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Gene J. Puskar / AP file
Joe Paterno and his wife Susan stand on their porch to thank well-wishers gathered outside in State College, Pa., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011.
A newly released report commissioned by the family of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno strongly challenges the conclusions by an earlier inquiry conducted for the university.
The embattled college last year tasked former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate the atmosphere surrounding the scandal involving retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and the child sex abuse charges against him.
Freeh’s report found that Penn State officials and Paterno himself conspired for years to hide the allegations against Sandusky. The report effectively ruined the reputation of the once-revered coach and lead to the NCAA stripping him of all of his school’s victories from 1998 to 2011.
The new family-commissioned study released Sunday was done by a team reviewing Freeh’s work that included former U.S. Attorney General and Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh.
It called the Freeh report “flawed in its investigative processes and methodology, in its access to information, and in its reasoning based on the record, and that ultimately it draws unreliable, unfair and incorrect conclusions as to Joe Paterno.”
Freeh's report reached "inaccurate and unfounded findings related to Mr. Paterno and its numerous process-oriented deficiencies was a rush to injustice and calls into question" the investigation's credibility, Thornburgh was quoted as saying.
Freeh was brought in to conduct an independent investigation of the school's response to allegations and find any shortcomings in governance and compliance to make sure failures don't happen again, Penn State said in a statement Sunday He made 119 recommendations to strengthen policies, and the majority have been implemented, according to the school.
"It is understandable and appreciated that people will draw their own conclusions and opinions from the facts uncovered in the Freeh report," the school said.
And in a statement released Sunday through a spokesman, Freeh also defended his work.
"I stand by our conclusion that four of the most powerful people at Penn State failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade," he said.
Meanwhile, sources familiar with the investigation and school record keeping procedures told NBC News that they questioned some of the assertions in the new Paterno report.
For instance, the family’s report argues that: “The conspiracy claim made by the Freeh report based on a string of three emails falls apart under scrutiny. [But] because of a technology switch in 2004, most of the Penn State emails for the time in question are not accessible. Moreover, there are no emails authored by Joe Paterno and none that he received.”
But the sources familiar with the investigation and school record keeping procedures told NBC News that, while the Penn State Athletic Department may have changed its e-mail system in 2004, key e-mails from school officials including those between President Graham Spanier and school administrator Gary Schultz were actually archived.
These e-mail exchanges were cited by Freeh and prosecutors in their reports and in court documents.
And as for the claim that Joe Paterno never authored an e-mail, that is likely technically true, as it is well known that Paterno's assistant typed and printed his e-mails.
According to the Thornburgh analysis for the Paterno family, Freeh's report relied on about 30 documents, including three notes authored by Paterno, and 17 emails. Four emails referenced Paterno – but none were actually sent by the coach who famously shied away from modern technology.
Sandusky, 69, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in October 2012, after being convicted last summer of 45 criminal counts. Prosecutors said assaults occurred off and on campus, including the football building.
His arrest in November 2011 triggered the turmoil that led to Paterno's firing days later. Under pressure, Spanier left as president the same day.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
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Of course there will be a counter-point report. Understandable but too much points to "Win at any cost' attitude at Penn State. The family may not have known but that does not change the conclusions.
anybody who is lucky enough to go to school at psu has already won.
Yes, ghult, because NO OTHER SCHOOL IN THE ENTIRE NCAA ever ever EVER thought "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," right?
And in other news, the moon really is made of green cheese.
If we want to address the issue of university athletic programs winking and nodding at illicit and criminal behavior to protect their successful sports programs, by all means, it's a conversation that needs to be had. But to somehow pretend (as many do) that PSU is the only university out there which has ever allowed criminal acts to slide by its notice is spectacularly naive. There are reports out there that Notre Dame has covered up the rape of a student by a football player--should Notre Dame have its football programs burnt to the ground like PSU's effectively was?
If there's a general lesson to be learned from this whole ugly thing, it is that collegiate athletic programs--like all other organizations--cannot be above the law. Success cannot justify criminal behavior. That's just as true of all the other NCAA schools as it is of PSU, and you can be very sure that there are other programs just as guilty of covering up crimes as PSU was...
Pay attention to what Paterno's widow actually said. She said that nothing abnormal was never noticed by JoePa. That means that he did not think that adult male coaches molesting boys was abnormal. Since it was a common occurrence - this is probably a true statement. In other words - it was not abnormal to see adults molesting boys at Penn State.
interested observer- Your comment is incredibly confusing. JoePa never "noticed" or saw molestation. Joe Paterno is an old school Italian from Brooklyn. I'm not even sure he could grasp the concept of what Sandusky was doing to these kids. I had the honor of being at Penn State in the late 90s. Joe Paterno spent his life turning good football players into great men. Your opinion is offensive. It is always "abnormal to see adults molesting boys". At no point in any of the testimony was there any indication that ANYONE saw this happening, except possibly Mike McQuery. What is becoming more evident is that Joe Paterno DID report what he was told to his superiors, more than once. He did follow up. Was it good enough? No. Even he admitted he sould have done more. Does he deserve over 60 years of excellence to be wiped out because of a flawed "investigation"?...ABSOLUTELY NOT!
@Jeff-
Paterno was more to Penn State then just the football program, but the haters can't grasp that. Their bitterness stems from going to schools that probably couldn't hold a candle to PSU in athletics or academics.
...yeah, United, and my school didn't even have a buggery program, or a campus chapter of NAMBLA!!
Shocking, I know, yet true.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but your assumption about what "haters can't grasp" is nonsense. I speak as one who had always admired both Penn State and its coach for their adherence to NCAA standards for student athletics. But those feelings are forever changed by the Sandusky scandal.
This recent report, "commissioned by the family of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno" doesn't change anything.
Why does his family refer to him as "Joe Paterno"? Give it up. His image is as tarnished as he was.
Woozy Suzie Paterno is probably as delusional as Ditty Dotty Sandusky. Complete irrational denial helps them sleep at night.
Gee, the report comissioned by the family substantiates their viewpoint!
Shocked!...do ya think they got paid off????
The Freeh Report is: (1) an "ex parte" document (not an independent report) that was funded with millions of dollars by parties who have a conflict of interest in the case (Tom Corbett controlled the PSU Board of Trustees, was the PA DA who had jurisdiction over the original complaints against Sandusky but failed to investigate them in a timely fashion, and made big contributions to Sandusky's 2nd Mile); (2) written in a prosecutorial fashion with no apparent concern for innocence; (3) criticizes the actions of people using a hindsight perspective that employs information that none of them knew; (4) does not contain a response by the accused parties (Curley, Spanier, Schultz, Paterno); (5) is written by someone who has a checkered history and may have a biased view of the case.Tom Corbett, the Pennsylvania Governor, used Freeh to scapegoat Paterno, et al. so that he (Corbett) would not be blamed. He controlled the Penn State Board of Trustees that arranged for the Report and accepted its incredibly biased conclusions (read the Report and you will see that the evidence cited does not support the conclusions). The only real evidence against Paterno was the testimony of McQueary. McQueary was a very unreliable witness (he changed his story many times) and his testimony was directly contradicted by the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Dranov. Dr. Dranov is a very reliable witness, graduated Phi Beta Kappa, attended a prestigious Ivy League medical school, is a Board Certified Internist and Nephrologist, has more than 30 years of experience in questioning patients to get accurate histories and is familiar with the mandatory reporting requirement for child abuse. He interviewed McQueary on the night that McQueary says he saw Sandusky and the child showering together. Dr. Dranov testified that he asked McQueary three times if he had seen anthing of a sexual nature and three times McQueary said no. It can safely be assumed that Dr. Dranov did not report this himself because from his extensive knowledge and experience he didn't think it crossed the threshold for reporting. So this is what Paterno, a layman, and the others heard. They also had access to a report by the police in 1998 when Sandusky gave a child "a bear hug" and was investigated by a police detective, the PA Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg, the Centre County DA's Office, and a CCYS counselor who interviewed the child and wrote a report. The conclusion of the police report was "no sexual assault occurred" and no charges were filed. Since this is all that Paterno and the others knew, what are they guilty of?
One of the findings in the report is that Joe Paterno is in heaven as we speak. /s
Soooo...a report funded by Joe Pa's family finds that he did nothing wrong....while an independent report fully sanctioned by the university is wrong....seems to me his family is just looking for ammunition for the upcoming litigation which will probably strip them of most if not all the money Joe Pa made while covering up for his sicko buddy....
A report led by people considerably more qualified then the flawed Louis Freeh is somehow worse. Please provide some proof that the report that the Paterno family released is in any way flawed or bad?
Torrent, the critique might be entirely on point, but its having been commissioned by the Paterno family inherently calls its integrity into question. What is really needed is a complete investigation by qualified people who have no connection to anyone involved in any part of the situation, with complete access to any and all pertinent material. The Freeh report smells of hack job, the critique is paid for by an interested party, so the only way to find out what really happened is to start with a clean sheet, so to speak, and let truly disinterested parties do a thorough investigation...
It's like beating a dead horse, the man is dead, Sandusky is in jail hopefully forever. I don't think we'll ever know the entire story! I don't think the students at Penn State should be punished because of the sins of the fathers!!!!
C'mon this is really getting to be nonsense now! Stop the insanity. Do we really need to keep hearing about this crap. Sandusky was tried, convicted and is in prison. Can we please stop dragging up this story? I'm sure the real victims, those boys who were abused, would just like to move on. No amount of paperwork is going to bring Joe Pa back to life or change the NCAA's stance on his culpability in the matter. The Paterno family really needs to start showing some sympathy to the real victims who would just like to get on with their lives. And for that matter, the Paterno familly should too.
State Penn had the cart before the horse... football wins against the handbooks and rules and curriculum... for many many years. it was probably a mistake for the NCAA to allow the school to play sanctioned sports. this encourages the State Penn version of "birthers" to keep popping up for air and silliness like whack-a-moles.
yeah, it was a good school overall. yeah, depends on whether an athlete studied, for everything got waived on request of the athletic department, assuming the overwhelming "be #1" atmosphere led any professor to dare to press a flunking footballer to turn in a paper.
but there is no excuse for failing to call 911 on suspicion of assault, no matter who's doing it. none.
If it is not illegal to watch and not act while a crime is being committed then why is this man tarnished? If he is guilty than all the people who turn away from street crimes and etc are guilty too. There should not be a double standard. The man who refused to open his door during Hurricane Sandy to a mother and children resulting in death is guilty. We need to fix the basis on which guilty is founded on and apply it equally.
And let's not even get into the failure of corporations to live by morals. All those patients denied medical services or medications because of "loopholes", more murders left unpunished.
yeah this topic always brings out the holiest than thou.
You completely miss the point. No it's not a crime to not report a crime. It should be but it ain't. And no, corporations have no morals. Corporations are created to make money. Nothing else. Whatever effects the bottom line reflects poorly on management. Do we hate the lion because it kills the cute little deer? Lions have a right to eat too.
Unfortunately Paterno did not work for a corporation. He worked for a SCHOOL! As such in most states it IS against the law for a teacher to fail to report even "suspected" child abuse. It was up to the police to investigate, NOT the school. As a teacher he is held to a higher standard than the common man. And rightly so, IMHO. Paterno's and the witness's responsibility was to pick up the phone and call the police immediately. NOT simply notify the school. So the whole mess was covered up for years allowing the bastard to continue his perverted ways.
As to the Paterno family's new report all I can say is BLAH BLAH BLAH! IF you ask ten people's opinion about the facts in the case you will no doubt get ten different opinions. Putting the former Governor on the team was a really stupid idea. Of course he is going to guide the investigation to a different opinion. Talk about a BIASED opinion! He's a cotton picken' politician. You remember politicians don't you? They are the people that can talk to 10 different people about the same subject and spout 10 different opinions depending on what he thinks what each person wants to hear.
The only way to get an unbiased opinion is ask people that have never even been to Pennsylvania. They failed.
.
Odd you should mention "holier than thou." That's exactly what PSU/Paterno was for DECADES. Every time any competitor had even a minor infraction with the NCAA, JoePa and his followers would look down their nose from their ivory towers. "Success with Honor"...that way when you aren't at the top of the polls you can still say "at least we did it honorably." There was always a smug attitude of "it could never happen here". Well....it "happened here" and it "happened here" in the worst possible manner. This wasn't fixing test scores, free tattoos/sneakers/cars, or too heavy of a practice schedule. This was covering up arguably the worst crime on the planet to preserve your "honorable" reputation. And then supporters try to sweep it aside and claim it wasn't a football problem???? Not a football problem??? Yet everything the supporters have done and continue to do since this broke is in the name of defending the football program and clearing their former coach's name. Sure, it's not a football problem. Whatever you say.
penn state is a stellar school in some areas. i didn't even know it until i met my girlfriend like 15-20 years after attending there, and she was a scholar there etc. to typify the entire school of 40000 kids by one event is ludicrous. this thread will produce all the hate mongering that is what the internet and US is worst at.
Freak the Paterno Family - they should throw themselves at the feet of the public and beg forgiveness instead of issuing a report from a hired gun to legitimatize their defense of Pappa Joe Love the Boys Paterno. Their reaction is really disgusting. They protest too much.
Way to go!... Just Eliminate the entire court system!... Judges? Who needs 'em? Juries? Screw them! Let's just do reports and solicit opinions from the uninformed public... then we can do a real democratic vote and hang the bastards if slightly more than 50% think he is guilty. What a farce our media has become. What a farce our judicial system has become. Guilty by public opinion. That is sick!!!
Aren't there pending lawsuits of which Paterno's estate is named as a defendant?
From all that I've read Paterno was indited, tried and convicted on evidence that wouldn't be admissible in a court of law. Did he suspect or know, who really knows. He had to answer to the ultimate Judge. His dying made him a easy scape goat. All the good he did for Penn State was wiped away by people who think they know what he knew. They, too, will answer to that same Judge. Anyone who has been a victim of molestation can tell you that molesters are liars, manipulators and bullies. Let's put it all to rest. It's over. Paterno is gone. Sandusky is in prison. The victims are tying to move beyond this and get on with their lives. Let us, let them.
I feel sorry for the family in that they still refuse to accept the truth - that JoePa covered up for Sandusky and allowed further crimes to go on by keeping his mouth shut. There is nothing worse than totally wilful ignorance and blindness.
This reminds me of hiring an expert witness. Pay them enough and you get whatever results you want.
Paterno was obviously a hero to some. I think he was ultimately a cretin. He got the easy way out.
lets face it..paterno knew what was going on and just tried to sweep it away and forget about it. Everything to him was PSU and the football program. I feel badly for the victims and paterno's family...but he was wrong and is less than a man and decent human being for not stopping the actions of a freind. Let his memory fade
I'm inclined to believe that JoePa had no clue. so isolated from society in his office screening films that he didn't know what rape was, what incest was, that sickos could molest boys in a locker room shower.
State Penn should have been educating their staffers, including requiring JoePa to attend a meeting outside his sphere of ownership, about how to detect issues and report them.
it's done in these parts. required or you're fired done.
Joe Pa even admitted he was guilty of ignoring what his coach was doing to young boys. He did nothing to stop it. Guilty as charged, case closed on Jo Pa.
NO comment.. he's not worth the time..
To Tom Winter,
You wrote the article. Have you read the Freeh Report so that you can comment about its veracity and the appropriateness of the University Administration's and Freeh's comments about it and its criticism by the new Report? Do you think the Freeh Report's conclusions are supported by the evidence it cites? And where is your reporting on Tom Corbett?
How likely is it that I would come into contact with only Penn State student hear stories that bore sexual predatory disgust and deviant sexual behaviors on campus...what an unlikely coincidence; so I am inclined to believe that the findings are most likely accurate, but yes it would be nice to read the report.
It's just that I have never known another college student that shared the sort of unbelievable stories that I heard come from a Penn State student from many years ago.
I am most inclined to trust in Freeh's findings.
Well Doc Hollidaye, you are free to trust in Madame Sosostris and her wicked deck of cards or whatever else you please. But we don't live in a waste land or fear a handful of dust. So it would be nice to have a chance at a trial by twelve of their peers in front of a judge who knows the law and not a trial in the media using information they have sensationalized from sources that have a conflict of interest in the case.
swschrad-2362342: "so isolated from society in his office screening films that he didn't know what rape was, what incest was."
You've got to be kidding me!! He didn't know what rape was?? Surely you jest. He knew, he ignored, he covered up. He's dead. Let's all move on.
Yes, they do protest to much. The people who suffered while good ol Joe stood by and watched and did nothing are the only people who count.
The family should be greatful he is not sitting in jail, and that until they bring up the subject, nobody cares anymore. The rest of the world has moved on, they should too.
From those that have much, much is expected.
The horse sh!t gets thicker and thicker. I bet if we knew the truth they would have to close the school.
For more on this PR fiasco, visit campusreports dot com. For more on the history of Graham Spanier's character, read "Notes from the Academic Underground" or "Malamud and Corruption at Oregon State University," both of which tell the story of Spanier's years at Oregon State before he jumped to Nebraska as a stepping stone to Penn State. Lucky PSU.