Ex-Penn State officials may face more charges

>> held at the child sex abuse trial of penn state football coach jerry sandusky . nbc 's national correspondent michael isikoff at the courthouse this morning. michael, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning, ann. jerry sandusky goes on trial today charged with repeatedly molesting young boys . law enforcement officials telling nbc news pennsylvania prosecutors are weighing bringing more charges in this case against former top penn state officials for allegedly concealing what they knew about his conduct. as sandusky goes to court, law enforcement sources tell nbc news investigators obtained new evidence in this case. internal e-mails and documents they say show former president graham spanier and others discussed whether they needed to tell authorities about a 2001 allegation involving a late night encounter between a naked sandusky and a young boy in the penn state shower room. the sources say documents show penn state even did legal research on the issue. but in one e-mail exchange two sources say spanier and former vice president gary schultz agreed it would be, quote, humane to sandusky not to inform social services and the incident never got reported.

>> depending on precisely what's in the e-mails and documents, this could spell more legal trouble for other university officials.

>> reporter: sandusky who denies all charges is facing 52 counts of child sex abuse . eight of his alleged victims are slated to testify. among them, a young man known as victim six who first told penn state in 1998 when he was 11 years old that sandusky had bear hugged him in the penn state shower room. dr. chambers, the boy's psychologist, submitted this report to penn state police at the time concluding sandusky 's behavior fit that of a likely pedophile's pattern.

>> i immediately thought this may well be a child molester .

>> reporter: but a second psychologist reached a different conclusion and no charges were filed. then graduate assistant mike mcqueary had originally testified to a grand jury he saw sandusky in the shower with a young boy in mar 2002 . a new e-mail says spanier , schultz and former director discussed what mcqueary saw and whether to report it more than a year earlier.

>> at a minimum it suggests they took mcqueary much more seriously than they led the grand jury to believe.

>> lawyers for spanier , who was fired last september, did not return calls seeking comment. said, "the information confirms conscientiously considered mike mcqueary 's reports of observing inappropriate conduct, reported it to the university president graham spanier and deliberated about how to responsibly deal with the conduct. legal sources say discovery of the e-mails show whatever happens in the sandusky trial, the investigation as to whether there's a cover-up by penn state officials is very active and going strong.

>> more to come on this. michael isikoff , thank you very