Sandusky: The Enablers

[BoSoxGal]

There are a number of procedural and evidentiary issues that would have been implicated by the prosecution's use of Matt Sandusky's testimony that would have provided grounds for appeal. Using him to rebut Sandusky's testimony (had he said, 'I never, EVER') would have been the only safe bet.

Should this jury hang or acquit, the State will have the option to prosecute again, adding charges with Matt Sandusky as an additional named victim - or, that case could be prosecuted separately.

[RayThom]

... on 45 of 48 charges. Sandusky is on his way to the Greybar Hotel as I speak. I wonder if ol' Jerry will enjoy showering with his new found friends? Bye, Jerry, enjoy the ride.

I think his wife, Dottie, should be tried next. I just can't believe she never knew a thing about her husband's sexual proclivities.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/22/justice/p ... index.html

[Grim Reaper]

Heh, saw this elsewhere, "From Penn State to the state pen".

And yeah, his wife is going to have to spin herself as being completely naive in order to have even the slightest hope of not going to jail as well.

[dales]

He'll be dead within the year.

[Gob]

We live in hope.

[Lord Jim]

I wonder if ol' Jerry will enjoy showering with his new found friends?

Yes, I'm sure there'll be plenty of "tickle monsters" waiting for him....

[BoSoxGal]

Bravo jurors!

I just pray that all of the victims Sandusky raped over the years - especially those who didn't come forward and didn't have the cathartic experience of publicly accusing him - will be consoled to some degree by this verdict.

May God bless them all.

[Lord Jim]

I think his wife, Dottie, should be tried next.

I very much doubt that is going to happen...

Commonsense would seem to indicate that she must have known something about what was going on, but that's a long way from proving it with the legal standard of reasonable doubt....

And there are some truly clueless people in the world....

There have been cases where serial killers have killed and buried their victims right on their property, and their wives never knew a thing...

Predatory personality types tend to seek out spouses who aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree....

[rubato]

I'm wondering which happens first:


1. Wife divorces him in-absentia because the very public trial has completely demolished her self-deluded belief in him
2. Suicide
3. Homicide


I'll be surprised if he lasts 5 years.

His biggest enabler was that people's revulsion made them want to look away and not deal with it, they were in a state of mental confusion which froze them in place and made denial the attractive option. Joe Pa and the University President both accepted the acclaim and wealth of leadership roles but refused their moral duty, they were in the end liars and frauds. Actors playing roles, hollow, not real men. The same is true of everyone who failed to follow up, but the dimension of their failure is less.


yrs,
rubato

[Big RR]

I agree LJ; and even if she did know, ordinarily failing to act does not in and of itself make one responsible for the acts committed by another. She may well be morally responsible, but not legally.

[BoSoxGal]

When those children were in her home pursuant to Second Mile involvement, she was responsible in loco parentis. She was certainly responsible for her foster children as well. If she knew and did nothing, she's guilty of endangering the welfare of a child(ren). The statute of limitations has likely run on that (usually misdemeanor) offense, however.

[Big RR]

I guess that depends on the statutory language BSG, and her involvement with second mile. But you're right, the statute of limitations has probably run if it applies. There may also be some civil liability.

[dgs49]

One wonders where the other victims are. As Defense Counsel pointed out, this sort of behavior "never" begins after age 50. If his activities were typical of the breed, there should be dozens of prior victims out there somewhere. I can see that they would be reluctant to come forward after many years, but nobody? That is difficult to understand.

[oldr_n_wsr]

There have been cases where serial killers have killed and buried their victims right on their property, and their wives never knew a thing...

A diseased mind is a very smart, underhanded and sly mind in many cases. Speaking from experience with my own diseased mind, we find ways to make everything appear "normal" to outside people (and family is considered outside people to us).
The only "inside" people are the perp and the victims. My insiders were me and Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker, Jim Beam, Buddy Wiser, (and a few animals like the Turkey who was a little Wild and that fish out of water Bass Ale).

While my wife knew I was always "heavy" drinker, she had no clue how bad I had gotten. Lies, deceit and cunning got me through most of the time. Only when I got sloppy (which happens eventually) did she suddenly realize how bad my alcholism had become.

Blissfully ignorant? I don't think she was. She is a very smart person (A's in high school, A's and B's in college), just my "disease" was smarter until it (I) got lazy.

[Lord Jim]

Well oldr, people always tend to ignore, rationalize and minimize negative behavior in the folks they love and care about...

I don't know your personal situation, but I can easily see a spouse thinking, "He has a few drinks every now and then, but he takes care of business, he's a great provider, husband and father....nobody's perfect, but he's a pretty good guy"...

And as a general principle, this is probably a good thing....

If we didn't tend to ignore, rationalize and minimize negative behavior in the folks we love and care about, civilization would probably collapse....

[oldr_n_wsr]

If we didn't tend to ignore, rationalize and minimize negative behavior in the folks we love and care about, civilization would probably collapse....

Don't know if civilization would collapse, but certainly quite a few relationships would.

[Gob]

The leaders of US university Penn State showed a "total disregard" for the safety of victims of sex abuser Jerry Sandusky, a report says.

Former FBI chief Louis Freeh said: "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps... to protect the children who Sandusky victimised."

Mr Freeh cited the former university president and legendary football coach Joe Paterno, who died last year.

Both were sacked during the probe into assistant coach Sandusky's abuses.

Sandusky, who worked on Paterno's nationally lauded football team, was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse in a trial in June.

He is expected to serve a life sentence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18817095

[Lord Jim]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials hushed up child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago for fear of bad publicity, allowing the former assistant football coach to prey on other youngsters, according to a scathing report issued Thursday on the scandal.

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” said former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who was hired by university trustees to look into what has become one of sports’ biggest scandals. “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

After an eight-month investigation, Freeh’s firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that the Hall of Fame coach, President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz “repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse.”

Paterno “was an integral part of this active decision to conceal” and his firing was justified, Freeh said at a news conference. He called the officials’ disregard for child victims “callous and shocking.”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/137 ... -says.html

The Freeh report is far more damning in it's particulars than even the language Freeh used in his press conference, particularly in so far as Paterno is concerned....

Here's a link to the full report:

http://static.usnews.com/documents/nw/f ... 071212.pdf

The report is 267 pages long, but for anyone who is interested, I recommend reading the timeline section that begins on page 19.

It makes clear that beginning with the first incident that came to light in 1998, Paterno was an informed, involved, and essential part of a conspiracy to cover-up Sandusky's crimes and conceal them from the authorities.

But the worst part comes in relation to the 2001 assault that was witnessed by McQweary and reported to Paterno. Far from the way the situation had been portrayed; that Paterno reported the incident, and then erred in not making sure it was followed up, (which would have been bad enough from a judgment stand point, but wouldn't have been criminal) Paterno was not only a participant in keeping this from the authorities, he was in fact the prime actor responsible for the fact that it wasn't reported.

Paterno didn't merely report what McQweary told him and then go about his business. He was involved with devising the strategy for dealing with it, and was ultimately the one who prevailed on the others not to go to child welfare.

The smoking gun for this appears in the timeline on pages 23 and 24 of the report. I can't copy and paste it, but if you follow the link you'll see what I mean. In the last entry on page 23, the other 3 involved meet and create an "action plan" that includes informing the Department of Welfare. Then in the next entry, Paterno gets involved and that decision is dropped. (On the bizarre grounds that not doing so would be more "humane" )

If you read the timeline section, you really get a feel for how venal this group was and how disinterested they were in anything other than how to best cover this up, and how they did absolutely nothing to even curb Sandusky's ability to commit his vile crimes on Penn State property. While they conducted this cover-up for more than 10 years, Sandusky went merrily along with his assaults and not one of them, including Paterno ever even confronted him about it.

It's absolutely disgusting. In all the discussions that these four had, including Paterno, not once, not a single time, did any of them ever express any concern at all for the victims of these heinous crimes. That consideration was never even on the radar screen as they plotted their strategies.

If Paterno were still alive, he would almost certainly be facing criminal charges, and rightly so. The report shows that his involvement was way beyond not being as aggressive as he could have been in pursuing this. He was aggressive alright; aggressive in covering it up.

There is no good that Paterno did in his career that can possibly atone for this. In light of these revelations, his memory deserves to be not one of "a good man who made a mistake" but one of total disgrace; anything that's named after him needs to have the name changed. His statue on Penn State property should certainly be taken down, and he should be removed from the Hall Of Fame.

Penn State will be paying for this both financially and in terms of its reputation for many years to come.

[RayThom]

""Lord Jim Says: There is no good that Paterno did in his career that can possibly atone for this. In light of these revelations, his memory deserves to be not one of "a good man who made a mistake" but one of total disgrace; anything that's named after him needs to have the name changed. His statue on Penn State property should certainly be taken down, and he should be removed from the Hall Of Fame.""

Joe Pa was an enabler of the first order. There is absolutely no way that a person committing such a crime involving children could ever find redemption. Had Paterno lived this kind of global disgrace surely would have killed him. A great man reduced to a shell of what he once was.

In the upcoming weeks and months it will be with some glee, and some sadness, watching his family, friends, and Penn State trustees, scramble to preserve the legacy that was Joe Paterno. Like shoveling sand against the tide.

The stage is now set for us to settle back and watch the last tour of "Joepapalooza." The Grateful Dead might be an appropriate opening act. Rest In Pieces, Joe

[dgs49]

From before this report came out:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.—Penn State received more than $208 million in donations for the fiscal year that just ended, the second-highest total in university history despite the upheaval after the arrest of Jerry Sandusky on child sex abuse charges. The school said Monday there was a slight uptick in the number of alumni who donated money or gifts in the fiscal year that ended June 30 to more than 75,500, reversing two years of slight declines.

It will be interesting to see what happens now.