And to think just a few weeks ago I thought the most offensive thing I’d read from Penn State this year was an article about how much a college girl liked to have sex…
I awoke early Saturday to a text from my high school friend alerting me to the fact that Tim Curley had been charged with perjury. Dumbfounded, I rushed to my laptop to confirm. What I didn’t at the time realize what that Dear Old State was about to change forever.
I downloaded, and read every word of the 23 page report, and simply could not believe my eyes.
“…when I heard about this information, when all of these allegations hit … it totally, and when I say totally, it totally took me off-guard. I was moved to tears. I looked at my children.”
The words of former Linebacker U standout LaVar Arrington ring true. Anyone who stomached the report was faced with emotions ranging from rage to disgust to a deep, deep sadness that could only be explained by the seriousness and graphic nature of the content.
The fact of the matter is, that should have been the end of it. The actions of Jerry Sandusky molesting 8 children and going to trial should have been the end of this nearly yearlong Grand Jury investigation, but ladies and gentlemen now it is only the beginning.
The detailed exploits of young boys by Sandusky both confuse and disturb me. However, the news about Tim Curley and Gary Schultz lying to a Grand Jury, and covering this story up, both confuses and infuriates me. Originally, I called for Curley and Schultz, along with President Spanier, to step down from their positions at Penn State before heading to the Court House Monday to face jail time. Curley and Schultz have done just that, at least temporarily. Schultz stepped down permanently, while Curley is still an employee of Penn State and is simply on Administrative Leave (with pay, mind you). Spanier should not step down, yet, but if the other two are found guilty, Spanier goes with them. I do agree with the temporary nature of Curley, however, because on the off chance he is innocent it would have been short minded to fire based on perceptions. Regardless, their lack of ability to investigate this issue thoroughly proves they cannot complete their jobs to the level we all expect of them, and calls into question their ability to be good human beings. The shame they’ve brought to the University is un-matched in the history of higher education.
Curley’s attorney Caroline Roberto released a statement after the arraignment where she astonishingly compared the summary offense of failure to report to another summary offense: a speeding ticket. However, the statute of limitations on said offense is two years, so those are likely to not hold. She said Mr. Curley had done what he was supposed to by reporting the 2002 shower incident to his superior, Penn State University’s president, Graham Spanier. Basically the same defense Joe is taking. In my opinion this is a shot at Spanier, which confuses me farther as he is still paying Curley AND paying for Roberto to defend him.
Gary Schultz’s lawyer, Thomas J. Farrell simply said that the Attorney General has “fabricated a fiction.”
Both are free on $75,000 bail each.
The only solace, if it can even be considered solace with what all we don’t know at this point, can come from the fact that Joe Paterno and the “Graduate Assistant” (Common knowledge points to this being Mike McQueary) reported the incident in a timely manner. Joe informed the head of University Police what the Graduate Assistant saw, and by the letter of NCAA rules, he did the right thing and is basically understood as being safe from charges. But then he released his statement, which honestly only confused me more. From the report, I was under the impression McQueary told Joe everything he had seen; now Joe is saying that is not the case. I honestly cannot believe that, after McQueary called his father, he told Joe anything less than exactly what he saw. And even if he didn’t, it was Joe’s job to find out nothing less than exactly what happened. It’s difficult to imagine that the coaching staff could survive the trial. In the end, McQueary’s testimony will send two University administrators, and possibly the President as Attorney General Linda Kelley declined to absolve Spanier of wrongdoing, to jail.
Something to think about: Frank Noonan, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner stated in yesterday’s press conference, “I don’t think I’ve ever been associated with a case where an eye witness reported a sex act and the police were not called.”
How Joe comes out of this has yet to be seen, and we may learn a lot about our legendary coach in the upcoming trial. Where you have to begin to question Joe is from the fact that he hired a Sexual Deviant as a Defensive Coordinator and a Homophobic Head Women’s Basketball Coach, and allowed them to operate business as usual whether or not he knew what was going on. Further, looking at his track record as an authority figure since 2000, it is lacking. This incident, along with the 2004 stabbing and murder of a student by Javon Chisely, the 2007 brawl involving Anthony Scirrotto, and the 2008 incident where Chris Bell pulled a knife on a teammate in the dining commons, leading to a guilty plea to terroristic threats, do not bode well for a man considered to run the most academically sound program in the country. No one can take away the graduation rate, or number of Academic All-Americans Joe has coached, but the recent off the field transgressions cannot go, and have not gone, ignored. Ultimately, his legacy will have to answer to it. As a side note, I wholeheartedly believe Nebraska will be the last game Joe Paterno coaches in Happy Valley.
In the end, Curley has been the Athletic Director through the two most damning incidents in the history of Penn State Athletics. In my opinion, Curley should have fired Rene Portland far before she resigned (and I suspect she was allowed to coach for that long simply because of money issues within the athletic department as the football team had struggled) and now faces a trial alongside Schultz for not holding themselves up to the same standard the University is supposed to hold everyone to. Further, if Spanier “unconditionally” supports Curley and Schultz, especially by using University insurance to pay for their defense, and they are found guilty, he needs to go too.
The fact of the matter is, this is the 4th (and hopefully final) time Sandusky was investigated for sexual molestation of an underage boy. Eye witness accounts from 3 previous incidents weren’t enough, so why is no blame being placed on those Police Departments? In my opinion, they too failed the societies they aimed to protect by allowing this to continue for so long. Former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar (who famously went missing in 2005, has not been seen since, and was presumed dead early this year) had the opportunity to prosecute Sandusky in 1998, but decided against it. For obvious reasons, his thought process behind the decision will most likely never be known.
From the Collegian: “In 1998, a mother reported Sandusky was with her son in a shower on campus (quoted below). The incident was reviewed by University Police and then-University counsel Wendell Courtney…Courtney was, and still is, the lawyer for The Second Mile.”
Come on. The investigation was reviewed by Sandusky’s own lawyer? I have limited to no knowledge of the legal system, but isn’t that flawed?
Based on the story of these two mothers, those involved at the police department that failed to convict Sandusky in 1998 all need to face trail.
“Jerry Sandusky admitted to my face, he admitted it,” the mother said. “He admitted that he lathered up my son they were naked and he bear-hugged him. If they would have done something about it in 1998, and then again in 2002 — there was two chances they dropped the ball and I think they should all be held accountable.”
“Then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decided there wasn’t enough evidence.”
HOW can that not be enough evidence? How? I simply cannot understand how this was allowed to occur for so long.
Also, from the mother of the victim McQueary witnessed:
“I’m so upset,” said the mom of the 24-year-old, who authorities are calling Victim Six. “My son is extremely distraught, and now to see how we were betrayed, words cannot tell you. To see that Graham Spanier is putting his unconditional support behind Curley and Schultz when he should be putting his support behind the victims, it just makes them victims all over again.”
She is absolutely correct. The Patriot-News Editorial Board seems to agree as well, considering their front page on 8 November.
According to Attorney General Kelley, 6 of the 8 victims have been identified. They are begging those two to come forward, along with anyone else who may have been defiled by Sandusky.
Another statement from Commissioner Noonan, this is “not a case about football, or a university. It’s a case about children that had their innocence taken from them.” College Athletics, Universities, and the entire state of Pennsylvania as a whole are now faced with a scandal on a level no one ever could have expected. I grew up in this area, attended overnight Penn State camps as early as 6th grade, including overnight football camps later in high school, call the University my Alma Mater, am the son, grandson, nephew, and cousin of Alumni, cheered whole-heartedly for these people involved, have tons of those Second Mile trading cards some with autographs of my favorite players of old, and am now completely heartbroken. In 1998, I was 10, it’s just unfathomable. Let’s get one thing straight, this is worse than selling autographs for tattoos, this is worse than even getting prostitutes, drugs, and alcohol from agents, this is worse than sending a recruit a letter 2 months before you’re allowed to, and this is surely worse than accepting cars for on field performances. This is not about sports. This is about a man using his position within a University, a University backed charity, and a college football team, to prey on young, emotionally damaged boys. This is disgusting, heart wrenching and don’t fool yourself into thinking this will just go away.
Every copy of “Touched” the autobiography of Jerry Sandusky needs to be burned.
If anyone, anywhere, has any further information, please come forward. None of us could possibly understand the pain and conflict you must feel, but you owe it to yourself to come forward to be sure any and all guilty parties are prosecuted as such.
