Posted on 09/11/2014 4:30:58 PM PDT by FlJoePa
A Centre County Court of Common Pleas judgment was posted by the prothonotary’s office Thursday, giving the Paterno family and its co-filers the news they had been waiting for.
“Plaintiffs have standing to challenge the consent decree,” the court documents said.
Judge John Leete’s 39-page decision is based on arguments made earlier this year in the case brought by the Paternos, four members of the Penn State board of trustees, four members of the university faculty, and former football players and coaches against the NCAA and Penn State regarding the consent decree, the contract that led to the historic sanctions against Penn State after the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
The order, dated Wednesday, overrules seven of the NCAA’s objections and sustains three.
“It is also worth noting that this case is unique,” the judge said in his decision. “The alleged harm does not come from an action, duty or relationship resulting from the consent decree, but instead is derived from the language in the document itself. The court finds this distinguishing characteristic alone also warrants plaintiffs standing to challenge the consent decree.”
The court also dismissed the NCAA’s claims that the estate, not being part of the consent decree, cannot contest it.
“To claim the plaintiffs do not have standing to bring suit against NCAA for not following their own rules because NCAA did not follow their own rules is circuitous logic, which the court finds to be contrary to the interest of justice,” the documents claim.
One victory for the NCAA was the dismissal of a number of parties from the suit. Trustees Anthony Lubrano, Ryan McCombie and Adam Taliaferro; former Nittany Lions Anthony Adams, Gerald Cadogan, Shamar Finney, Justin Kurpeikis, Richard Gardner, Josh Gaines, Patrick Mauti, Anwar Phillips and Michael Robinson; and faculty members Peter Bordi, Terry Engelder, Spencer Niles and John O’Donnell were removed.
Scott Paterno was removed in his listing as a “duly appointed representative of the estate and family of Joseph Paterno.” The estate, instead, was directly named as a party.
The NCAA also lost its attempt to quash certain statements as opinions that could be protected against defamation claims. Instead, the court looked to the wording of the consent decree itself, directly quoting passages from the “Findings and Conclusions” section of the document. In one place, the consent decree states what the judge pointed to as “definitive” of the issue: “... the findings of the criminal jury and the Freeh report establish a factual basis from which the NCAA concludes that Penn State breached the standards ...”
“Because the statements at issue are conclusions, as opposed to opinions ... they are not protected,” the decision said.
Other major developments included a list of Penn State’s objections to plaintiff requests for discovery materials being overruled. Key among those was the court’s decision that the university cannot claim that all communications with the Freeh Group International, authors of the commissioned investigation of the incident, can be protected.
“Further, the scope of an attorney-client privilege waiver applies to the subject matter of the privileged documents disclosed. Therefore, voluntary disclosure waives the privilege as to remaining documents of that same subject matter,” Leete said.
The decision cited any documents shared with the Big Ten or NCAA regarding failures in reporting, knowledge of allegations and how those allegations were handled as constituting waiver of privilege.
Other objections, including Penn State’s claims that plaintiff requests were costly, vague, invasive or irrelevant, were overruled. The university won on some claims, such as certain protections of information on arrests and indictments.
The court also agreed that the 3.5 million documents available was too broad of a scope. Plaintiffs were asked to narrow that field to a more reasonable number.
“Today was a very good day for those of us interested in learning the truth,” Lubrano said. “The fact that I have been removed is irrelevant. This has never been about me. This is about due process and the rule of law. My hope is that the plaintiffs in this lawsuit prevail so that the likes of Mark Emmert and the NCAA never again can illegally impose their will on another institution.”
Penn State had no comment on the decision.
ncaa and PSU attorneys suffer another beatdown at the hands of Wick Sollers and Paul Kelly. I hope the ncaa isn't stupid enough to think the Paternos want to settle, or want their money.
What they want (and we're heading toward it) is freeh, erickson, emmert, frazier, peetz, surma, and others UNDER OATH to explain their lies.
Well if nothing else was accomplished they did get the shower stalls soundproofed!
Lol.
Regardless of this case there has always been something about Freeh that has always screamed sleaze to me.
ncaa and PSU attorneys suffer another beatdown at the hands of Wick Sollers and Paul Kelly
...you have a strange definition of beatdown...more like a stalemate, actually...come back in a month, and we’ll see if the Paternos have properly amended their suit to include the specificity demanded by the ruling judge...
...failing that, we’ll see what happens, won’t we...?
Lol ‘Tex! Rimshot!.......oh wait, that might not be an appropriate word to use here!
Nice to see the Freeh/PSU/NCAA railroad job is careening off the tracks at last.
I find this a particularly delicious irony: “Because the statements at issue are conclusions, as opposed to opinions ... they are not protected,” the decision said.
Ironic because Freeh's "conclusions" were never anything more than hysterical opinions without any substance backing them up. But because the opinions were presented as if they were factual, Freeh/PSU/NCAA will now be forced to defend their baseless opinions as if they were facts in a court of law.
Fantastic! The truth eventually will out. And it is not going to be pretty for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
I only regret that the bastards at ESPN who stoked the boiler cannot be brought down by the same derailment.
What they want (and we’re heading toward it) is freeh, erickson, emmert, frazier, peetz, surma, and others UNDER OATH to explain their lies.
...ah yes, you don’t like what they said, so they’ve lied...just like the victims, right...nothing but a bunch of liars and cheats, according to some...
You’d be well advised to actually read the opinion. This is a devastating loss for PSU, Freeh, and the NCAA. In particular, the NCAA crafted its consent decree on the basis of dozens of pages in the Freeh “Report” which were never anything but a baseless diatribe. Because the defendants acted on those opinions, they will now be forced to defend them as facts. They are in very serious trouble, indeed.
What [the Paternos] want (and we're heading toward it) is freeh, erickson, emmert, frazier, peetz, surma, and others UNDER OATH to explain their lies. - FlJoePa“Today was a very good day for those of us interested in learning the truth,” Lubrano said. “The fact that I have been removed is irrelevant. This has never been about me. This is about due process and the rule of law. My hope is that the plaintiffs in this lawsuit prevail so that the likes of Mark Emmert and the NCAA never again can illegally impose their will on another institution.”
Well, it looks like the Joe’s reputation will have its day in court. Pass the popcorn . . .
In particular, the NCAA crafted its consent decree on the basis of dozens of pages in the Freeh “Report” which were never anything but a baseless diatribe.
...care to delineate exactly what the ‘baseless diatribes’ were...?
Be careful, very careful in what you pray for .... you may get it!
Typical comment made by fools who don't have any idea what's going on in this case. Nobody said the victims were lying. NO ONE. As usual, the topic is what was done to Paterno, and as usual, you want to paint him with Sandusky's brush.
No dice.
Freeh was commissioned by the PSU BOT for the sole purpose of finding the most visibly public figure guilty of "something" so they could deflect liability and blame from themselves. Freeh did what he was paid to do, and all the jackasses in the world defending his lies won't change what's about to happen to him in court.
Let’s get them under oath. Let them explain their actions.
Yep. It’s a great day for the truth. Bad day to be a 10-11-11 board of trustee member.
The media’s day is coming. As I said in my post, this isn’t a case that Sue would settle for even 9 figures. It’s going to discovery and these people WILL be deposed.
Sadly because of the state’s dragging their feet on Curley/Schultz/Spanier (btw, just toss in the towel PA), there won’t be any discovery made public. Can only hope for leaks.
Nobody said the victims were lying. NO ONE.
...sure, sure, Fred, if you say so, must be true...
As usual, the topic is what was done to Paterno, and as usual, you want to paint him with Sandusky’s brush.
...did I say one word about Paterno...? Or Sandusky’s brush...?
...and you know Fred, I did read the opinion, and you know what I didn’t see in it...the term ‘baseless diatribe’...
You’d know that, if you actually knew anything about this case.
...well, gee, Fred, guess we can’t all be as smart and all knowing as you, can we...?
The obstruction cases are based on the illogical conclusion that because we've discovered what Sandusky did in hindsight, there must have been a cover-up. That's the kind of "thinking" that all conspiracy theories require. Unfortunately for the Commonwealth, none of the people charged with a crime can turn on the others, because except for Sandusky's transgressions, there was no crime.
Pretty much. If any of the 3 were guilty of anything, they’d have turned on the others.
Anyone that knows Curley knows these charges are an absolute joke. Guy’s probably never received a parking ticket.
Spanier’s defamation suit against freeh is still ongoing. Could be interesting to see how far that makes it. No one expected Corman’s suit to make a dent and it wound up eliminating some of the sanctions.
At some point Kane is going to have to drop the charges against C/S/S and that will hopefully allow some more transparency. Of course it will be blamed on a technicality (corrupt idiot cynthia baldwin).
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