A Penn State trustee resigned Friday, saying that he regretted voting to fire coach Joe Paterno as the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal started to unfold.
Alvin Clemens' resignation comes as three former Penn State officials are set to face trial in the upcoming months for allegations that they helped cover up reports of sex abuse by Sandusky. The former Penn State assistant coach was convicted in 2012 on 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is currently serving a 30-60 year term in prison.
"We had no advance notice and little opportunity to discuss and consider the complex issues we faced. After 61 years of exemplary service, coach Paterno was given no chance to respond. That was a mistake," Clemens said in a statement he read Friday at Board of Trustees meeting (via the AP).
"I will always regret that my name is attached to that rush to injustice."
Paterno was fired in November 2011 shortly after announcing he would retire at the end of the season. He died in January 2012.
Clemens is unhappy with the Freeh report, which was commissioned by the university in 2012. The report said there was a "total and consistent" disregard for sex abuse victims. He is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit by the Paterno family that seeks to overturn the sanctions levied against Penn State by the NCAA. In February 2013, the Paterno family commissioned its own report that countered the Freeh report.

Less than two weeks after the Freeh report was issued in July 2012, the NCAA handed Penn State a four-year bowl ban, scholarship reductions and a $60 million fine. It also stripped Paterno of some of his wins, removing him from atop the NCAA's winningest coach list.. In September, the NCAA announced that Penn State would have some of those scholarships lost in the sanctions restored. The school will have five additional scholarships next year.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg