I read the Freeh Report which was very interesting. The report is not a criminal indictment, nor was it supposed to be, but it is pretty damming. The report was, and does, look at the university's actions to document what went right, not much unfortunately and what went wrong. Which was mostly everything.
One of the incidents with Victim #6 was reported to law enforcement. But it was the university police, who do have jurisdiction, but the chief should have punted to another agency due to conflict of interest. This one incident SHOULD have led to Sandusky's arrest but it did not due to a strange series of circumstances. As part of the investigation of this one incident, a person affiliated with Sandusky's Second Mile organization, evaluated the victim and said there was no evidence of child rape. This helped throw off the one decent investigation by law enforcement. Of course this person should not have been interviewing the victim due to conflict of interest. Law enforcement filed the incident in a manner to prevent it becoming public knowledge.
What is unclear to me in the Freeh Report is how much information did the university president, Spanier, know and when. The report documents Spanier stating that there had been multiple Grand Jury investigations on Sandusky but he had been cleared which is a very interesting statement. Is it true? If not, it is a very strange statement to make. If true, it is odd that they reacted the way they did. In any case, the report certainly states that Spanier concealed facts from the police, the public, and the board of trustees. He certainly should have been asking more questions than he appeared to ask. If this one incident had been handled correctly the university would have avoided what eventually happened and maybe prevented other child rapes.
While the report is unclear to me on how much Spanier knew and when, it is pretty obvious that he was hiding information from the trustees to avoid a scandal. Spanier, Paterno, Schultz(Senior VP), and Curley(Athletic Director) where much closer to what was happening and if they were unclear of the incidents they SHOULD have been asking for more details. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that Paterno, Schultz, and Curley did NOT know exactly what was going on in the showers. The idea that there was nothing wrong with a grown man taking showers with children is absurd.
There were other child rapes witnessed by janitors that were not reported due to fear that the janitors would be fired. These employees are beneath contempt. They witness children being raped but did not report what happened to save their jobs. Nor did they stop a rape in progress. Sick $%^&*()_.
In the Victim #6 incident there was blood in the boys underwear and a change of behavior noted by the mother, yet it does not seem a proper rape investigation was done. Sandusky admitted that he "showered" with the boy as well as other children. He told this to the university and the PD which should have raised a big red flag. The obvious next step was to ask Sandusky the NAMES of these children but this was not done. What he admitted too would certainly seem to fit lessor criminal charges at a minimum. But this incident was filed so that the incident would not be made public. The administration showed more concern about the proper handling of Sandusky and his feelings while showing NO concern about his victims. The administration did not ask the obvious question because they did not want to open up Pandora's Box. Schultz actually said this, "Is this opening of the pandora's box" as well as "Other children?" Yet the administration did not ask Sandusky.
The administration's behavior from the start to the end was of coverup and protecting the university, and at some point, themselves. The best you can say for them is that they were incompetent.
One of the more interesting events is Sandusky's retirement agreement. Sandusky gets a highly unusual retirement agreement. He was given an unusual lump sum payment of $168,000, agreement by the University to work closely with Sandusky and Second Mile, and free lifetime use of the locker room facilities where the rapes took place. Sandusky was also made a Professor Emeritus which gave him more access to University facilities. The high retirement payment raised eyebrows but was signed off by the administration. Sandusky in no way had earned the title of Professor Emeritus but it was granted because of Spanier. There was a fear that Sandusky being given this title, without merit, would set a precedent. The payout money was to cover Sandusky's loss of benefits for retiring early before he was able to get his full retirement package. After he was retired he was rehired for another season.
Sandusky's retirement was a year after Victim #6 was raped. The timing of the retirement and the usual payments and awards are curious to say the least. Sandusky has been told by Paterno that he wold not be the next head coach. Why? Was Sandusky not a good enough coach to be the next head coach? Paterno said that Sandusky could be a coach as long as he was head coach and Sandusky appeared to be a danged good defensive coach. Why would he not be the next head coach? Not sure we will ever no the answer to that question.
The previous all happened prior to the summer of 1999. After that point, Sandusky continued to rape children and the administration continued to cover it up. The actions of Paterno, Sandusky, Schultz, Spanier and Curley just gets worse after the summer of 1999.
I doubt we will ever know what Paterno knew, and when he knew it, but there where documented statements from different people in the University stating that Paterno knew everything that was going on in the football program. It is hard to believe he did not know what was happening given how long he was coach and how long he knew Sandusky. Since it appears that most of the conversations regarding Sandusky were face to face between Paterno, Sandusky, Schultz, Spanier and Curley I doubt we will ever know for sure what was said, when and to whom.
Sandusky set up the perfect pedophile paradise with Second Mile. Some people prefer blondes, others like red heads, or brunettes. Some people are attracted to short people, tall people, skinny people, etc. Pedophiles are no different. It is obvious that Sandusky liked boys of middle school age, or there about, or who appeared to be of that age. In Second Mile, Sandusky was able to group a collection of victims that he could pick off. Pedophiles victims are often kids from broken families or homes. Second Mile was created to "help" these kids and families. Second Mile made it easier for Sandusky to find victims and have an excuse to be WITH the victims. The University did not see this at all. In fact, the university continued to help Sandusky with Second Mile after Victim #6. The University allowed the relationship to Second Mile to continue with Sandusky in the middle. The University allowed Sandusky access to the university facilities and sports programs that Sandusky was using to attract and rape the children. By University I mean Paterno, Sandusky, Schultz, Spanier and Curley as well as the janitors who did not act.
Unfortunately, PSU and the tax payer will take the hit for the failures of Paterno, Sandusky, Schultz, Spanier and Curley. The actions of Paterno, Schultz, Spanier and Curley allowed Sandusky to continue raping children. These four had the best chance to stop Standusky but their actions allowed him to continue to rape children. The PSU PD also shares in the blame. The PD should have pushed the investigation a bit more than they did. The DA, who has disappeared and is assumed dead, did not press charges against Sandusky. One really has to wonder why. Why did he take apart his laptop and toss it in the river before disappearing? What was the DA up too? I don't like it that the tax payer is going to take a hit since the tax payer and the university at large was not at fault. The fault lies with a few men. But this is also true in other cases. The failure of the Deep Horizon seems to be caused by a very few men some of whom died. Other men died because of those bad decisions. As a result of their failures, entire states where affected and paid a price. We all paid a price at the fuel pumps for the bad decisions of some rig workers. I do hope that the victims can extract some money from Paterno estate, Sandusky, Schultz, Spanier and Curley but the taxpayer is the one who will really pay.
How the janitors and McQueary can live with themselves is beyond me.
I do not think the NCAA punishment of PSU is acceptable. There is no evidence the players at the time knew anything about Sandusky's actions. Certainly the new coaches and administration had nothing to do with what happened in the past. The NCAA is collectively punishing innocent people to do something. Morons.
The Freeh Report is only 267 pages but one only needs to read the first 97 pages to see what was happening. The rest is documentary evidence, summary and recommendations. The Freeh Report is certainly not the final report, that will be in the courts. The Freeh Report does do what it was charged to do, find out what happened, find failings in the university's processes and organization, and recommend changes.
Later,
Dan
