Paterno gone, but Penn State scandal goes on
Penn State coach Joe Paterno and his wife Sue address Penn State students from the front porch of their house after the legendary coach was fired amid a school child abuse scandal, Nov. 9, 2011. / The Patriot-News,AP Photo/JOE HERMITT
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The most tumultuous week Penn State has ever endured is drawing to a close.
Questions, however, still linger.
Gov. Tom Corbett will be on hand Friday to help the board of trustees navigate a course through the turmoil from a child sex-abuse scandal that has engulfed the state's largest university and led to the firing of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno.
Corbett, an ex-officio member of the board, will participate in Friday's regularly scheduled trustees meeting, where a committee will be appointed to investigate the "circumstances" that led to the indictments of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, as well as two university officials.
McQueary won't coach Saturday due to threats
Report: Paterno sought criminal defense lawyer
McQueary, witness to alleged abuse, under scrutiny
"Certainly every Pennsylvanian who has any knowledge of this case, who has read the grand jury report, feels a sense of regret and a sorrow to also see careers end," Corbett said after arriving on campus Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Tom Bradley was introduced as interim head coach, marking the first time in almost a half-century the Nittany Lions have been guided by anyone other than Paterno.
Penn State sex abuse scandal: Who's who
"We're obviously in a very unprecedented situation," said Bradley, who was Paterno's lead assistant for the last 11 seasons. "I have to find a way to restore the confidence."
And the timing couldn't have been much worse. CBS News correspondent Armen Keteyian reports that more than 100, 000 people will descend on Beaver Stadium on Penn State's campus on Saturday for the final home game of the season - in what will undoubtedly be a cauldron of emotion.
The trustees' committee has no timetable.
And no shortage of questions to answer — from how much Paterno actually knew to the future of his staff, including assistant coach Mike McQueary, who told Paterno but not police about seeing Sandusky in a shower with a young boy in 2002.
McQueary, now the team's wide receivers coach, won't be present for the final home game of the season Saturday against Nebraska because of what the university said were "multiple threats."
"We intend to be as responsible as we can and make whatever changes are necessary," board vice chair John Surma said.
Sandusky, Paterno's onetime heir apparent, has been charged with molesting eight boys over 15 years. Athletic director Tim Curley and university vice president Gary Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report the 2002 assault to police, as required by state law.
All three maintain their innocence.
Paterno is not a target of the criminal investigation, having fulfilled his legal requirement by reporting what McQueary told him to Curley and Schultz. But the state police commissioner called Paterno's failure to contact police or follow up on the incident a lapse in "moral responsibility."
Paterno has acknowledged that he should have done more but has not said why he didn't go to the police, nor has he said whether he was aware of any earlier alleged assaults. Aside from a few brief comments outside his house and two statements, Paterno has not spoken publicly since Sandusky was indicted.
McQueary told the grand jury that he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy of about 10 in the showers at the Penn State football building in March 2002.
McQueary later told Paterno, Curley and Schultz, although it is not clear how detailed his description was. Schultz, in turn, notified Spanier.
Curley and Schultz — as well as Paterno — testified that they were told that Sandusky behaved inappropriately in that 2002 incident, but not to the extent of McQueary's graphic account to the grand jury.
McQueary has not spoken publicly. His mother, Anne, said Thursday they have been advised not to comment.
Then 28, McQueary was "distraught" after witnessing the alleged 2002 assault, according to the indictment. Yet it appears he may have continued to participate in fundraising events with Sandusky — including one held less than a month later.
Sandusky was a coach at a March 28, 2002, flag-football fundraiser for the Easter Seals of Central Pennsylvania, and McQueary and other Penn State staff members participated by either playing or signing autographs, according to a "Letter of special thanks" published in the Centre Daily Times.
The paper also reported that McQueary was scheduled to play in The Second Mile Celebrity Golf Classic in 2002 and 2003. The Second Mile is the charity Sandusky founded in 1997 to provide education and life skills to almost 100,000 at-risk kids each year.
And in 2004, the Centre Daily Times reported that McQueary played in the third annual Subway Easter Bowl Game, an Easter Seals fundraiser that was jointly coached by Sandusky.
Sandusky, a former Penn State player and assistant for 30 years, including 22 as defensive coordinator, had long been considered the likely successor to Paterno. But Paterno told Sandusky around May 1999 that he wouldn't get the top job.
According to the indictment, one of the alleged victims testified that Sandusky was "emotionally upset" after that meeting with Paterno, and Sandusky announced his retirement the next month.
Sandusky said he wanted to spend more time with The Second Mile, as well as taking advantage of a generous retirement package that included continued use of an office and access to the school's athletic facilities. Several of the alleged assaults took place on Penn State property.
Sandusky was just 55 when he retired with a sparkling resume. He stepped off college football's fast track when he would have been considered a top candidate for vacancies at any big-time program.
Bradley spent most of his career at Penn State as a defensive assistant and succeeded Sandusky as defensive coordinator.
Penn State has said Bradley will be interim coach for the rest of the season. It has not said if he will be a candidate for the permanent job, nor has it given any timetable for hiring a new coach.
It's not even clear who will do the hiring, with Curley on leave and provost Rodney Erickson serving as interim school president.
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All of a sudden, "moral responsibility" is sufficient grounds to dismiss one of the people with the most integrity in college sports. He is accused of NO CRIME ... singular, because he has not violated any law.
On the other side, we have judges throughout Pennsylvania who have brought more harm to more than 100 times the children and their families than has Jerry Sandusky of whom I have nothing positive to say.
The scandal in Luzerne County arose ONLY because a child victim of corrupt judges committed suicide.
Luzerne County is merely the tip of the judicial corruption iceberg in Pennsylvania. Does anyone seriously believe that similar treachery is not occurring in other counties? Criminal misconduct is rampant in Pennsylvania courts.
Whenever a crime is reported to a judge, a DA or court officer, that person has a duty to investigate or to initiate a criminal investigation. Failure to do so is a CRIME under 18 USC section 4 -- Misprision of Felony.
These criminals, judges, DA's and more are very busy covering up the crimes and disseminating false information about the whistle-blower, all the while pretending to be persons of good moral character. Hah!
If the whistle-blower happens to be an attorney, the forces of the court [legal establishment] employ the Bar Association (as corrupt as the judges) to institute disciplinary procedures to disbar the attorney.
Judges rarely get to answer for their crimes. It took a child's suicide to get an investigation in Luzerne County. Investigations are quashed and "public officer" witnesses who may be subpoenaed are excused from testifying.
Until the public and the MEDIA demand integrity in our courtrooms, SPARE ME THE RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION about the Penn State scandal. The damage done to our families in our corrupt Pennsylvania family courts dwarfs the damage to the dozens of child victims.
This does not excuse Penn State, but it may mitigate Paterno's negligence. Should he apologize for his failure? Of Course.
Should he be fired for it? Only if every Pennsylvania judge who has concealed the crimes of his colleagues is removed IMMEDIATELY from office. Thomas W. Corbett, Jr. stands guilty of violation 18 USC section 4, but will never have to answer for it.
Yes, Joe Paterno may have ignored or failed to meet his moral responsibility. His contributions to the university, to college athletics and to the people he served as role model for those many years should have established enough chits to get him over this hurdle. However, it seems that hypocrisy succeeded in bringing a tall man down into their basement.
Pray for our country where parents abuse their children in many ways.
All of a sudden, "moral responsibility" is sufficient grounds to dismiss one of the people with the most integrity in college sports. He is accused of NO CRIME ... singular, because he has not violated any law.
On the other side, we have judges throughout Pennsylvania who have brought more harm to more than 100 times the children and their families than has Jerry Sandusky of whom I have nothing positive to say.
The scandal in Luzerne County arose ONLY because a child victim of corrupt judges committed suicide.
Luzerne County is merely the tip of the judicial corruption iceberg in Pennsylvania. Does anyone seriously believe that similar treachery is not occurring in other counties? Criminal misconduct is rampant in Pennsylvania courts.
Whenever a crime is reported to a judge, a DA or court officer, that person has a duty to investigate or to initiate a criminal investigation. Failure to do so is a CRIME under 18 USC section 4 -- Misprision of Felony.
These criminals, judges, DA's and more are very busy covering up the crimes and disseminating false information about the whistle-blower, all the while pretending to be persons of good moral character. Hah!
If the whistle-blower happens to be an attorney, the forces of the court [legal establishment] employ the Bar Association (as corrupt as the judges) to institute disciplinary procedures to disbar the attorney.
Judges rarely get to answer for their crimes. It took a child's suicide to get an investigation in Luzerne County. Investigations are quashed and "public officer" witnesses who may be subpoenaed are excused from testifying.
Until the public and the MEDIA demand integrity in our courtrooms, SPARE ME THE RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION about the Penn State scandal. The damage done to our families in our corrupt Pennsylvania family courts dwarfs the damage to the dozens of child victims.
This does not excuse Penn State, but it may mitigate Paterno's negligence. Should he apologize for his failure? Of Course.
Should he be fired for it? Only if every Pennsylvania judge who has concealed the crimes of his colleagues is removed IMMEDIATELY from office. Thomas W. Corbett, Jr. stands guilty of violation 18 USC section 4, but will never have to answer for it.
Yes, Joe Paterno may have ignored or failed to meet his moral responsibility. His contributions to the university, to college athletics and to the people he served as role model for those many years should have established enough chits to get him over this hurdle. However, it seems that hypocrisy succeeded in bringing a tall man down into their basement.
Pray for our country where parents abuse their children in many ways.
Despite the man's saintly image, isn't some sort of reality check in order here? After all, football coaches have been routinely fired over issues far less dramatic than being overly sanguine about a serial child molester connected to their programs. What right has Paterno to a pass, when so many others have been sent packing for merely having lackluster seasons?
It also just may be time for us as Americans and consumers of sports entertainment to reassess the whole mythology of sport and sports figures most of us have been force fed from the time we were old enough to open a "Sports Illustrated" or change a TV channel. In a time when college athletes have little connection to
the schools and student bodies for which they supposedly play, when traditional contests are now named after corn chips and restaurant chains, when the men we have been trained to admire as somehow superior to the rest of us are increasingly more likely to be associated with dog fighting rings and night club shootings, how can we rationally be expected to hold on to the whole "Better character through sport!", "Knute Rockne is what my father should have been!" load of manure? Joe Paterno is probably the last wheelbarrow full of the old myth, and his dumping will hopefully provide fertilizer for some new discussion concerning sports and role models in this country.
(From Comments section)
BlossMtn
November 10, 2011 at 2:57PM
MORE INVESTIGATION AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL IS REQUIRED
It's really a shame because there are so many unanswered questions right now that people are just out to hang anyone and everyone involved, without knowing all of the details. Apparently after the 2002 incident, police WERE notified, however, they never filed any charges OR reports. Nobody is questioning the police depts or officers. That right there could clear many people who knew (ie Paterno, Mcqueary, etc), at the time that law enforcement WAS infact involved.
There's also the situation with the district attorney up there who coincidentally, has been missing since the incident and has now been declared legally dead. If police were notified and later hush hushed, so to was the then DA who has never been seen or heard from. And all of THAT leads to THIS. The DA would have reported it to the THEN Attorney General, who at that time, was Gov Corbett, who coincidentally, has been very involved in directing what happens within the PSU Board of Trustees. Making sure he covers his own butt?
Seems to me, there remain A LOT of unanswered questions that run all the way to the top in the state of PA, and if this conspiracy theory pans out, well, everything that SHOULD have happened from a moral perspective, DID happen. It was the powers above the morally intact Paterno, however, that tried to make sure everything stayed under the carpet....
In the end I believe Paterno will be cleared of the "moral obligation" witch hunt that everyone seems to have mounted, and all of the cats will be let out of the bag.
- Spanier knew and covered it up
- Police dept knew and was forced to cover it up
- DA Gricar knew and was paid off to make it go away, or was simply "taken care of"
- Attorney General Corbett was informed and made sure Spanier was cleared, the local PD was silenced, and the DA was made to "disappear"
And now, the only good person left that had any evidence of pushing forward in the investigation, was the DA and he's "dead"
What happened there? In 1998, District Attorney Gricar for whatever reason, declined to press charges against Sandusky following allegations of sexual abuse and the DA eventually turned up missing. In 2005, fishermen discovered Gricar's county-issued laptop computer in the Susquehanna River beneath a bridge between Lewisburg and Milton. A State computer expert analyzed the computer and found that its hard drive was missing. Divers searched the area of the river near where the laptop was found over the next several days, but found nothing else. Months later, a hard drive was recovered on the banks of the Susquehanna River about 100 yards from where the laptop was found and is believed to be Gricar's, however, it was badly damaged and analysis by the FBI, US Secret Service, and the firm Kroll Ontrack, were all unable to recover any data from the hard drive. In April 2009 Bellefonte police revealed that before his disappearance, Gricar used his home computer to perform internet searches on topics such as "how to wreck a hard drive", "how to fry a hard drive", and "water damage to a notebook computer". How a man who served for 20 years, could simply leave his family behind and never be seen or heard from again? FAR to mysterious if you ask me.
Ref;
Internet sources, including
http://www.centredaily.com/2011/11/06/2976046/gricar-had-final-say-in-ending.html
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/133615093.html
His crimes far exceed his involvement with this scandal. As Attorney General he overlooked many criminal complaints against courts and judges, etc. He also initiated retaliatory actions against several individuals who were truly no threat to him ...
I think Corbett is a victim of the disease "Lust For Power".
We the People deserve to be freed from his brand of tyranny.
""...Paterno, who didn't even witness it himself, it was a second-hand report, reported a potential crime to his superiors. Yet people want him not only fired, but thrown in jail because he didn't report it again to cops?
I can understand people not understanding why he didn't pursue it harder. And there are ligitimate questions on how much he knew about Sandusky. But the sheer hatred for Paterno is actually quite frightening - frightening in that we are seeing what happens when the public decides you are guilty/a bad person, without hearing all the evidence, and decides they will "punish" you, via online hatred, pressuring of officials and even death threats. The cops and courts don't run our justice system, public opinion does...""
________________________
This reply/post concisely elucidates this complicated societal issue.
If you've ever wondered how the heck can the Spanish Inquisition or Salem Witch Hunts ever occur in a society, here's your sign!!
I work in an environment were any misconduct, by anyone, must be reported to superiors. We even have special forms to fill out. Even if your best friend says something impetuously, that can be construed as misogynist, crass, sexual innuendo, or abusive in any way, it must be reported. Failure to report can lead to termination.
The aforementioned is not the scary part. The scary part is that the policy is being tweaked. Now, if you hear someone talking to someone else (3rd party) and they are discussing a rumor about someone you don't even know, and the discussion is about possible pedophilia, you must report it.
If this policy expands to "you must report hearsay about pedophilia to your superiors AND the cops", the witch hunts begin.
When fear of certain heinous crimes, causes society to overreact, where if anyone hears someone talking about said heinous crimes, and doesn't report the person talking about the heinous crime, is now considered guilty of a crime, you have a witch hunt.
That's a mouthful ... I know.
If societal consciousness reaches the point where fear of a witch is so great, that people are burned alive, that society is sick. There exists historical evidence that people have been burned alive, for being "accused", of being a witch. This has happened folks!
If societal consciousness reaches the point, where fear of a certain criminal behavior is so great, that people NOT reporting a rumor of impropriety, are guilty of a crime, that society is sick.
We're there folks. We have localized mob mentality taking over in many places. The rationalization of "we've been wronged and are protesting" (which is OK) is morphing into ,"we've been wronged and are taking action". The small step of taking action goes beyond protesting. This is crossing the subtle line of healthy to symptomatic.
The "pro Paterno mobs" and the "sack Paterno mobs" are gathering. The "occupy mobs" are gathering".
Mobs are gathering.
The subtle shifts in our society's consciousness, I've noticed in recent years, are symptoms of societal sickness. I have yet to diagnose the disease but I clearly see the symptoms.
Do you see this or am I a lunatic? (or both)
I'll bet a dollar to a dime, that at the end of that period, Penn State would move up 100 places in academic standing.
Sexual abuse of children has been and will continue to plague mankind.
Page boys in our Congress were frequent victims of our elected "leaders" who always managed to avoid exposure and hence responsibility for their criminal misconduct. They were almost invariably re-elected.
Please consider that in your next MORAL OUTRAGE.
... or at least prohibit all Congressmen and Congresswomen from attending Bowl Games for the next 5 years.
This is an accusation of child RAPE. What if it were your child?