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Gary Cameron / Reuters file
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hired in November to determine whether Penn State University officials knew about child sex abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The results of an internal investigation of Pennsylvania State University’s response to child sexual abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will be made public on Thursday.
An announcement Tuesday indicated a report on the investigation led by former FBI chief Louis Freeh would be posted online Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. It said Freeh would hold a news conference an hour later to discuss its findings and recommendations.
“We look forward to seeing the report on Thursday and reviewing Judge Freeh's recommendations,” said Penn State spokesman David La Torre. “The university will provide a response in Scranton on Thursday at a time and location to be announced.”
Sandusky, 68, was found guilty of 45 counts of child sexual abuse last month and is currently in prison awaiting sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 400 years in prison.
Freeh was hired by the university in November to review of the university's dealings with Sandusky and its response to a 2001 report that he sexually abused of a boy in a Penn State shower room, an incident witnessed by football assistant Michael McQueary.
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier has come under particular scrutiny in recent weeks amid news reports suggesting that he was made aware of suspicious activity involving Sandusky in 2001 and that no report of the incident was made to authorities.
Citing emails obtained by Freeh’s investigators, CNN reported last week that Spanier and two other university officials — Gary Schultz, the former senior vice president of finance and business, and Tim Curley, the athletic director on administrative leave — agreed to take a "humane" approach in dealing with Sandusky following his alleged sexual encounter with a boy.
Instead of reporting the incident to police, according to the report, administrators instead planned to ask Sandusky to seek counseling and said they would tell officials at the Second Mile, the charity he founded and where he met many of the children he would later abuse, about their concerns.
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Attorneys for Spanier fired back earlier Tuesday, saying their client was never informed about the shower room incident involving Sandusky.
"At no time in the more than 16 years of his presidency at Penn State was Dr. Spanier told of an incident involving Jerry Sandusky that described child abuse, sexual misconduct or criminality of any kind, and he reiterated that during his interview with Louis Freeh and his colleagues,'' Spanier's attorneys, Peter Vaira and Elizabeth Ainslie, said in a written statement.
In addition, Freeh’s report is expected to include information about the actions of former head football coach Joe Paterno in the wake of McQueary’s allegations. Paterno, a legend in college football, died of lung cancer in January at 85.
In a statement Tuesday, Paterno's family also pushed back against the leak of emails to CNN, including one in which Curley stated, "After giving it more thought, and talking it over with Joe yesterday - I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps."
"The media spin that this is proof of some sort of cover up is completely false," the statment said. "When the facts come out, it will be clear that Joe Paterno never gave Tim Curley any instructions to protect Sandusky or limit any investigation of his actions.
"Joe Paterno did not cover up for Jerry Sandusky. Joe 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. To claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth.
The Sandusky scandal led to the ouster of Spanier and Paterno and charges against Curley, who is on leave from the university, and Schultz, who has since retired. The latter two are accused of perjury for their grand jury testimony and failing to properly report suspected child abuse.
Spanier hasn't been charged.
Chip Bell, Tom Winter and Julmary Zambrano of NBC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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This should be a fine piece of fictional literature.
NOT ficitional, we will find out out universities like big business sweep wrong doing under the rug in order to insure profits and protect their own; in this case profits from the footbal team.
Penn State was simply an accomplice of Sandusky and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law...now that we know that corporations (i.e. universities) are "people."
Occupy Wall Street.
Well after all it is Penn State and the 'reporter ' is a former director of the so called FBI. And that position has been sullied and soiled by this cretin and those before and after him so that it no longer has the force and command of the truth it once did.
Good 'ole' Louis will make an appearance, mumble some words, smile, 'take ' a few questions from well-placed stooges and exit the scene.
Of course since Penn State 'hired' him expect no startling revelations (also called TRUTHS) from this sham appearance.
In the end this monster Sandusky will be freed because there was/is not enough UNBIASED support for his conviction and ultimate imprisonment.
This is the college version of MURDER Incorporated. Where are the former 'players' in this backwoods playlet? The now Governor ? the now Attorney General.. did they do enough to find the missing prosecutor or did they not ?
Penn State should shut its doors, the medical portion should go to Pittsburgh, the money they have stashed away should be divided amongst the boys (now men) who were raped, tortured and tormented by this monster Sandusky.
And in the end Sandusky should be required to run naked every Saturday through the streets of 'Pleasantville ' instead of there being a football parade or other self congratulatory event for the officials of that despicable institution. And today I am thinking quite charitably.
Major portions of the report have already been leaked, so the report is not going to surprise many. Spanier, Curley and Shultz will end up doing some prison time for a class 1 felony (mandatory prison time.) There were simply too many e-mails in which they discussed the coverup and Paterno's involvement. While there were no Paterno e-mails because Papa Joe was a technological incompetent who could not figure out e-mail, but even worse than that he had several different students and assistants send e-mails over his name regarding the coverup.
NCAA is very likely to slam the Nittany Lions with the death sentence for all major sports. At least five years in which their games do not count if they win and do count if they lose and no scholarships and no bowl games and no recruiting. Paterno's involvement was just too serious and repeated for them to ignore that the President of the university, the Athletic Director, and the Head Foootball Coach all participated in knowingly keeping a pedophile well-supplied with vulnerable children. They even plotted to remove the Vice President for student affairs who voiced protests about Paterno's refusal to allow staff and players to be disciplined for breaking the law.
A NCAA Death Senmtense will cost Penn State around 200 million dollars over 10 years or so. There is no way to raise tuition that much so it will come from the taxpayers in the form of bonds. Then come the lawsuits. The current estimates are that there could be as many as 100-120 victims, based on a "tip sheet" that Sandusky kept, that could come forward. And the evidence of a coverup is such that Penn State will never allow the cases to come to court. Estimates range as high as a billion dollars in damages and civil fines. Again, it will be the PA taxpayer picking up the bill.
I live in Tuscaloosa a town very similar to College Station. There are rumors and coverups almost weekly as players are caught doing everything from rape and armed robbery to falsifying tests in class. The players (except for a small handful that are in it for the degree) never go to regular classes. They are taught by "student assistants" on the athletic department payroll. The same students give them their tests and grade them. And they never, never get bad grades. It is so bad that at Auburn when Cam Newton went to NFL show and tell he had to have his Wunderlich Test be administered orally because he was functionally illiterate (despite being a rising senior with a 3.2 GPA.)
And just as the NFL is facing potentially terminal lawsuits for withholding information from players about head injuries and forcing them to play injured. There are already over 300 current and former players in the main lawsuit and dozens more in separate suits. As soon as the NFL cases start ending, the college teams will be next. The University of Alabama is facing claims already estimated at over $500 million if the NFL loses (which it most likely will given the substantial evidence available.)
The whole college football/basketball situation has simply become a bizarre unregulated money-driven free-for-all. There is no way that Nick Saban should make $15 million in 2012 using taxpayer money when the university is in financial problems caused by too rapid growth. I have watch as alums bought football players supper and gave them "sweet handshakes" with money folded up in their palms. Aunurn players were just given ATM cards to dummy accounts with dummy names on them.
It's looking more and more like a perfect storm that will end up taking most of the money out of professional college sports. I'm with Red Barber --- name it or kill it.
No one at the University knew or heard anything about this in 10 yrs time??? We believe it don't we?
Question is why did we need any of them to collect a salary for being deaf, blind and dumb for so long?
PSU alumni and students - we need another voice on this issue, other than those who are determined to deny any accountability or responsibility for the failure to act, the failure to notify the police, and the failure to notify the child welfare organization in Pennsylvania regarding Mr. Sandusky's actions (of which he has been convicted in a court of law).
We need a voice of responsibility that is not focused on denial, defense, or misdirection, but that accepts that there was wrong-doing and calls for accountability, responsibility, and change at PSU to reject the environment to allowed these actions over a decade.
I urge you to become part of that voice of responsibility, and visit our new web page and petition for PSU Alumni and Students for Children's Rights and Dignity at psuchildrights.com
A legacy of responsibility, accountability, and unwavering commitment to children's human rights - should be the only legacy we are concerned about at Penn State.
Jeffrey Imm, PSU Alumnus
Time to let the story rest. The POS will spend the rest of his life in prison, which is too good for him. I am not sure the victims deserve much monetary compensation as they should have come forward a long time ago. I am sure they have many excuses, but silence is not a good one.
We need the full story so in the future administrators will think twice before covering up for a colleague
We need the full story so in the future administrators will think twice before covering up for a colleague.
Seriously Scott, the mother of one of the victims did come forward to report. Who do you think got this started? Paterno? And who is going to believe little kids when the upper administration was lying through their teeth to protect a child rapist? They should lose their football program, be forced to pay the victims through litigation, and be made to donate millions to child abuse prevention. The idea of them playing in the next season is a disgrace. And how would you feel, having been sodomized by Sandusky for years and having to walk past the Penn State mural with his big face on it? Or having to see Paterno's statue knowing that he sacrificed you to save his precious team/school a scandal?
There is only one thing that Penn State can do to halfway atone for this disaster--suspend the football program for a couple of years and then bring it back with some real oversight.
No more football EVER at Penn State. The homage statue of Joe should be removed and melted . The football stadium should become a field on which to grow food for the area poor.
Penn State should be banned from all filed athletics for ever. They might be allowed basketball but with supervised shower rooms.
NCAA is likely to give Penn State the "death sentence" --- a suspension that could take 20+ years to recover from. And Penn State earned it since the President of the university, the Athletic Director and the Head Football Coach all knew about Sandusky for years and colluded to cover it up to be "humane" to Sandusky. Right up until Sandusky was arrested Paterno was still signing off on office space and the use of Penn State athletic facilities for overnight football camps for young boys. Paterno knew that Sandusky was barred from campus, but instructed security not to bother him.
One step that needs to be done, however, is that people need to start a public petition campaign to strip Paterno of his pension (which has just started to his wife) and those of any Penn State emplooyee (including Spanier, Curley and Schultz) who are convicted of the coverup. But especially Sandusky's pension needs to be stopped NOW!
PSU Alumni and Students for Children's Rights and Dignity - seeks alumni and students who want to offer a new voice of responsibility, rather than denial, on this subject - www.psuchildrights.com
One of the reasons going to college is so expensive these days is that universities have to spend so much money on external, "extracurricular" matters such as the Sandusky accusations.
Their response will be, "Duh, who? Sandusky who?".
".
The only real option here that I see is to close the football program and that Second Mile (or whatever it's called) down.
they gonna try to hang as much of it as possible on poor late Paterno... he's dead and cannot defend himself so it makes for a perfect scapegoat to avoid as much liabilities as possible. later they'll just name a janitorial closet after him.
"poor late Paterno.. a perfect scapegoat" What???
Paterno is chiefly responsible for protecting Sandusky all those years. There is no way that any of the other Penn State yahoos would have made a decision about what to do about Sandusky without the Godfather's approval.
Too bad he's dead; he deserved to die in prison.
I hope Penn State is going to take this opportunity to do something revolutionary to protect sexually abused children. They now have a chance to focus Penn State energy and power by creating a state of the art study of how to identify and protect sexually abused children.
Sorry, but I wouldn't trust Penn State to recognize a sexually abused child if they saw him being anally raped against the wall of one of their own showers by a big, burly, white haired man...oh wait.
In 'a perfect world' Jane, thats what should happen, of course, that'll never happen. Penn State football is so deeply ingrained in the minds and psyche of so many people, no one would ever divert a dime to something as useful as what you've suggested.
The mentality is: 'what...take money AWAY from football?? thats the only program that actually makes money for the school!'
It will be interesting to see if the report protects the upper echelon or not. Personally, I can't see how ANY Penn State can claim ignorance, not when there was an eye-witness. And McQueary told plenty of people, he did enough. It was covered up by high ranking officials, even local law enforcement, any fool can see this.
Let's see, Penn State is paying him to write a report about whether or not they covered up for a convicted child rapist. Please! They knew that they were covering for him when JoePa, Curley, Spanier, and the rest decided not to go to the police. They knew that little boys were being sodomized. Let this report come on out so that the NCAA will get off their butts and suspend football at Penn State.
I would like to see criminal charges pressed against all who knew about these crimes and did not report them as required by law.
Screw Penn State. I hope they lose all federal funding, as it was used to cover up the rapes of children.
The NCAA should boot them from their roster for good. They need to pay dearly for this, and I don't mean millions. The entire school should be disbanded for the betterment of mankind.
Hey Pal, You cant "screw Penn State". Any financial penalty just screws current and future students. It is the 3 Stooges (Spanier, Shultz and Curley) who need to get screwed financially. Maybe they will save the state the cost of incarceration and commit suicide when they realize they actually "screwed" their own families when they lose EVERYTHING. Obviously these boobs are genetically defective and likely passed their 'errant ways' onto their kids too.........they should be watched and investigated for defective decision making.
When I hear the Lawyers 'speak' I immediately think of Jim Carey's film - LIAR! LIAR!
Penn State is an institution. The institution is NOT guilty of doing ANYTHING wrong - Spanier, Curley and Shultz are the alleged guilty scum. YES, I think the INSTITUTION will need to do a 'quality check' to ensure they have proper protection for students, alum, staff and visitors to their campuses. Any changes to policy or proceedure will need to be put in place at the 'cost' to the PSU University.
HOWEVER, PSU should NOT be penilized financially. THE INDIVIDUALS WHO COVERED UP / FAILED TO REPORT should have ALL THE FINANCIAL PENALTY BURDEN. Otherwise, current and future STUDENTS will be penalized buy having to pay higher tuition, fees etc. The guilty scum PEOPLE should shoulder ALL & ANY financial penalties. Period.
Reminds me of a famous quote....."Oh what a tangles web they weave, when THEY practice to deceive....."
Ironic that the Pennsylvania State Electric Chair, aka 'Sparky' is located down the pike at Rockview State Prison in Bellefonte PA...........
Penn State should be penalized, and in a huge way. How about this....ALL monies received (state, federal, donations, etc) through the football program for every year that Sandusky was employed by PSU should be immediately diverted to a fund to be distributed evenly to all those abused by Sandusky...?
In addition, a portion of all pensions of those found guilty should be handed over to a nonprofit for abused children...
Thats a start...don't you think?