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(AP) Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and other senior officials "concealed critical facts" about Jerry Sandusky's child abuse because they were worried about bad publicity, according to an internal investigation into the scandal concluded.
The 267-page report released Thursday is the result of an eight-month inquiry by former FBI director Louis Freeh, hired by university trustees weeks after Sandusky was arrested in November to look into what has become one of sports' biggest scandals.
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Who's Who In The Penn State-Jerry Sandusky Scandal JERRY SANDUSKY: Former assistant football coach and founder of The Second Mile charity for children, convicted of molesting boys over a 15-year period. Background: Arrested in November after a long investigation by a statewide grand jury. He had been a successful defensive coach for the Nittany Lions for 30 years, and prosecutors say he used his fame in the community to attract victims. Charges: Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault of a young child, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children. Status: Sandusky was found guilty of 45 of 48 counts. The judge ordered him to be taken to the county jail to await sentencing in about three months. He faces the possibility of life in prison. DOTTIE SANDUSKY Married to Jerry Sandusky. Background: Dottie Sandusky has stood by her husband, posting his bail, accompanying him to court proceedings and issuing a statement in December that proclaimed his innocence and said accusers were making up stories. She was not charged. She testified June 19 on her husband's behalf. GRAHAM SPANIER: Penn State's longtime president, he was forced out by university trustees after Sandusky's arrest in November but remains a tenured faculty member. Background: Spanier told investigators he wasn't notified of any criminal behavior by Sandusky during his 16 years as president. He has not been charged with any crime. LOUIS FREEH: Leader of an investigative team tasked with determining how the abuse occurred and recommending changes, as well as reviewing Penn State's handling of sex crimes and misconduct Background: Freeh, a former federal judge who spent eight years as director of the FBI, was hired by Penn State's board of trustees in June. He has conducted an investigation in which hundreds of people were interviewed. TIM CURLEY Penn State athletic director, on leave while he fights criminal charges for actions related to the Sandusky scandal. Background: Curley fielded a complaint about Sandusky in a team shower with a boy in early 2001, and told a grand jury he instructed Sandusky not to be inside Penn State athletic facilities with any young people. Charges: Failure to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury for lying to the grand jury. He wasn't on trial with Sandusky, denies the allegations and is seeking to have the charges dismissed. GARY SCHULTZ Penn State vice president for business and finance, now retired. Background: Schultz told the grand jury that head coach Joe Paterno and assistant Mike McQueary reported the 2001 shower incident "in a very general way" but did not provide details. Charges: Failure to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury for lying to the grand jury. He wasn't on trial with Sandusky, denies the allegations and is seeking to have the charges dismissed. MIKE MCQUEARY : Assistant Penn State football coach. Was a graduate assistant in 2001, when he says he witnessed Jerry Sandusky and a boy naked together in a team shower. McQueary took his complaint to Paterno, who alerted university administrators. Background: McQueary testified in court June 12 that he had "no doubt" Sandusky was having some type of intercourse with the boy. JOE PATERNO The longtime football coach was told by McQueary in 2001 that he saw Sandusky and Victim No. 2 in a shower on the Penn State campus and, in turn, told Curley and Schultz. Background: The head coach at Penn State from 1966 through 2011, and major college football's winningest, he offered to resign at the end of the 2011 season amid the uproar after Sandusky's arrest Nov. 6. The Penn State Board of Trustees, however, ousted him for what was called his "failure of leadership" surrounding allegations about Sandusky. He died of lung cancer Jan. 22. SUE PATERNO Married to Joe Paterno for almost 50 years, she raised five children with him and passionately defended her husband during the scandal and after he died. She was among the Sandusky defense team's potential trial witnesses. TOM CORBETT Now the governor of Pennsylvania, he was attorney general when the investigation into Sandusky was launched by state prosecutors. Background: Corbett is an ex-officio member of the Penn State Board of Trustees, although he did not actively participate until after Sandusky was charged in December. LINDA KELLY Pennsylvania attorney general, whose office prosecuted Sandusky. Background: A career prosecutor in the Pittsburgh area, Kelly inherited the Sandusky probe from Corbett when she was confirmed as his temporary successor as attorney general. She leaves office in January. JACK RAYKOVITZ : Former CEO of The Second Mile, the charity Jerry Sandusky founded. Background: Raykovitz led the charity for almost 30 years and was a longtime friend of Sandusky's. Raykovitz testified before the grand jury that recommended indicting Sandusky on child abuse charges. He resigned from The Second Mile soon after the scandal broke, and board members later complained that Raykovitz hadn't told them enough about earlier allegations against Sandusky. |
The report concluded that Paterno, president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade."
"In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university - Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley - repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse," the report said.
Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts. The scandal led to the ouster of Paterno and the school's president.
The report also singled out the revered Penn State football program - one built on the motto "success with honor" - for criticism. It says Paterno and university leaders allowed Sandusky to retire in 1999, "not as a suspected child predator, but as a valued member of the Penn State football legacy, with future `visibility' at Penn State'," allowing him to groom victims.
Sandusky's trial last month included gut-wrenching testimony from eight young men who said he abused them as boys, sometimes on campus, and included testimony that showed he used his prestige as a university celebrity to manipulate the children.
By contrast, Freeh's team focused on Penn State and what its employees did - or did not do - to protect children.
More than 430 current or former school employees were interviewed since November, including nearly everyone associated with the football program under Paterno. The Hall of Fame coach died of lung cancer in January at age 85, without telling Freeh's team his account of what happened.
With the report now complete, the NCAA said Penn State now must address four key questions concerning "institutional control and ethics policies," as outlined in a letter sent to the school last fall.
"Penn State's response to the letter will inform our next steps, including whether or not to take further action," said Bob Williams, the NCAA's vice president of communications. "We expect Penn State's continued cooperation in our examination of these issues."
Paterno Family: Late coach didn't cover up at Penn State
(AP) Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno didn't cover up for retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky (pictured together L) when he was accused of molesting boys and didn't act to hinder an investigation of him, Paterno's family said Tuesday.
Paterno's family also called Sandusky, who was convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys, some on campus, a "master deceiver" in a lengthy statement released after former FBI director Louis Freeh announced he would unveil the findings of his investigation into the scandal on Thursday.
Freeh was hired to investigate by the Penn State trustees, who ousted Paterno days after Sandusky was arrested in November.
Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month of 45 criminal counts. He maintains his innocence.
Paterno's family said Paterno "did not know that Jerry Sandusky was a pedophile."
"Joe Paterno did not act in any way to prevent a proper investigation of Jerry Sandusky," the family said. "To claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth."
Paterno's family said the Freeh team declined its offer to respond to recent news leaks after the family asked to review the findings.
The Hall of Fame coach supported the trustees' decision to hire Freeh to conduct a thorough investigation, but the recent leaks raised questions about fairness and confidentiality, the family said.
Paterno had issued in December a statement that said he relayed graduate assistant Mike McQueary (L) 's report in 2001 of seeing Sandusky with a boy in the team shower to athletic director Tim Curley and "that was the last time the matter was brought to my attention."
CNN reported last week on an excerpted email from Curley in which he indicated he changed his mind about going to child welfare authorities after speaking with Paterno. The report led to renewed public scrutiny on whether the longtime coach took a more active role in the decision than what he described.
The family said the "media spin that this is proof of some sort of cover up is completely false."
"When the facts come out," the family said, "it will be clear that Joe Paterno never gave Tim Curley any instructions to protect Sandusky or limit any investigation of his actions."
Paterno, his family said, never got a chance to present his case to the university before he died in January of lung cancer at age 85.
The coach had described the abuse scandal as one of the great sorrows of his life. Just before his firing, he acknowledged he wished he had done more after hearing about the allegations against Sandusky. His family said he is the only person to publicly acknowledge that sentiment.
Curley and retired Penn State vice president Gary Schultz are awaiting trial on charges they failed to properly report suspected child abuse and lied to a grand jury in the Sandusky case. They deny the allegations against them and have sought to have the charges dismissed.
