Penn State horror story

[Soxfest]

Paterno family again puts out another statement Joe PA had NO idea what was going on and report on Thursday is a nothing but a smear campaign on Joe Pa......................Paterno family keep telling the lie because no one buys it but you!

[G&T]

Paterno family again puts out another statement Joe PA had NO idea what was going on and report on Thursday is a nothing but a smear campaign on Joe Pa......................Paterno family keep telling the lie because no one buys it but you!

 

Everyone at Penn State believes it. That's the problem. In that community, this effort is worth it.

[southsider2k5]

The sad part is that everyone was too scared to say anything while he was still alive, and the truth had a better chance at actually being known.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Everyone at Penn State believes it.

and Franco Harris

[LittleHurt05]

Ex-FBI chief Louis Freeh's internal investigation into the scandal to be released this morning.

[Kyyle23]

So what is everyones feeling on this report?

 

Is it going to destroy Paternos legacy and transform him from the saint into the godfather type that ruled with an iron fist?

 

Or will it be a loose string of emails that doesnt really prove anything in the end and leaves a lot up to interpretation?

[RockRaines]

So what is everyones feeling on this report?

 

Is it going to destroy Paternos legacy and transform him from the saint into the godfather type that ruled with an iron fist?

 

Or will it be a loose string of emails that doesnt really prove anything in the end and leaves a lot up to interpretation?

It's just the beginning. Remember this is a PSU funded investigation with no subpoena power. Wait till the Feds are done.

[LittleHurt05]

The report will be available here at 8 AM :http://thefreehreportonpsu.com/home2/

 

Here's the press release about the report: http://www.thefreehreportonpsu.com/Press_R...se_07_12_12.pdf

 

Some excerpts for the press release:

 

Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and

welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State. The most

powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children

who Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never

demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of

Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest.

In critical written correspondence that we uncovered on March 20th of this year,

we see evidence of their proposed plan of action in February 2001 that included

reporting allegations about Sandusky to the authorities. After Mr. Curley consulted with

Mr. Paterno, however, they changed the plan and decided not to make a report to the

authorities. Their failure to protect the February 9, 2001 child victim, or make attempts

to identify him, created a dangerous situation for other unknown, unsuspecting young

boys who were lured to the Penn State campus and football games by Sandusky and

victimized repeatedly by him.

Further, they exposed this child to additional harm by alerting Sandusky, who

was the only one who knew the child’s identity, about what McQueary saw in the

shower on the night of February 9, 2001.

 

Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more

reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the

most powerful leaders at Penn State University – Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and

Curley – repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse from the

authorities, the Board of Trustees, Penn State community, and the public at large.

Although concern to treat the child abuser humanely was expressly stated, no such

sentiments were ever expressed by them for Sandusky’s victims.

 

The evidence shows that these four men also knew about a 1998 criminal

investigation of Sandusky relating to suspected sexual misconduct with a young boy in

a Penn State football locker room shower. Again, they showed no concern about that

victim. The evidence shows that Mr. Paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation

of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though Sandusky

had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just

steps away from Mr. Paterno’s. At the very least, Mr. Paterno could have alerted the

entire football staff, in order to prevent Sandusky from bringing another child into the

Lasch Building. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley also failed to alert the

Board of Trustees about the 1998 investigation or take any further action against Mr.

Sandusky. None of them even spoke to Sandusky about his conduct. In short, nothing

was done and Sandusky was allowed to continue with impunity

[southsider2k5]

So what is everyones feeling on this report?

 

Is it going to destroy Paternos legacy and transform him from the saint into the godfather type that ruled with an iron fist?

 

Or will it be a loose string of emails that doesnt really prove anything in the end and leaves a lot up to interpretation?

 

I think it will be closer to the latter, that both sides will spin the way they want it to read.

[Balta1701]

Wow, CNN actually taking the time to read a report as it's released before giving the full details.

[updated at 9:21 a.m. ET] The top leadership at Penn State University – including then-President Graham Spanier and then-head football coach Joe Paterno – concealed Sandusky's activities from the public and the university community to "avoid the consequences of bad publicity," according to the internal review.

 

[updated at 9:15 a.m. ET] Louis Freeh, the former FBI director who led the Penn State-funded probe, said in remarks released Thursday that former athletic director Tim Curley consulted with former head coach Joe Paterno following sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky and "they changed the plan and decided not to make a report to the authorities."

 

[updated at 9:05 a.m. ET] The probe's leader, former FBI director Louis Freeh, has released a statement saying that the probe's "most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State.

 

"The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized," Freeh said. "Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest."

[Balta1701]

Full report linked here, btw.

[Balta1701]

A janitor caught Sandusky performing oral sex on a kid in 2000 and didn't report it to police, only other janitors. They chose not to report to police because they believed they would be fired.

 

Later that night they saw Sandusky driving through the parking lot alone. They surmised he was driving through to see if anyone had called police regarding the incident.

[Balta1701]

A few things the report makes clear...

 

Joe Paterno was intimately involved in every decision on how far to go in terms of reporting to police. He may have reported up the chain for legal purposes and avoided legal liability that way, but every single step where it is described how the decisions came about, the 4 names are always included (President Graham B. Spanier, Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary C. Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley and Head Football Coach Joseph V. Paterno).

 

The University clearly had no interest for a period of 20 years of meeting federal crime reporting standards. They made no efforts at all to implement a 1980's era law requiring an annual campus safety report until 2007, and no one on campus had any training regarding the requirements of the law until after that point. By the standards of that law, Penn State should have been basically ineligible for federal financial aid.

 

The report is very vague on 1 thing...they spend a whole lot of time highlighting the fact that Sandusky received a very unusual status, including a lump sum retirement payout, after the 1998 incident, they stress that no one else on campus received anything like the money or access he received, but then state that they can't establish it was related to the 1998 incident. The report sounds for all intents and purposes like it was a payment to make a problem go away, but they can't prove that so they don't say it.

[Balta1701]

One other thing that they hammer on is that at no point did anyone seemingly show any thought towards the actual victims. Even after the reports were made, none of them made any effort to figure out who the kids were or to talk to them to see if they had been harmed. The administrators always focused 100% on Sandusky and the football program, never once on the actual victims.

[Balta1701]

The report also indicts the Board of Trustees for having basically no oversight of the athletic programs for a period of a decade, and failing to respond appropriately in 2011 to the reports of the police investigation when Spanier first reported the existence of the investigation.

[Balta1701]

A janitor caught Sandusky performing oral sex on a kid in 2000 and didn't report it to police, only other janitors. They chose not to report to police because they believed they would be fired.

 

Later that night they saw Sandusky driving through the parking lot alone. They surmised he was driving through to see if anyone had called police regarding the incident.

I literally can't get the stupid acrobat "Excerpt text" part to work, but if you want to read something that will make your skin crawl, go to the report and find this section. This part is creeping me out from having read it.

[bmags]

Balta, thanks. I haven't been able to read anything on it beside someone summarizing the conclusions which mostly seemed to be just freeh saying they were bad people.

[LittleHurt05]

The Twitterverse is saying that Matt Millen is on ESPN saying that the Freeh report is just "one man's opinion".

[CanOfCorn]

The Twitterverse is saying that Matt Millen is on ESPN saying that the Freeh report is just "one man's opinion".

 

He's right, it is...unfortunately for Millen's credibility, that man is a former chief of the FBI. Which, if Millen didn't know, stands for Federal Bureau of INVESTIGATION.

 

What a douche.

[southsider2k5]

The Twitterverse is saying that Matt Millen is on ESPN saying that the Freeh report is just "one man's opinion".

 

Evidently Millen's analytical skills are on par with his GM skills.

[StrangeSox]

Evidently Millen's analytical skills are on par with his GM skills.

[Rowand44]

Anyone still want to defend Paterno?

[clyons]

He's right, it is...unfortunately for Millen's credibility, that man is a former chief of the FBI. Which, if Millen didn't know, stands for Federal Bureau of INVESTIGATION.

 

What a douche.

 

He's wrong, it isn't.

 

Technically, Freeh's entire law firm (with all of its resources and investigative personnel) was engaged as indepedent counsel and collectively authoried the report, not just Freeh as "one man."

 

What Millen is saying is tantamount to calling Justice Department findings the personal opinions of the Attorney General alone.

 

He's more than a douche, he's delusional.

[LittleHurt05]

Anyone still want to defend Paterno?

 

Here is his family's attempt at defending him:

 

 

We are in the process of reviewing the Freeh report and will need some time before we can comment in depth on its findings and conclusions. From the moment this crisis broke, Joe Paterno supported a comprehensive, fair investigation. He always believed, as we do, that the full truth should be uncovered.

 

From what we have been able to assess at this time, it appears that after reviewing 3 million documents and conducting more than 400 interviews, the underlying facts as summarized in the report are almost entirely consistent with what we understood them to be. The 1998 incident was reported to law enforcement and investigated. Joe Paterno reported what he was told about the 2001 incident to Penn State authorities and he believed it would be fully investigated. The investigation also confirmed that Sandusky’s retirement in 1999 was unrelated to these events.

 

One great risk in this situation is a replaying of events from the last 15 years or so in a way that makes it look obvious what everyone must have known and should have done. The idea that any sane, responsible adult would knowingly cover up for a child predator is impossible to accept. The far more realistic conclusion is that many people didn’t fully understand what was happening and underestimated or misinterpreted events. Sandusky was a great deceiver. He fooled everyone – law enforcement, his family, coaches, players, neighbors, University officials, and everyone at Second Mile.

 

Joe Paterno wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and he regretted them. He is still the only leader to step forward and say that with the benefit of hindsight he wished he had done more. To think, however, that he would have protected Jerry Sandusky to avoid bad publicity is simply not realistic. If Joe Paterno had understood what Sandusky was, a fear of bad publicity would not have factored into his actions.

 

We appreciate the effort that was put into this investigation. The issue we have with some of the conclusions is that they represent a judgment on motives and intentions and we think this is impossible. We have said from the beginning that Joe Paterno did not know Jerry Sandusky was a child predator. Moreover, Joe Paterno never interfered with any investigation. He immediately and accurately reported the incident he was told about in 2001.

 

It can be argued that Joe Paterno should have gone further. He should have pushed his superiors to see that they were doing their jobs. We accept this criticism. At the same time, Joe Paterno and everyone else knew that Sandusky had been repeatedly investigated by authorities who approved his multiple adoptions and foster children. Joe Paterno mistakenly believed that investigators, law enforcement officials, University leaders and others would properly and fully investigate any issue and proceed as the facts dictated.

 

This didn’t happen and everyone shares the responsibility.

[Kyyle23]

Apparently Millen also said that these men made "mistakes"