Posted on 09/03/2013 9:21:06 PM PDT by FlJoePa
Another key figure in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case weighed in Tuesday with his take on whether former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno was an active participant in efforts to cover up Sandusky's sex crimes.
In an interview recorded for CBS 60 Minutes Sports, former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina said flatly: "I did not find that evidence."
That was after Fina stated that he did come to believe, as the state's probe of Sandusky progressed, that former Penn State president Graham Spanier and several of his top aides had tried to interfere with the probe for years.
"Now they're going to be tried on that... But I investigated that case," Fina said of Spanier, retired senior vice president Gary Schultz and former Athletic Director Tim Curley. "They deserved to be charged, and I hope justice will be served there."
Spanier, Curley and Schultz are currently awaiting trial in Dauphin County court on charges of perjury before a grand jury, obstruction of justice, and endangering the welfare of children.
As for Paterno, Fina carved out a space that sounded pretty close to the legal responsibility / moral responsibility divide first raised by Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan at a press conference on Sandusky's arrest in November 2011.
Paterno met minimal legal obligations, officials said then, because he did alert his superiors at Penn State to a 2001 eyewitness account of alleged sexual abuse by Sandusky, his longtime defensive coordinator, at a football shower facility.
That report was never turned to police or child welfare authorities for investigation.
Paterno was dead from complications from lung cancer months before before the state's probe of Penn State's response to the Sandusky probe was completed.
When pressed by interviewer Armen Keteyian on Paterno's role, and the common perception that he had a controlling hand in all university affairs, Fina suggested the former coach's words will have to speak for themselves.
"He (Paterno) said it best," said Fina, who has since left his state post for a position with the Philadelphia District Attorney's office. "He said: 'I didn't do enough... I should have done more.'" [actual quote: "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more"]
Fina's reference appeared to be to a statement issued by Paterno in the days following Sandusky's arrest in which the longtime coach announced his intent to resign as head football coach at the end of the 2011 season.
Paterno, faced with growing questions about his role in the case, said in part that day: "This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
Penn State trustees instead fired him that night.
Paterno's role in the scandal has become an unending debate for Pennsylvanians and Penn State fans, in part because of a communal need to know what to make of the coach so many lauded for his commitment to "success with honor" for so many years.
The segment released Tuesday night on CBS Evening News was excerpted from a longer presentation set to air on "60 Minutes Sports" on the Showtime network at 10 p.m. Wednesday.
It is the first broadcast interview Fina and colleague Joseph P. McGettigan III have done about the case since Sandusky's June 2012 conviction for the serial sexual abuse of 10 different boys between 1994 and 2008.
The state's investigation, meanwhile, is currently the subject of an internal review by current Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who promised during her campaign last year to try to review the case's management by her predecessors, including now-Gov. Tom Corbett.
Kane has given no indication when that probe will run its course.
Meanwhile DA Ray Gricar was unavailable for comment...
But, I'll readily admit that there's lots more blame to be assigned.
Paterno didn’t help coverup, he just acted like the 3 monkeys. “see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing
Paterno didn’t help coverup, he just acted like the 3 monkeys. “see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing
Explain the origin of your name for all please?
You know that Gricar’s older brother Roy committed suicide in ‘96. Oddly, his vehicle was also found near a bridge, but the body turned up in the river nearby.
The false narrative is starting to slip away, isn’t it? ...Like Pecci said in My Cousin Vinny: “You can say. It’s OK, they know.”
Still no answer about the origin of your name? What are you hiding? What are you ashamed of?
I think everyone who has put up with your endless threads deserves an answer. So man up!
He is quick to refute any logic, but no so quick to answer a simple question. So, what’s the connection?
Well I guess we can just put that case to rest then.
That’s too bad. I was kind of hoping that Ray found a new identity and a new home somewhere far away from all of this.
Epic moral failure on Paterno’s part. Moral and legal epic failures on the part of the 3 stooges.
...there’s a lot of stuff to this case, as we all who have followed it know...and of course you’re right, this article in no way aids Paterno at all, as it affirms the ‘minimal’ aspect of his role...
...that said, of course Paterno did at least that, for which I credit him...my bigger problem with Joe is his insistence that since Sandusky no longer reported to him, he felt he had no further obligation in this matter, conveniently forgetting who is was responsible for Sandusky being there as a coach and emeritus in the first place...in other words, he ‘owned’ the problem, and he turned his back and walked away from it as fast as he could, not an act of honor in anyone’s book...
...you mention that Paterno was on no legal hook, and of course that’s correct, and I as well as many PSU fans (which I most assuredly am not)find the Freeh report unconvincing in placing attributable blame to Paterno for an active cover up...and we can debate whether he should have been so unceremoniously dumped as coach, but if any person thinks his handling of this, second only to his son’s trampoline accident as a crisis in his football career, smells like a rose, I don’t know what to say to that person...
All of the NCAA sanctions were for Sandusky actions after he left Penn State, not while he was a coach there. He was at Second Mile but using Penn State facilities.
...you ought to win a prize for red herring posts...the intimate nature of the Second Mile and PSU makes your distinction devoid of any meaning at all...
...and you forgot to proofread...you state Sandusky left PSU, but then say he was using their facilities...which any first year journo major can see is a blatant non sequitur and contradiction of terms...
Of course, this story really is bad news for the NCAA in the Paterno family suit. Anyone who claims the NCAA will win has to be a total fool...
...exactly what in this particular piece would lead you to make such a statement...?
...I mean, inasmuch as all it does is reaffirm what everybody already knew...the minimalist nature of Paterno’s response to a crucial personal crisis in his football life...
Not physically left as in walking out the door.
Not physically left as in walking out the door...
...in fact he walked out of one door in the football facilities into another door in the football facilities, into his emeritus entitled office...
Shallow little scum always go after people of great accomplishment, and the big name they set their sites on was the old man, Joe Paterno.
...quite the enlightened attitude you show towards honest and open disagreement...anyone’s opinion not sufficiently toeing the Paterno line sends it off into shallow little scumland...
...not exactly the debate tactic one could expect on an open forum such as this, but whatever makes you happy...
re-posting troll comments (cherry picked from an interview with a sick, 84 year old man) doesn’t really phase me. You need to do better.
...your threads really are gems...and BTW, comments don’t ‘phase’ you, they ‘faze’ you...if you are determined to put us through the intellectual grind of your opinion, please state it properly...
I don’t care what Joe said in 2011. He obviously had to be refreshed on almost every aspect of what happened.
...ah yes, the famous Hilary Clinton tactic, the please refresh my memory bit...
I care what Mike McQueary told him in 2001. THAT is the key to this case...
...did he not state under oath to a grand jury that he believed it to be of a ‘sexual nature’...
the fraudulent actions of louis freeh
...which were designed to uncover the ‘fraudulent actions’ of the PSU administrative team in charge of this situration...
Yeah - he said that in 2011 - with 2011 knowledge. You also omit the rest of the quote where he immediately follows that with “I don’t know what you call it”...
Not sure what your point is. Here is the lead prosecutor saying Joe did everything right - more than anyone else - and you are still on the attack. Must suck to be married to a false narrative and see it unravel before your eyes.
Yeah - he said that in 2011 - with 2011 knowledge. You also omit the rest of the quote where he immediately follows that with “I don’t know what you call it”...
...good Lord...in the famous words of John McEnroe ‘you cannot be serious’...why would his 2011 knowledge be any different than his 2001 knowledge? There’s something he knew in 2011 that he didn’t in 2001? Or vice versa? What in the world are you saying? And why in the world do you bring up that ridiculous comment about not knowing what to call an act of a ‘sexual nature’...a man who’s been on the earth for 84 years not knowing such a thing would be the village idiot, wouldn’t he...? Are you excusing him from scrutiny by reason of senility...?
Here is the lead prosecutor saying Joe did everything right
...he said no such thing in the article, and you know it...because you muted your own comment with ‘more that anyone else’, something I and others have never denied...
Must suck to be married to a false narrative and see it unravel before your eyes.
...ha, you’re a fine one to preach about being married to false narratives...but in actuality the only narrative I’m wedded to is that Joe acted without honor by insisting he had nothing to do with this situation because Sandusky didn’t report to him anymore, when Joe himself was responsible for Jerry being there in the first place...I’m not saying he enabled any pedophiles, I don’t contend he should rot in hell, I don’t think he should have been fired as he was, and I’m not saying he was anything but a fine, decent man who, like all of us at some point screwed up...he misplaced his honor at a critical juncture in his personal life, the part that didn’t include winning football games...
...I do so hope you keep your posts coming, though...they are in fact so wonderfully amusing...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.