Freeh Fall at Penn State after Report

Complete Report by Former FBI Director Louis Freeh

Philadelphia Inquirer Story

The idea that Paterno paid no attention to the '98 incident "is completely contradicted by the evidence," Freeh said.

In addition to raising doubt about Paterno's statement that he was unaware of the assault, the report contains evidence suggesting the former coach was the key to a decision by top university officials to back away from alerting state authorities to a 2001 shower incident involving a boy.

Officials initially planned to alert the state Department of Public Welfare about the allegation, which would have triggered an official, outside investigation.

But according to e-mails made public in the Freeh report, Timothy Curley, the athletic department director now awaiting trial in the scandal, urged the university to abandon this plan "after talking it over with Joe."

*snip*

The report's sobering contents include a highly critical glimpse of the once-sacrosanct coach's behavior between 1998 and Sandusky's 2011 arrest. Investigators portrayed Paterno as an active participant in an administrative effort to "conceal critical facts" and preserve the reputation of the university's signature athletic program.
By doing so, the report says, Paterno, Spanier, Curley, and Schultz displayed "a striking lack of empathy" for Sandusky's victims.

*snip*

Freeh told the story of a Lasch Building janitor who had witnessed a "horrific" Sandusky assault but was afraid he might lose his job if he reported an incident involving the much-admired coach.

"He was afraid to take on the football program, and if that's the culture on the bottom [of the Penn State football food chain], then God help the culture on top," Freeh said.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette story on future Civil Suits by the victims:

. . . Emails uncovered by the Freeh team indicated that Mr. Spanier approved a plan to ask Mr. Sandusky to get "professional help" and that he was concerned about making the university "vulnerable" should Mr. Sandusky's behavior continue. Though he denied knowing that Mr. Schultz and Mr. Curley considered reporting the matter to the state Department of Public Welfare, notes from a meeting he attended indicate that was also discussed.

These things don't match up with Mr. Spanier's contention that what he knew about was just "horseplay," said Wes Oliver, a law professor at Duquesne University.
"Based on what we have, there's enough to circumstantially infer that he knew," he said. "If he thought it was just a ... shower after tee ball, you don't recommend a psychologist after that."

Mr. Oliver believes the report could lead to charges against Mr. Spanier for failing to report the matter to authorities or to investigate further. And he believes Mr. Paterno, were he still alive, might have also faced charges, since there's evidence in the emails that he influenced Mr. Curley to not go to DPW.

Jeff Fritz, the attorney for Victim 4, agreed the report lays out evidence that could be used to charge Mr. Spanier. "What is clear is they made a conscious decision to make the wrong decision," Mr. Fritz said. "These weren't mistakes. These were crimes that were committed."

Michael Boni, the attorney for an individual who has been identified only as Victim 1, said he views it as "an admission by Penn State that it's liable to the victims of this cover-up.
"The report makes crystal clear that those four made a conscious, overt decision to not report Sandusky's transgressions," he said. "By not doing it, they brought about a situation where my client and others were abused as a direct result of their action."

The Patriot News has a collection of excerpts from various sportswriters on the Penn State scandal and the so-called "legacy" of Joe Paterno after the Freeh Report. Here are several of the best:

Dave Ruthenberg, Enid Oklahoma News

“The outrage belongs squarely at the feet of Penn State officials, including Paterno, whose family has defended him by proclaiming he didn’t even use email in 2001.
Such a defense actually bears further evidence Paterno had long overstayed his time at Penn State, was out of touch and had become a liability to the program, not to mention the safety of young boys who wanted nothing more than to be around a football program they idolized, only to have their childhoods reduced to haunting memories of horrendous abuse.
It’s also time for the NCAA to step in and take a look. If there ever was a case of ‘lack of institutional control,’ this would seem to be it.
A strong example still needs to be made in the land ironically known as ‘Happy Valley.’ When it comes to protecting kids, there is a far greater principle at stake than protecting a football program’s diminished legends.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle

“Paterno apparently persuaded the group to go easy on old Jerry. The athletic director, Tim Curley, e-mailed the other Sheep, ‘If Sandusky is cooperative, we would work with him.’
Astounding. The Three Sheep, part of a huge flock of JoPa [sic] worshipers, decided that confronting Sandusky rather than turning him in ‘is a more humane and upfront way to handle this.’
Only Paterno knows why he wanted his Three Sheep to call off the dogs. Was it out of compassion for Sandusky, or out of concern that Paterno's program and his legacy might take a hit?
To at least four young victims of abuse, that distinction probably isn't important.
Please, can we never again mention how many wins Joe Paterno racked up or how many libraries he built? The meaningful numbers in his legacy will probably never be known.”

Jemelle Hill, ESPN

"Let's use a reasonable amount of skepticism here. A man with Paterno's power doesn't just relinquish control. Not with something like this. Not when the allegations against Sandusky were so awful and incomprehensible that they could level all those years of goodwill and honor Paterno had built.
Although Curley and Schultz are facing perjury charges, there is a sense now that maybe Paterno was let off the hook.
This is not to say that Paterno deserved to have formal charges filed against him, especially given that the authorities decided otherwise. But what's becoming abundantly clear is that Paterno's image was only what he wanted us to see.”

Buzz Bissinger, Daily Beast

Paterno ran Penn State. We are Penn State? Forget it. Try I am Penn State. He listened to no one, answered to no one. In 2004, when Spanier and the head of the board of trustees reportedly went to Paterno’s house and said it was time for him to retire, he threw them out. The Penn State trains ran on Joe’s schedule in the ridiculous name of football. Yes, he did give $4 million to the school, and no one should ever argue against philanthropy, but charity also is never entirely altruistic: it burnished the avuncular JoePa image, a man above reproach who would never hide or conceal or obfuscate. But the world of Penn State football revolved around Paterno. It seemed inconceivable that in a matter involving someone who had been a loyal assistant coach for 30 years, Paterno would simply step aside and trust the judgment of others, or that others would make a judgment without his input.

It is totally unfair to say that Penn State officials did nothing. They did tell Sandusky he could no longer bring ‘guests’ on campus. There was no way of enforcing it of course, and the humaneness with Sandusky was so effective that he continued to sexually abuse children for another six years.
You can thank Curley for that. You can thank Schultz for that. You can thank Spanier for that. But most of all you can thank Paterno. He was the God of Happy Valley. People scurried and scrambled when he spoke, so you can bet it was he who was the primary driver behind the decision not to report Sandusky to authorities. It was he who on the basis of his own words in his grand jury testimony, gave the false impression that he had placed the matter in the hands of athletic director Curley and then walked away.

And thus ends the so-called legacy of Joe Paterno. The opinion of this blogger is that anyone who defends this man as "ethical" after this needs to read the report again, and then go read the testimony of Jerry Sandusky's victims. They could have been spared a world of pain and suffering, then-now-and in the future if Joe and Company had "done the right thing" and simply called police on Old Jer'. If they had acted like real men. Instead they covered up to be "humane" to their football buddy instead of the innocent children, and for that they deserve whatever they get here and hereafter.