Former Penn State assistant gets $1.7M in whistleblower fees
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A former Penn State assistant coach will be getting his legal fees paid after winning a whistleblower claim over his treatment by the university after Jerry Sandusky’s child molestation arrest.
Judge Thomas Gavin on Thursday granted Mike McQueary’s lawyers $1.7 million for their work on the case. He had awarded McQueary nearly $5 million in November.
The judge wrote that it would not be reasonable to expect whistleblowers to put their jobs and paychecks at risk in reporting suspected wrongdoing, as well as to fund their own legal representation.
Making whistleblowers financially whole, he said, “will put teeth in the statute and will further its goal of encouraging others to expose wrongdoing.”