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Jerry Sandusky's Retirement Pension Ended by State Agency, Counter-Lawsuit Expected

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Jerry Sandusky will not have his pension fund restored, the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS) ruled Friday in a 122-page document.

According to the Associated Press, Chuck Benjamin, an attorney representing Sandusky, said he has not yet reviewed the SERS' extensive opinion released with the decision. Regardless, he told the AP he plans file a lawsuit to reverse the decision.

Sandusky, a former football assistant coach at Penn State University, saw his pension, about $4,900 per month, revoked after he was convicted of multiple counts of child molestation two years ago. Sandusky is about two years into a 30- to 60-year sentence, but at the age of 70, it is effectively a life sentence.

If Sandusky's wife Dottie should outlive her husband, she would be able to collect half of his pension fund.

"All I can say at this point is we're looking forward to litigating the revocation of the pension in court," Benjamin told the AP. "That's the next step of this process. We've exhausted our administrative remedies, and now we'll be filing papers within the next 30 days in court."

Michael Bangs, a hearing examiner, reportedly recommended against the decision to SERS because Sandusky retired five years before the 2004 expansion of Pension Forfeiture Act that began including sex crimes as punishable acts. However, as his guilty verdict and denied appeals would indicate, Sandusky had molested young boys while an employee at Penn State.

Although football coaches are not state employees, the AP reported, they are eligible to receive benefits from the state's pension program. Sandusky was granted a one-time payment of $148,000 upon his retirement in 1999 and then accumulated $900,000 in regular payments from then until 2012.

He was convicted in June, 2012 on 45 of a possible 48 charges for molesting 10 boys for several years. Penn. Judge John Cleland denied Sandusky's request for a new trial last Jan.

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