Penn State Sandusky-Report of the Special Investigative Counsel

[Rlaub44]

Actually, 1997 (the last season before the 1998 incident), they were 9 and 3, a very good year. 2000 was a losing season, but only 5 to 7, and it was their first losing season in 12 years.

I'm also not seeing how a former assistant coach being a child molester would hurt recruiting. This whole scandal hasn't been that damaging.

And surprisingly, Rivals.com has their current recruiting class ranked 15th in the country, so even after the scandal and cover-up came to light, high school athletes haven't been scared away.

Some of this might be the opportunity to play for new coach Bill O'Brien, which may override the stain on the Penn State name.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

J.J., you make a good point. Didn't Penn State set an internal record for fundraising this year?

I do think that back in '98 or '01 their fears of what would happen if they popped the pimple may have been inflated by protectionism and fear of "what might be."

Second largest year, but a large portion was an $88 million donation for a hockey arena, I think.

The problem, as I see it, is in 1998 prosecuting Sandusky could damage the football program. What did the Big Four do? Apparently, absolutely nothing. They were not overly involved in the investigation, and it was being handled off campus, by the DA's Office.

There is no evidence that they pressured RFG; during the rest of his career, RFG prosecuted cases touching on Paterno, and did aggressively prosecute Penn State football players. He still could have prosecuted Sandusky until the day he disappeared on the 1998 incident.

There is zero evidence of bribery, and I've been looking at RFG's finances for a while. He was grossing over $100 K in 1998 and his wife worked. His house was worth $190 K in 2002 and his car was a Mitsubishi Spider; nothing points to an extravagant lifestyle.

The Seasock Report was cited by Freeh. He had the Chambers' Report. Seasock was not a licensed psychologist at the time, he didn't have his doctorate, and he had less experience than Dr. Chambers. Further, neither the conclusions of Seasock or Chambers were admissible in court.

A very bright guy made an extremely stupid decision, but apparently without the help of the Big Four.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

You're over-thinking it. It was about avoiding bad publicity.

They didn't do it in 1998, when the publicity would have been worse. Sandusky was still part of the program then.

 

[LNL]

I was surprised there wasn't more discussion in the report about the lady who used to be in the Office of Student Affairs ( I think) who was so critical of how JoePa handled the football players going bonkers at the party and beating people up. She quit because she was so frustrated by JoePa.

I guess her comments/sentiments might have been echoed in the comments about the culture at Penn State.

I just expected her to be more prominent in the report, even though this wasn't a student issue. She just seemed to have a lot to say about the old boys club.

 

[BigCat]

They didn't do it in 1998, when the publicity would have been worse. Sandusky was still part of the program then.

You're comparing two different situations. Victim 6's mother reported the incident to university police. What could the Penn State 4 have done to cover up that incident? Nothing. They would have if they could. Who doubts that?

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Brought over from the other thread:

Whoa....

According to college football talk, McQueary was not interviewed by the Freeh Group. How is that possible????

Whoa.

It's right there on page 12. The Freeh Group did not interview him at the request of the Attorney General.

 

[BigCat]

Please excuse me if this has already been posted. It's the latest article from Sara Ganim. Wow, she's a smart one. And brave. And ahead of the game, as usual. If anyone has the courage to find out who was covering for Joe Pa, it's Sara.

Analysis: FBI Director Louis Freeh, state's results differ greatly. Why?

So how could they have come up with such different results about who was to blame for Jerry Sandusky’s rampant abuse of young boys on campus?

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/07/analysis_fbi_director_louis_fr.html

 

[BigCat]

Brought over from the other thread:



Whoa.

It's right there on page 12. The Freeh Group did not interview him at the request of the Attorney General.

Probably because he's the key witness in the Curley/Schultz perjury trial.

 

[SyraKelly]

I am wondering to about victim # 2-Freeh said at least twice in his report-no one took measures to name this boy or to see if he needed help-and them telling Sandusky about the inveg put that boy at risk when Sandusky was the only one who knew his name--I am wondering if this boy is still alive!!

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Penn State leaders disregarded victims, 'empowered' Sandusky, review finds

snipped for focus

He retained unlimited access to university facilities until November 2011, the report says. The school also approved a one-time lump sum payment of $168,000 to Sandusky in 1999. Top university officials said they had never known Penn State "to provide this type of payment to a retiring employee."

What was that payment for?

Well, the report refers in the timeline on page 24, "Schultz leads a transaction to sell a parcel of University property to The Second Mile for $168,500-- the same as the University's 1999 acquisition cost.

Hmm.

 

[HMSHood]

Since the Freeh report goes back to 1998, I have to wonder if this was going on before 1998 at Penn State. Also, I noticed this happened after Sandusky was told he would not be the head coach in 1998.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Probably because he's the key witness in the Curley/Schultz perjury trial.

Maybe, but it seems to me at this point their own emails are the key witnesses.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

I am wondering to about victim # 2-Freeh said at least twice in his report-no one took measures to name this boy or to see if he needed help-and them telling Sandusky about the inveg put that boy at risk when Sandusky was the only one who knew his name--I am wondering if this boy is still alive!!

Maybe he and Gricar are hanging out together somewhere. Just a thought.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

The school also approved a one-time lump sum payment of $168,000 to Sandusky in 1999. Top university officials said they had never known Penn State "to provide this type of payment to a retiring employee."

What was that payment for?

Lump sum payments are not too unusual for early retirements. It is basically to encourage people to take them, because their replacement doesn't make as much. A lot of salaries are based on longevity.

Sally, an employee might be making $100,000 a year after 25 years of employment. Because he's older, she has higher insurance costs as well. She could continue to work for the next 5 years.

Mary, a prospective new employee, might be hired at $25,000 for the same position. She won't get hired if Sally is still there.

You're the employer. Over the next 5 years, Sally gets $500 K. If Sally retires, and you hire Mary, you'll pay her $125 K. You'd save $375,000, if you can convince Sally to retire. You offer Sally $175,000 to retire. Even with that, you will save $200,000 over five years.

 

[Rlaub44]

I was surprised there wasn't more discussion in the report about the lady who used to be in the Office of Student Affairs ( I think) who was so critical of how JoePa handled the football players going bonkers at the party and beating people up. She quit because she was so frustrated by JoePa.

I guess her comments/sentiments might have been echoed in the comments about the culture at Penn State.

I just expected her to be more prominent in the report, even though this wasn't a student issue. She just seemed to have a lot to say about the old boys club.

Vicki Triponey definitely had a lot to say, but she brought some baggage with her that may have discredited some of her opinions. I don't have the links at the ready, but there were several articles posted in the PSU student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, when she left that were very critical of the culture she brought to the office. None of the comments seemed to have anything to do with the athletic department, but more about how, for no clear reason, she disbanded several student organizations that gave students a voice in the University, and was responsible for closing the student-operated radio station.

The feeling at the time seemed to be that she was very out-of-touch with student affairs, was hard to work with, and headstrong; no wonder she clashed with Paterno, who was also notoriously stubborn and, as we have seen, very protective of his turf.

 

[Rlaub44]

Lump sum payments are not too unusual for early retirements. It is basically to encourage people to take them, because their replacement doesn't make as much. A lot of salaries are based on longevity.

Sally, an employee might be making $100,000 a year after 25 years of employment. Because he's older, she has higher insurance costs as well. She could continue to work for the next 5 years.

Mary, a prospective new employee, might be hired at $25,000 for the same position. She won't get hired if Sally is still there.

You're the employer. Over the next 5 years, Sally gets $500 K. If Sally retires, and you hire Mary, you'll pay her $125 K. You'd save $375,000, if you can convince Sally to retire. You offer Sally $175,000 to retire. Even with that, you will save $200,000 over five years.

From reading the report, it seemed that they agreed on this as a counter-offer to Sandusky's request for a $20,000 a year, which in only 9 years would have amounted to more than his lump sum.

In one of the emails, Curley indicated wanting to settle the retirement without costing the University an arm and a leg. Funny now, because what they will pay as a result of covering up Sandusly's actions will far outstrip what they haggled over back then.

 

[Reader]

Paterno's legacy may now be damaged beyond repair

http://centurylink.net/news/read.php?rip_id=<D9VVKBBO0@news.ap.org>&ps=1013&page=1

For decades Penn State was considered special, immune from the corruption of college athletics by virtue of Joe Paterno's high ideals, long list of victories and even longer list of graduates.

Now, to many people outside Penn State and even some insiders, that's been exposed as an illusion............

"I doubt anybody could have imagined this. In eight months, he's gone from St. Joe to something approaching the devil," said Frank Fitzpatrick, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and author of two books on Paterno and Penn State, including a biography last year, "Pride of the Lions."

"The contrast between the ethical standards we always associated with Joe and the complete lack of them in how this was handled — if what the Freeh Report says is true, and I have no reason to doubt it is, to sacrifice kids for the reputation of a football program, that's pretty despicable. I can't imagine anything more shocking than that.".............

"We should look at (Paterno) as a willing enabler of a convicted child molester," Brennan said. "I absolutely understand and respect the past. The games he won, the number of players he graduated, that's a tremendous record. This supercedes all of that. ... What happened to these children because of Joe Paterno — it's because of Jerry Sandusky first and foremost. But Joe Paterno did not stop it and he enabled it, and that's just tragic.".........

"I always thought he knew. To what extent, that was the only question," said Brad Benson, a former Penn State offensive lineman who won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants. "I thought that anyone who didn't think he knew was pretty naive. Joe knew pretty much everything going on there.".............

"There's no way out of this to make it a good story. It's a shame," Benson said. "But we're being selfish saying it's a shame. It's a shame for these kids. Penn State will recover, these kids won't."............

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Lump sum payments are not too unusual for early retirements. It is basically to encourage people to take them, because their replacement doesn't make as much. A lot of salaries are based on longevity.

Sally, an employee might be making $100,000 a year after 25 years of employment. Because he's older, she has higher insurance costs as well. She could continue to work for the next 5 years.

Mary, a prospective new employee, might be hired at $25,000 for the same position. She won't get hired if Sally is still there.

You're the employer. Over the next 5 years, Sally gets $500 K. If Sally retires, and you hire Mary, you'll pay her $125 K. You'd save $375,000, if you can convince Sally to retire. You offer Sally $175,000 to retire. Even with that, you will save $200,000 over five years.

However, the report says that JP said JS was welcome to continue coaching as long as he was head coach. (Unless the news reports I read are wrong. I'm slowly reading the report first-hand, and I haven't reached that part yet.)

So why would PSU administrators be throwing JS a carrot to encourage early retirement for monetary reasons, while JP apparently was willing to provide him employment for as long as he desired it, with no apparent cost concern?

 

[Reader]

Lump sum payments are not too unusual for early retirements. It is basically to encourage people to take them, because their replacement doesn't make as much. A lot of salaries are based on longevity.

Sally, an employee might be making $100,000 a year after 25 years of employment. Because he's older, she has higher insurance costs as well. She could continue to work for the next 5 years.

Mary, a prospective new employee, might be hired at $25,000 for the same position. She won't get hired if Sally is still there.

You're the employer. Over the next 5 years, Sally gets $500 K. If Sally retires, and you hire Mary, you'll pay her $125 K. You'd save $375,000, if you can convince Sally to retire. You offer Sally $175,000 to retire. Even with that, you will save $200,000 over five years.

I'm well aware that these things happen at some places, but that doesn't answer my question about Sandusky. Since "Top university officials said they had never known Penn State "to provide this type of payment to a retiring employee."

What was that payment for?

 

[Reader]

The shameless 4 (they are not big in my eyes) not only enabled and empowered Sandusky, they also enriched him...even after they knew all about what he was doing...WTH?