Ex-Penn St. president seeks looser bail for travel

Spanier's request filed last month said his domestic travel needs included visits to his second home in New York City and holidays with relatives in Iowa and his ill mother in Chicago.

Spanier, a tenured faculty member on leave, was charged last month in what prosecutors claimed was a "conspiracy of silence" that covered up complaints about former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky showering with boys in university athletics facilities. He is free on $125,000 unsecured bail and had to relinquish his passport. A judge also restricted his travel outside the state.

Spanier, 64, said he has "continuing contact" with officials in the Washington area "in the national security arena." He said work on educational projects also required travel to New York and New Jersey.

He wants his passport to be returned so that he can travel in May to attend a relative's wedding in Slovakia and to a Holocaust memorial event in his father's hometown in Germany. He also cited a desire to travel to the United Kingdom for a project involving the U.S. Department of State.

The motion proposed having him contact a judge before foreign travel and having him return the passport upon his return.