Penn State Goings-On

[Neil]

Why you got to be like that Neil? 

Because you get way too worked up about these sorts of things, to the point where you can't even think.  You're like a woman in this thread.

[jimmy olsen]

Sandusky arrested on new charges.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/07/9277811-sandusky-rearrested-in-pennsylvania


http://enews.attorneygeneral.gov/uploads/Sandusky-Presentment2-12-7-2011.pdf

[jimmy olsen]

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/139278153.html

Report: Ex-daughter-in-law says Sandusky abused her son

Staff Report

LATEST BREAKING NEWS
Poll: Nutter's rating up despite growing concern - 9:46am
Report: Ex-daughter-in-law says Sandusky abused her son - 8:27am
22 fugitives nabbed in annual Valentine's Day raids - 9:10am
Possible serial rapist sought in Camden - 7:24am

The mother of three of Jerry Sandusky's grandchildren says she does not believe it is safe for him to be around children and alleged he "inappropriately touched" her son, the Daily Collegian reports.

Jill Thomas is the ex-wife of Jerry Sandusky's son Matthew and the two are currently in a custody dispute over their children.

On Monday, the judge in Sandusky's sexual abuse trial said the former Penn State Football coach could receive visits from his grandchildren while under house arrest.

The Daily Collegian says that in a statement issued later Monday, Thomas said that after charges were filed against her former father-in-law, one of her children told her Sandusky had "inappropriately touched" him.

She said that while there was not enough evidence to charge Sandusky, a psychologist recommended counseling for him, the student newspaper reported.

"I was also advised at the same time that the psychologist who investigated the case had concerns about what had happened to my son and could not rule out that Jerry Sandusky was grooming my son for sexual abuse," she said in the statement, according to the Daily Collegian.

The newspaper quoted Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola as saying Sandusky "unequivocally denied these new allegations" and suggested that his client was being "dragged" into the custody dispute.

[jimmy olsen]

Catching up on this case. Nasty stuff  

http://www.wjactv.com/news/news/new-court-filing-outlines-locations-alleged-sandus/nLJXC/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

New court filing outlines locations of alleged Sandusky sex-abuse crimes, ages of victims...

   

Feds investigating the cover up
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/03/experts_penn_state_investigati.html

It's fairly clear the federal investigation into Penn State University won't be a duplication of the grand jury probe that led to more than 50 counts of child sex abuse charges against Jerry Sandusky.

Instead, federal authorities seem to be stepping into areas where the state attorney general's office hasn't gone.

This time, they seem to be exploring the possibility of a cover-up at Penn State, as well as possible bribes, fraud, or misuse of federal money, according to three former federal prosecutors who were asked by The Patriot-News to independently review the subpoena Penn State received Feb. 2.

And on the case is one of the most experienced and respected assistant U.S. Attorneys in the region, Gordon Zubrod. Among his high-profile prosecutions: the Luzerne County kids-for-cash case that involved two county judges, child prostitution rings and fraud cases.

"If you thought there might be a cover up, these are the type of documents you might want to get to know, one way or another," said Laurie Levinson, a former assistant United States attorney and current professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

The subpoena asks for:

- Payments made by university board members to third parties.

- Records of complaints, interviews or out-of-court settlements regarding Sandusky.

- Computer hard drives.

- Correspondence with Sandusky's children's charity, The Second Mile.

"The subpoena appears to be exploring when or whether there was any institutional awareness of Sandusky's alleged conduct at Penn State," said James W. Spertus, a Los Angeles lawyer and former federal prosecutor. "If, for example, there were private efforts by board members to settle claims before the matter became public, or there were reports to the board about the allegations, it could change the nature of the investigation."

Already, state prosecutors have charged two former Penn State officials with not doing enough when a report was brought to them in 2002 by an assistant football coach who said he'd allegedly witnessed something inappropriate in a locker room shower on campus.

The moral obligations of others have been questioned.

But those charges involve inaction, rather than an overt cover up.

This federal investigation appears to be going deeper.

"At this point, they don't have to have proof, just a theory," said Bruce E. Reinhart, former federal prosecutor who now works for McDonald Hopkins LLC. "And they're trying to prove or disprove the theory."

And while Gov. Tom Corbett said in two recent television interviews that The Second Mile isn't under investigation by the state — although his staff says he was speaking in past tense and meant "wasn't" — the federal subpoena is specifically looking at issues related to the charity where it's alleged Sandusky met almost all of his 10 accusers.

Lanny Davis, the high-profile Washington lawyer hired to represent Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, declined to comment on where the investigation might be going.

"We don't speculate on what prosecutors might be interested in, we just cooperation," Davis said.

Each year educational institutions like Penn State receive million of dollars in federal money earmarked for certain areas such as defense or medical research and educational programs.

If that money was used for other purposes, that could be a federal crime, Reinhart said.

"I'm sure they get all sorts of federal funding that flows into large state university's like that," he said. "As part of that sort of grant or funding, you have to certify those funds will only be used for the certain things. That could be why they'd be looking into interactions with Second Mile and Penn State."

Fraud could be a possibility if false statements were made to an agency like the NCAA, Reinhart said.

Something like, "We don't have any unauthorized persons using the training facilities."

Penn State has said that, as part of his retirement agreement, Sandusky kept an office and a key to the Penn State locker room. Sandusky left his coaching job as Paterno's defensive coordinator after the 1999 season. He was asked, after the 2002 incident, not to bring children with him to the facilities, but university officials testified before a grand jury that the ban was unenforceable.

If Penn State didn't disclose that to an agency who asked for such information, that could constitute fraud.

"The NCAA might say, 'We would never have allowed them to go to a bowl ... or get certain funding,'" Reinhart said.

And then there's a possibility of hush money.

"If they somehow diverted funds to keep victims, or others in the know quiet," Reinhart said. "They might be trying to figure out if that happened. ... That would explain why they'd ask if trustees have ever made payments on behalf of university."

All these things requested in the subpoenas — emails, complaints, payments — all point to an investigation that might have little to do with the alleged victims, Levinson said.

"That looks much more like the back end — how did the university react to what Sandusky had (allegedly) done?" she said. "Not investigating what Sandusky had done. ... This more about the university and the Second Mile."

When contacted, several people close to the alleged victims named in the state grand jury presentments against Sandusky said they had not been contacted or interviewed by federal investigators.

Those close to the defense for former athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz — both charged with failing to report the 2002 incident, then lying to a state grand jury about it — said the pair has not been subpoenaed.

Sandusky's attorney had no direct knowledge of the probe. The Second Mile and a lawyer for the late Joe Paterno received requests for documents and are cooperating without a subpoena, sources say.

At this stage of the investigation, however, that's not unusual, the experts said.

"This is definitely the first step," Levinson said. "The first thing that happens is the prosecution sends out a subpoena for all the documents they can find and then start in on key witnesses."

The state grand jury continues to meet on the Sandusky case, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said, even after two presentments have led to multiple charges against Sandusky.

Because grand juries meet in secret, prosecutors can't talk about what topics they are exploring.

However, Corbett, said publicly there is no indication The Second Mile is under investigation.

He also publicly defended his decision to accept more than $25,000 in campaign donations from current members of the Second Mile board while running for governor. That number balloons to $200,000 when former members are included.

Corbett also received about $38,000 directly from current members of the Penn State board of trustees.

A source close to the investigation has said that the informal requests from federal investigators began just days after Sandusky was arrested in November. The first known subpoena wasn't issued until Feb. 2.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/03/penn_state.html

Patriot-News Special Report: 1998 Jerry Sandusky investigator would have pursued dropped case if he had seen hidden Penn State police report

[garbon]

What's that? Oh the sound of silence on Languish and I just interrupted it.

[grumbler]

What's that? Oh the sound of silence on Languish and I just interrupted it.

  When there is something worth saying, I am sure someone here will say it.  Until there is something worth saying, get used to being the only person talking.

[garbon]

What's that? Oh the sound of silence on Languish and I just interrupted it.

  When there is something worth saying, I am sure someone here will say it.  Until there is something worth saying, get used to being the only person talking.

I only did it because I got confused by the string of Tim posts but then realized they went back to December.

[Rasputin]

at valmy:

exactly; the  more one peels back the onion the more complex and smellier this whole case gets

perhaps there's no 2002 investigation after all, because the adminstration already knows that the ga's claims are likely true based upon what it learned and concealed in 98?

....

it sadly appears that this was, in substance, the case

[Barrister]

Rasputin - what are your thoughts on what, if anything, either Penn State should do, or the NCAA should do, as a result of this cover up.  Should they receive the death penalty / voluntarily suspend the football team?  Should they just leave it to criminal charges for those who failed to report?  Just fire those named and move on?

Personally, I can't see how any alumni could possibly support the football team until and unless some kind of conttition and changes are made, but I suspect the actual alumni feel differently...

[Rasputin]

Rasputin - what are your thoughts on what, if anything, either Penn State should do, or the NCAA should do, as a result of this cover up.  Should they receive the death penalty / voluntarily suspend the football team?  Should they just leave it to criminal charges for those who failed to report?  Just fire those named and move on?

Personally, I can't see how any alumni could possibly support the football team until and unless some kind of conttition and changes are made, but I suspect the actual alumni feel differently...

first im an fsu alum not a penn state guy but we certainly had our own idolotry with saint bobby for a few decades

I have met spanner and curley and spent a weekend with curley who is a very gracious host (as was his wife)

with those disclosures out of the way, penn state needs to radically change its culture and the entire board and senior adminstation needs let go to allow the growth of a management philosophy that does elevate football and the JoePa brand above all else ; penn state needs a de-cougarization if you will


that being said, i dont see where the ncaa has jurisdiction to do anything; its rules were not to my knowledge broken as part of these crimes -- indeed the ncaa does not need to have a rule saying a former coach cannot sodomize boys on school property or that school officials shouldn't cover up crimes against minors, pennsylvania already has plenty of laws to address that misconduct

i dont see why the football program ought to be abolished but it may be that that is what's needed to change the culture but id leave that to the new board and new management

[Barrister]

first im an fsu alum not a penn state guy but we certainly had our own idolotry with saint bobby for a few decades

I know exactly which school you are an alumn of - but as a big booster of FSU I was just curious what your take was.

It seems to me you don't know any more than I do.

[CountDeMoney]

Personally, I can't see how any alumni could possibly support the football team until and unless some kind of conttition and changes are made, but I suspect the actual alumni feel differently...

Here's an interesting Op-Ed from an alum that thinks they deserve the death penalty:

Penn State should get death penalty
Jen Floyd Engel, FOX Sports

Let former FBI director Louis Freeh tell you a story, one he detailed in his Penn State University-Jerry Sandusky report released Thursday.

There was this big, respected university with an iconic legend as its football coach.

It also had a pedophile operating in its program.

School officials knew this back in 1998 and covered it up.

They chose this "humane" route of covering up, turning their backs and protecting themselves rather than kids for more than a decade as boys went on being raped in the campus showers and on football trips. They did this because it benefited them, was easier for them and protected what they valued most — the football program.

Could former Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno have stopped Sandusky?

"It's a very strong and reasonable inference that he could have done so if he had wished," Freeh said.

Freeh also detailed how facts and witnesses and evidence back up a conclusion 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."

Again and again, the 269-page report by Freeh's group showed how Penn State officials had a "callous and shocking disregard for child victims." They lied, then lied about their lies. Even now, the loyalty to the lie about Paterno being a man of integrity (despite evidence proving he lied to a grand jury regarding his knowledge of the 1998 investigation) is galling.

Four of the most powerful people at The Pennsylvania State University — 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 — failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade.

The moral of Freeh's story comes courtesy of the AMC show "Breaking Bad," specifically Mike the Cleaner. It's not important that you watch the show. It's important that you understand the universality of the futility of half measures in some situations.

We can never make that mistake again. No more half measures.

Nothing is going to stop Penn State or anybody else in big-time college athletics from taking a route that is protect-the-brand, CYA and immoral. So we — NCAA, fans, impartial observers — must intervene.

Everything that has happened to Penn State so far is a half measure. And I do not believe in half measures for child rapists or institutions that harbor them. Neither should you.

What is a full measure, you ask.

The death penalty, as delivered by the NCAA, is a good starting point. I used to believe this was too harsh. After listening to those boys testify and then reading details in the Freeh reports like Sandusky having special seats to Paterno's record-breaking game in 2011 and an email from then-athletic director Tim Curley saying, after talking with Paterno, he no longer believed reporting Sandusky to child authorities was the right course of action, I have changed my mind.

The football program needs to go away for a while.

A big reason this was allowed to happen was because the whole economy of Penn State was football. If you take that away, they might learn. And since almost every illegal and immoral decision made was done with the intent of protecting the reputations of the football program and Paterno, the best punishment is one that severely diminishes.

Then, maybe, next time the evidence will not clearly show what Freeh himself called in his news conference Thursday " . . . an active agreement to conceal" by Paterno, Curley, former senior vice president Gary Schultz and former president Graham Spanier.

The hiring of Freeh is the first right thing Penn State did, and Louis Freeh delivered the goods. But this report cannot be the end, something we read and tsk-tsk and Penn State falls over itself apologizing while donations roll in and JoePa's letter to the football team makes the rounds.

"Let me say that again so I am not misunderstood: Regardless of anyone's opinion of my actions or the actions of the handful of administration officials in this matter, the fact is nothing alleged is an indictment of football or evidence that the spectacular collections of accomplishments by dedicated student athletes should be in any way tarnished," Paterno wrote in this just-released letter to players weeks before his death.

Paterno did not get it even as he faced death. As Freeh said, "The facts are the facts. He was an integral part of the act to conceal," yet the JoePalogists still do not get it. Neither does his family.

Again, half measures do not work.

A strong message needs to be sent to schools and other institutions — the Catholic Church immediately springs to mind — that such actions will have consequences. If Paterno's sterling reputation must be destroyed, if his statue needs to come down, if Penn State has to lose its football program for a while under the NCAA death penalty, if Spanier, Schultz and Curley need to share a jail cell with Sandusky, so be it.

What was most damning to me was when Freeh talked about the janitor who had witnessed Sandusky raping a boy, of how this Korean War veteran said this was the most disturbing thing he had seen and how all of them had been scared to report this for fear of reprisals because this involved a part of the football program.

"If that is the culture at the bottom, God help the culture at the top," Freeh said.

We live in a society nowadays without consequence — especially for the rich and powerful. Barclays Bank manipulates lending rates with impunity, the Catholic Church covers for pedophile priests for years and on and on and on. We live in a world of bailouts, weak apologies and half measures in response to immorality.

That has to stop now, has to stop at Penn State.

No more half measures. Only a full measure will do.

Take down the statue, take away the football and quit revering the man who stood by idly as boys were raped.

[garbon]

I think his argument is convincing.

[Rasputin]

first im an fsu alum not a penn state guy but we certainly had our own idolotry with saint bobby for a few decades

I know exactly which school you are an alumn of - but as a big booster of FSU I was just curious what your take was.

It seems to me you don't know any more than I do [about what to do to fix penn state's culture].

i fixed your quote

[Barrister]

first im an fsu alum not a penn state guy but we certainly had our own idolotry with saint bobby for a few decades

I know exactly which school you are an alumn of - but as a big booster of FSU I was just curious what your take was.

It seems to me you don't know any more than I do [about what to do to fix penn state's culture].

i fixed your quote

Fix gratefully accepted.