Posted on 11/22/2011 9:36:06 AM PST by Winged Hussar
Not Parterno, you twit. Paterno wasn't a cop: he was a football coach. So, if he were to call the cops, his report to them would be second-hand, ie, hearsay. "This guy told me he saw a crime occur. Please talk to him."
Better yet, "Hey, McClosky, you and I are going to call the cops right now and you're going to tell them what you just told me."
Not sure why you have your panties in such a twist over semantics, though.
Perhaps in Texas the football coach takes child abuse reports, sends the team's detective bureau out to investigate, and then tries to get the DA to file. In most other places, that's what the cops are supposed to do, if people call them to report the crime. I can see how that distincition might be confusing to you, though.
Irrelevant.
Paterno was a board member on for The Second Mile, the charity for disadvantaged kids from which the boys were obtained. As such he has a legal responsibility to report things like this directly to law enforcement. Every time. Whether it is kids from the institution or some other kid.
His connection to Penn State mitigates this responsibility stemming from his position with The Second Mile as much as the brand of toothpaste he uses on a particular day mitigates that same responsibility.
You are myopically attempting to pretend that the only responsibility JoPa had in this comes from his position as coach.
The information he received was first hand to him. Under both Pennsylvania and Federal law his position with The Second Mile mandated that he report the allegations to law enforcement to be investigated. The cops would then check out the reliability of the source Paterno learned from.
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