Paterno was mostly exonerated in the indictment of Jerry Sandusky because he said he never learned of allegations of this nature against Sandusky until 2002.
In 2002 when he was told by Mike McQueary that Mcqueary saw Sandusky raping a little boy in the shower Paterno passed the report on to his supervisors.
And that is where Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation, and why he has not been charged with a crime.
But I say Paterno failed miserably in his moral obligation. Maybe some crimes you could look the other way. If your friend robs a bank, you can look the other way. But not for child abuse.
Let's take Paterno at his word. He never heard any allegations about Sandusky until 2002. And when he did hear about it, he was only told of "inappropriate sexual conduct" between Sandusky and a boy, not anal sex.
Even if that were true, he still should have done more. He never followed up with his supervisors. They never reported it to police. And so for 9 more years this pedophile was free to work at his charity for troubled boys.
And this is why it makes me sick to see admiring throngs outside Paterno's house demanding that he keep his job. He admits to willfully ignoring sexual molestation charges against his former right-hand man and deserves to suffer no consequences?
And speaking of consequences, I think JoePa should also face criminal charges for lying to investigators. First of all, he said he McQueary never told him he witnessed Sandusky having anal sex with the kid. McQueary says he did tell him that. And Curley and Schultz were charged with lying about the exact same thing.
Second of all, Paterno said he'd never been made aware of any allegations about Sandusky prior to 2002. But there was a police report about a 1998 incident. And even though charges were never filed in that case, it's almost implausible to believe Paterno didn't know about it.
This is likely what happened: Paterno knew for years about Sandusky's ways. After the 1998 incident, he forced Sandusky into retirement in 1999 and hoped it would go away. In 2002, he finally reported Sandusky to his superiors but he encouraged them never to report it to police. He barred Sandusky from ever bringing young boys to the facility again.
But he never tried to get counseling for his friend. He never tried to find the boy, the alleged shower victim. He never kicked Sandusky out of the program, he was around the team as recently as last week. He never followed up with Curley and Schultz about the 2002 accusation. And he never reported anything to the police.
For all those reasons...Joe Must Go...NOW!
I concur
ReplyDeleteI was going post something similar in the comments to your last post. If the athletic director and administration had reported the 2002 incident to the authorities, everyone would be praising Joepa for doing the right thing. But they didn't, and standly idly by knowing there was, at a minimum, inappropriate touching of boys in the shower, is unforgivable.
ReplyDelete