Posted on 11/10/2011 2:55:54 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
In addition to severe reputational damage, Pennsylvania State University faces the prospect of huge financial exposure from lawsuits by sexual-abuse victims who can credibly charge the university had ample warning that its former assistant football coach preyed on children but did little or nothing to stop it, say trial lawyers who have been following the case.
Particularly troubling for the university, at least from a legal liability standpoint, is that the broad parameters of a civil case already are being vividly laid out by state Attorney General Linda Kelly.
Casey says the legal issues are relatively simple. The university had known that a dangerous condition existed on its premises but did not take steps to correct it.
Casey won an $85 million jury verdict in 2008 for a former University of Pennsylvania medical student who plunged through an open manhole cover on his way to classes, shattering his spine.
Jeff Anderson, a high-profile plaintiffs lawyer based in Minnesota who is representing clients in several lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, says the Penn State scandal bears striking similarities to cases of sexual abuse by priests of young boys that have plagued the church for more than a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Who will pay the court costs for upcoming trials, law suits? The taxpayer as usual?
Another famous notable at Penn State who has faced scandal is the famous climate scientist Michael Mann exposed in stolen emails, who came by $3 Bil in stimulus federal grant money [taxpayer money] which helped stimulate his own career. Mann faced scrutiny for the discredited hockey stick graph, and was a key player in the emails from the University of East Anglia. A Virginia Judge just restricted release of emails among climate scientists in "the public's right to know" where taxpayer money funds these universities.
Oh, lets hear again and again how noble Paterno “did everything for the good of Penn State”...
Hey, JoePa..how about coughing up your savings to pay for this legal stuff so the taxpayors don’t have to pay for the damages.
and Paterno strutting around...he should be ‘devestated” at what happened under his watch.
Yeah JoePa...hang with your fans and all your “buddies” and big donors that you sucked up to to get your “fame”....don’t bother about a 10 year old—lots of them being raped...just be the “Big Man on Campus!”
You sure are busy this week.
Well maybe they could save money by turning their Pen State tee shirts inside out so they read State Pen because that’s were some of these folks will be living.
It may be cheaper to close down
Penn State going forward.
Can you say, “Bailout”?
Sandusky's sports camps went beyond State College
IOW, we haven't likely come close to the # of victims yet...
We know Sandusky ran camps not only thru the Second Mile Foundation, but also under his own personal entity: Sandusky Associates.
He ran sports camps for 4th graders on up @ the following campuses (some of these thru 2008):
* Penn State Erie (Penn State Behrend),
* Penn State Harrisburg (Capital College in Middletown)
* Robert Morris University
* Muhlenberg College
* Among others
[Parents in PA...if your kid -- even now grown-up adult -- attended a sports camp @ one of these sites...talk to them]
Note that two of the campuses that Sandusky had continued access to after 2002 were Penn State satellite campuses...IOW Penn State was willing to expose itself on other campuses for the sake of the continued "glory" of THE Penn State fooball program and its local personality god, JoePa.
For details see:
* Penn State assistant coach ran kid camps after ban
* Sandusky led camp at Penn State Behrend ['Snow ball effect beyond State College]
This will break the Penn State program.
Penn State will be so poor that they’ll start scheduling Maryland again just to beat up on someone.
It should break Penn State.
Hmm...I guess this was a "case" of legal liability "exhibitionists" catering to the illegal pedophiles.
Maybe to accommodate ALL of them we just need to call it Perv State vs. Ped State...'cause it sounds like they've got quite a bit of "sexual orientation" diversity goin' on there.
Disgaceful bastards that allowed this to go unpunished for the sake of thier stinking jobs and thier professional lives. Lock them all up, they are accessories to a crime
PSU has over $1.5 billion endowment systemwide. I don’t know the guidelines for accessing any of that or credit facilities, though I would presume the system could afford to pay out quite a bit to the victims.
It may impact Revenue to the school and the endowments in various ways, I would think mostly negatively.
Enrollment may go down, but how significantly ? Possibly significant, I dunno.
I think mostly this will come down to simply really ruining a good name and perhaps an overall contraction stemming from PR verging on the apocalyptic.
The ranks of management should and may experience a very large turnover as many in management will undoubtedly be questioned and come under legal scrutiny.
The very morals of the school itself as an organization will be laid bare as parents and the whole nation take a look at PSU in that vein and perhaps take a look at higher education in general as well as themselves in the mirror.
Probably some good will come of this as it may bring some part of America’s grassroots to see more clearly that sodomy is a sin, which will help people to see how a return to God is in order.
Hey isn’t the the school whose faculty said it was o.k. for Michael Mann to make up his hockey stock data, to prove AGW theory?
1998: "Detective Ronald Schreffler testifies that he and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston, with the consent of the mother of Victim 6, eavesdrop on two conversations the mother of Victim 6 has with Sandusky. Sandusky says he has showered with other boys and Victim 6's mother tries to make Sandusky promise never to shower with a boy again but he will not. At the end of the second conversation, after Sandusky is told he cannot see Victim 6 anymore, Schreffler testifies Sandusky says, "I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I were dead."
Jerry Lauro, an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, testifies he and Schreffler interviewed Sandusky, and that Sandusky admits showering naked with Victim 6, admits to hugging Victim 6 while in the shower and admits that it was wrong.
The case is closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charge.HuffPo: Penn State Scandal Timeline [so far]
Suicide Watch?
Also heard mention of student class actions for irreparable damages to careers and reputations from negligence.
No sports recruits will want to go there...those there are looking for the exits.
Read my comment under the story..he was not there then according to the stories I pulled up; but I had also thought he was. There is a link above..was looking at that myself in recall. Still above shows a few days ago the Judge in VA said those emails in question would not be released—Universities and funding/grants..again taxpayers right to know kicked to the curb.
A janitor named James Calhoun observes Sandusky in the showers of the Lasch Football Building with a young boy, known as Victim 8, pinned up against the wall, performing oral sex on the boy. He tells other janitorial staff immediately. Fellow Office of Physical Plant employee Ronald Petrosky cleans the showers at Lasch and sees Sandusky and the boy, who he describes as being between the ages of 11 and 13.
Calhoun tells other physical plant employees what he saw, including Jay Witherite, his immediate supervisor. Witherite tells him to whom he should report the incident. Calhoun was a temporary employee and never makes a report. Victim 8's identity is unknown.
March 1, 2002 – A Penn State graduate assistant enters the locker room at the Lasch Football Building. In the showers, he sees a naked boy, known as Victim 2, whose age he estimates to be 10 years old, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant tells his father immediately.
March 2, 2002 – In the morning, the graduate assistant calls Coach Joe Paterno and goes to Paterno's home, where he reports what he has seen.
March 3, 2002 – Paterno calls Tim Curley, Penn State Athletic Director to his home the next day and reports a version of what the grad assistant had said...just goes on and on...
AND LIFE AND FOOTBALL WENT ON AT PENN STATE $$$$.
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