coach at Penn State be drawn from outside the State College area.

Sandusky, who is on home confinement awaiting a May trial, was granted the right to see adult visitors and his grandchildren except for three grandchildren who are the subject of custody litigation. Cleland deferred visits with those children to the judge overseeing the custody case.

Cleland denied a request by prosecutors to have Sandusky confined indoors. The motion cited concerns from neighbors about the safety of children, particularly at an elementary school behind Sandusky’s house.

“No evidence was presented that at any time the defendant made any effort to contact any of the children by signaling or calling to them, or that he made any gestures directed toward them, or that he acted in any inappropriate way whatsoever,” Cleland wrote.

Sandusky, 68, faces 52 criminal counts for what prosecutors say was sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period. He denies wrongdoing.

Also Monday, lawyers for former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley asked a judge in Harrisburg to dismiss perjury charges related to the university child sex abuse scandal.

The legal team, led by Caroline Roberto, says the recent death of football coach Joe Paterno removes a witness key to the prosecution’s case that Curley lied to a Pennsylvania grand jury about details of an alleged sexual assault involving Sandusky, a former top assistant to Paterno.

Curley’s lawyers say Paterno was central to the case because prosecutors had planned to offer the revered coach as a corroborating witness who reported information to Curley about an alleged 2002 assault involving Sandusky and a young boy. Paterno later relayed the information to Curley after first learning of the incident from then-graduate assistant Michael McQueary.

Curley and former university vice president Gary Schultz, who also is charged with perjury, later told a grand jury that neither McQueary nor Paterno ever related specific information about a sexual assault.

“Without the availability of Mr. Paterno, the prosecution’s … proof as to perjury as charged against Mr. Curley fails as no other facts or witnesses were presented at the (Dec. 16) preliminary hearing to establish corroboration as required by law.”

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Denial rates for work-related visas to the U.S. have increased dramatically in the past four years, with Indian-born professionals and researchers being refused at higher rates than other foreign nationals, according to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy.

Citing data from the Department of Homeland Security, the non-partisan foundation reported that petitions to transfer employees with specialized knowledge into the U.S., or those designated as executives, managers and other professionals have been denied at increasing rates since 2007.

In the case of applicants claiming “specialized knowledge” of company products, services or markets, the rate of denial jumped from 7% in fiscal year 2007 to 27% in fiscal year 2011.

In addition, according to the data maintained by Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, authorities required special knowledge applicants to supply additional information supporting their petitions in 63% of cases in fiscal year 2011, up from 17% in 2007. The spike resulted in visa delays or denials in 90% of cases in the 2011 budget year.

Most likely to be denied as specialized knowledge applicants, according to the foundation analysis, were Indian-born applicants whose rates of refusal climbed in one year from 2.8% in fiscal year 2008 to 22.5% in 2009. By comparison, denial rates for Canadians increased during the same time period, from 2% to 2.9%.

Stuart Anderson, the foundation’s executive director, said the high denial rates for applicants from India could not be immediately explained.

“The dramatic increase in denial rates and requests for evidence for employment petitions … raises questions about the U.S. government’s commitment to maintaining a stable business climate for companies competing in the global economy,” the study concluded.

In many cases where the needs are immediate, the rising number of evidence requests “can scuttle” a company’s U.S. operation or strategy, prompting some employers to move their bases elsewhere, Anderson said.

Randel Johnson, senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the denials represent a “serious breakdown.”

“This has reached a fever pitch among our membership,” he said. “We have to figure out what the proper solution is.”

Homeland Security provided data to USA TODAY on Thursday that generally tracked the foundation’s major findings. The agency said it would respond in more detail after reviewing the foundation’s analysis.

Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the standard for approval has become increasingly less clear for applicants.

“This kills new business,” Williams said. “It’s killing jobs in the U.S.”

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

The FBI has begun cutting back GPS surveillance in an array of criminal and intelligence investigations following a Supreme Court ruling last month restricting its use, a federal law enforcement official said.

The bureau began implementing the change the day after the Jan. 23 ruling in which the court found that attaching such a device to a car amounted to a search covered by the Fourth Amendment, requiring police to seek warrants in many cases.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter, said the Global Positioning System directive was issued until further legal guidance is provided on the use of the technology.

Meanwhile, the official said, additional FBI agents have been dispatched to cover costly, labor-intensive surveillance operations that had previously relied on GPS technology.

The FBI’s actions represent the first evidence of a tactical change by federal law enforcement prompted by the court’s ruling, which has raised new questions throughout the criminal justice and intelligence communities.

The Justice Department is in the midst of evaluating the ruling’s implications, Justice spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.

It was unclear whether the court decision will force a change in the department’s manual guiding federal law enforcement operations.

In that document, known as “The Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations,” a list of approved investigative methods includes the use of GPS-type “direction finders and other monitoring devices,” which “usually do not require court orders or warrants.”

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said GPS surveillance is the subject of legal analysis within the intelligence community.

“We are now examining … the potential implications for intelligence, foreign or domestic,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.

“That reading is of great interest to us. In all of this, we will — we have and will — continue to abide by the Fourth Amendment.”

Ray Mey, a former FBI counterterrorism official, said the bureau’s decision to limit GPS use, if only temporarily, poses potential risks and staffing problems.

“This kind of technology is one of the only ways to pinpoint the locations of suspects,” said Mey, who directed counterterrorism operations for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. “The potential to lose someone in traffic in a place like New York is big. Vehicle surveillance is not easy.”

“Without (GPS),” he said, “surveillance becomes hugely labor-intensive, especially in cases in which you need round-the-clock coverage. It’s something that could strap the bureau.”

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Attorney General Eric Holder lashed out Thursday at Republican members of a House panel investigating a botched federal gun-trafficking inquiry that allowed hundreds of firearms to flow to Mexico, refusing at one point to answer a New York congresswoman who asked Holder how many more federal agents would have to “die” before the attorney general took action.

Two weapons traced to the gun operation, known as “Fast and Furious,” were recovered at the scene of the 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The agent’s death brought an end of the gun-trafficking operation.

“That kind of question is beneath a member of Congress,” Holder told Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle.

The hearing, marking the sixth time Holder has been questioned about the flawed gun operation by Congress, was contentious from the start. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mi., compared the actions of another Justice Department official in the case to the limited steps taken by now-deceased former Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno after learning of sex abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

In that case, Paterno passed the information to his superiors, but did not report the alleged activity to police.

Holder, clearly irritated, described some of the Republicans’ comments akin to “character assassination.”

“I am the attorney general of the United States, okay,” Holder said, before launching into a defense of his actions in the gun inquiry and his management of the Justice Department.

Earlier, committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., openly threatened Holder with a contempt citation if the Justice Department did not provide the panel with additional documents for its inquiry.

Holder said Justice already has turned over more than 6,000 documents related to the case, again assserting that the tactics used in gun investigation were “misguided” and “wholly unacceptable.” Two of the weapons found at the scene of Agent Brian Terry’s murder were traced to the gun case. The gun used in the murder has not yet been identified..

“I think you are hiding behind something here,” Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., told Holder, adding the department had given its inspector general more than 80,000 documents to assist a separate investigation of the matter. “You should give us the documents. There are things in those documents that you don’t want us to see.”

On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the department will provide material created after Feb. 4, 2011, the day the department gave incorrect information to Congress about Fast and Furious.

Cole said the department had made an exception to longstanding policy in order to provide material on how the erroneous Feb. 4 letter was created, but other documents about the congressional inquiries on Fast and Furious would not be turned over.

A committee spokesman, Frederick Hill, said the department is under investigation for Fast and Furious but also for its response to whistle-blowers and investigators who expressed concern about the operation.

“If the Justice Department cannot provide assurances that it will meet its legal obligations” and provide the documents, “the committee has no other option than moving to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt,” Hill said.

In his testimony prepared for Thursday’s hearing, the attorney general said prior administrations have recognized that robust internal communications would be chilled, and the executive branch’s ability to respond to oversight requests impeded, if internal communications concerning responses to congressional oversight were disclosed to Congress.

In a Feb. 4, 2011, letter to Congress, the department said federal agents made every effort to intercept illegally purchased weapons. Instead, agents in the Phoenix-based Fast and Furious investigation employed a risky strategy called “gun-walking” in an effort to track the weapons after purchase. The purpose was to make cases against gun-smuggling ring leaders who had long escaped prosecution.

“Allowing guns to ‘walk’ — whether in this administration or in the prior one — is wholly unacceptable,” Holder stated. “This tactic of not interdicting weapons, despite having the ability and legal authority to do so, appears to have been adopted in a misguided effort to stem the alarming number of illegal firearms that are trafficked each year from the United States to Mexico.”

Fast and Furious was one of at least four gun-smuggling probes that involved gun-walking, all undertaken by the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Three of the gun-walking investigations began under President George W. Bush, one under President Obama. The first started in 2006.

In Fast and Furious, the federal agency lost track of almost 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons whose purchase attracted the suspicion of the Fast and Furious investigators. Some 700 guns connected to suspects in the operation have been recovered in Mexico and the U.S., some of them at crime scenes, including the scene near Nogales, Ariz., where border agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010. A month after Terry’s death, Congress began hearing of problems with the probe.

Issa’s allegation of a cover-up was fueled by documents turned over Friday by the Justice Department that contained new information about the events of early February 2011.

Two days before Justice told Congress that federal agents made every effort to intercept illegally purchased weapons, the department’s criminal division chief, Lanny Breuer, suggested letting some “straw,” or illicit, weapons buyers in the U.S. transport their guns across the Mexican border so Mexican law enforcement could arrest them there.

According to emails turned over to the committee, Breuer made the suggestion to Mexican officials because it “may send a strong message to arms traffickers” because Mexican laws contain far stiffer penalties against straw gun buyers than U.S. laws do.

Cole said Breuer’s suggestion, which was not implemented, would have been less risky than the earlier investigations because he intended for Mexican agents to arrest the smugglers at the border rather than let the guns loose in Mexico.

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

The U.S. government dispatched 55 prosecutors, FBI agents and analysts Friday to a new financial crimes enforcement unit focusing on home mortgage abuses that fueled the 2008 economic collapse.

For the first time since the crisis, federal investigators will be joined by state law enforcement officials as part of a working group that, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, would launch the “broadest, deepest investigation into what blew up the economy.”

The unit, first referenced earlier this week by President Obama in the State of the Union, is expected to plunge deeper into the causes of “massive market failures” that continue to harm homeowners, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.

“I have no doubt that we will improve our ability to recover losses, to prevent fraud, to bring abuses to light and to hold those who violate the law accountable,” Holder said.

The attorney general disputed suggestions that enforcement efforts so far have been inadequate, requiring the new initiative.

“The notion that there has been inactivity is belied by a troubling thing called fact,” Holder said, referring to a recent string of successful prosecutions and civil lawsuits targeting various figures in the financial services industry.

In the past six months, Holder said federal prosecutors have won prison sentences in four cases involving securities fraud, bank fraud and investment fraud, totaling 155 years.

“It is not as if we haven’t been doing anything,” Holder said. “We have been doing a great deal. … We are bound and determined to hold people accountable.”

Holder said the new effort will involve a new collaboration of federal and state officials with collective authority to investigate abuses in all aspects of the financial services industry, including the packaging, selling and valuing of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Residential mortgage-backed securities are the huge investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation’s 2008 financial crisis.

“I am confident that this new effort will improve our ability to ensure justice for victims,” Holder said.

He disclosed that investigators have issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions in recent days, with the prospect that “more will follow.” He said bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hold violators accountable.

In addition, information sharing between federal and state investigators will produce more far-reaching results. Schneiderman pointed out that New York state securities law is more flexible than federal securities law, which can make it easier to assemble cases.

As for those who engaged in misconduct in the financial industry, “we know what they did, they know what they did and, we know they know we know what they did,” said Schneiderman.

“Mortgage products were in many ways ground zero for the financial crisis,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the enforcement division at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The collapse in value of mortgage-backed securities resulted in unprecedented losses, and “all of us” in law enforcement are dedicated to holding accountable financial institutions that lied and cheated and misled investors, said Khuzami.

Contributing: Associated Press

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government dispatched 55 prosecutors, FBI agents and analysts Friday to a new financial crimes enforcement unit focusing on home mortgage abuses that fueled the 2008 economic collapse.

For the first time since the crisis, federal investigators will be joined by state law enforcement officials as part of a working group that, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, would launch the “broadest, deepest investigation into what blew up the economy.”

The unit, first referenced earlier this week by President Obama in the State of the Union, is expected to plunge deeper into the causes of “massive market failures” that continue to harm homeowners, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.

“I have no doubt that we will improve our ability to recover losses, to prevent fraud, to bring abuses to light and to hold those who violate the law accountable,” Holder said.

The attorney general disputed suggestions that enforcement efforts so far have been inadequate, requiring the new initiative.

“The notion that there has been inactivity is belied by a troubling thing called fact,” Holder said, referring to a recent string of successful prosecutions and civil lawsuits targeting various figures in the financial services industry.

In the past six months, Holder said federal prosecutors have won prison sentences in four cases involving securities fraud, bank fraud and investment fraud, totaling 155 years.

“It is not as if we haven’t been doing anything,” Holder said. “We have been doing a great deal. … We are bound and determined to hold people accountable.”

Holder said the new effort will involve a new collaboration of federal and state officials with collective authority to investigate abuses in all aspects of the financial services industry, including the packaging, selling and valuing of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Residential mortgage-backed securities are the huge investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation’s 2008 financial crisis.

“I am confident that this new effort will improve our ability to ensure justice for victims,” Holder said.

He disclosed that investigators have issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions in recent days, with the prospect that “more will follow.” He said bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hold violators accountable.

In addition, information sharing between federal and state investigators will produce more far-reaching results. Schneiderman pointed out that New York state securities law is more flexible than federal securities law, which can make it easier to assemble cases.

As for those who engaged in misconduct in the financial industry, “we know what they did, they know what they did and, we know they know we know what they did,” said Schneiderman.

“Mortgage products were in many ways ground zero for the financial crisis,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the enforcement division at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The collapse in value of mortgage-backed securities resulted in unprecedented losses, and “all of us” in law enforcement are dedicated to holding accountable financial institutions that lied and cheated and misled investors, said Khuzami.

Contributing: Associated Press

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

The Justice Department is funding an unusual national training program to help police deal with an increasing number of volatile confrontations involving highly trained and often heavily armed combat veterans.

Developers of the pilot program, to be launched at 15 U.S. sites this year, said there is an “urgent need” to de-escalate crises in which even SWAT teams may be facing tactical disadvantages against mentally ill suspects who also happen to be trained in modern warfare.

“We just can’t use the blazing-guns approach anymore when dealing with disturbed individuals who are highly trained in all kinds of tactical operations, including guerrilla warfare,” said Dennis Cusick, executive director of the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute. “That goes beyond the experience of SWAT teams.”

Cusick, who is developing the program along with institute training director William Micklus, said local authorities have a better chance of defusing violent confrontations by immediately engaging suspects in discussions about their military experience — not with force.

The aim, Micklus said, is to try to reconnect them with “a sense of integrity” lost in the fog of emotional distress.

“You can’t win by trying to out-combat them,” Cusick said. “You emphasize what it means to be a Marine, a soldier to people who now feel out of control.”

There is no data that specifically tracks police confrontations with suspects currently or formerly associated with the military. But an Army report issued this year found that violent felonies in the service were up 1% while non-violent felonies increased 11% between 2010 and 2011.

During that time, however, crime in much of the nation declined.

“What we’re seeing is that the volume (of violent incidents involving military personnel off base) has ratcheted up to a level we have never seen before,” Cusick said.

Much of the anecdotal evidence reads like the report of the Jan. 13 standoff between Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer, 30, a veteran of multiple combat tours, and Fayetteville, N.C., police and firefighters.

A 911 call from an apartment complex manager revealed that Eisenhauer was allegedly barricaded inside one of the apartments exchanging gunfire with police.

Although the suspect was not specifically identified as a soldier, the apartment manager told a police dispatcher that the suspect was “under psychiatric care,” according to the 911 call.

According to Fort Bragg records, Eisenhauer had been assigned to the post’s Warrior Transition Battalion, a unit for soldiers who have been wounded or suffered other illnesses as a result of their deployment, Womack Army Medical Center spokeswoman Shannon Lynch said.

Eisenhauer, who was wounded in the standoff along with two police officers, is charged with 30 criminal counts, including 15 counts of attempted murder.

Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities (Police) Chiefs Association, said the type of training proposed by the Justice Department represents “one piece of the challenge” in dealing with an increasing number of mentally ill suspects.

“This has been a challenge for a number of years in our communities,” Stephens said.

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was not expected to be a major witness in the child sex abuse case against Jerry Sandusky, but state prosecutors had intended to offer Paterno’s testimony in the prosecution of two former university administrators charged with perjury related to the sex scandal.

As recently as last month, Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo said prosecutors “expected to have testimony” from Paterno in the state’s case against former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former university senior vice president Gary Schultz.

Curley and Schultz are accused of lying to a state grand jury about the seriousness of the abuse allegations first relayed to them in 2002 by Paterno, who was informed by then-Penn State graduate assistant Michael McQueary.

According to a transcript of his brief appearance before a Pennsylvania grand jury last year, Paterno said that after an emotional meeting with McQueary he told Curley and Schultz, “We have a problem.” The transcript of Paterno’s testimony was admitted as evidence in a preliminary hearing last month. In the testimony, read aloud Dec. 16 in a Harrisburg courtroom, Paterno said he told the two officials that McQueary had witnessed Sandusky “fondling a young boy” in a Penn State locker room.

Paterno said he passed the information on to university officials within a few days after meeting with McQueary, saying he believed the officials would handle the matter “appropriately.”

McQueary has testified that he did not provide Paterno with graphic details about Sandusky’s alleged activities out of respect for the head coach. McQueary, however, did say that he spared no details in a later meeting with the administrators.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers for the administrators did not comment Sunday on how Paterno’s death may affect the perjury case. Both sides, however, offered condolences to the Paterno family.

Legal analysts said that Paterno, as a prospective witness, may have been more helpful to the defense.

“Because Paterno provided limited detail about the 2002 incident to Curley and Schultz, the defense could look at that as corroborating (the administrators’) claim that they were not given all of the information about Sandusky’s activities,” said Wesley Oliver, a law professor at Widener University.

Without Paterno, Oliver said, the trial judge will have to rule on whether the coach’s grand jury testimony can be admitted as evidence.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who has filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of an alleged Sandusky victim, also said Curley and Schultz were “more likely” to have called Paterno given the former coach’s less-detailed grand jury testimony.

“He may have shaped the defense a little bit,” Anderson said.

In the civil case, Anderson said, Paterno represented “a central figure in the institutional failure of the university” to protect victims of Sandusky’s alleged abuse.

Nevertheless, Anderson said, the civil case can proceed and be “proven through other witnesses.”

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.