Posted on 07/13/2016 6:54:35 AM PDT by Wolfie
Ex-Penn State players still support Paterno
While more testimony surfaced Tuesday that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and two assistants knew about Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children and did nothing to prevent it, a former Nittany Lions player said he still believes accusations against Paterno are without proof.
The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday released previously sealed depositions that indicate Paterno knew in 1976 of abuse by Sandusky, a former longtime assistant coach who in 2012 was convicted on 45 counts.
“The claims are just that: They are claims. They're accusations,” said Brian Masella, who played at Penn State from 1971-75. “They were never proven in court.”
Masella is leading an effort to restore a statue of Paterno and “Players Wall” that stood outside Beaver Stadium. They were removed four years ago after an investigation and subsequent report by former FBI director Louis Freeh found Paterno did not act on information relating to Sandusky's inappropriate contact with boys.
“From what I can see, there is absolutely no new evidence here that has come to light that should quash our desire to have the statue and the wall replaced,” Masella said Tuesday.
Many of Paterno's former players have spoken out in recent years in support of their coach.
Penn State fired Paterno in November 2011 after Sandusky was charged. Paterno died the next January. The NCAA stripped Paterno of 111 wins but later restored them as part of a settlement with the university, leaving him with an NCAA FBS record 409 victories.
The latest accusations claim that a victim, identified as John Doe 150, approached Paterno after an alleged incident in 1976 but that the coach disregarded his assertion.
Former standout running back Franco Harris said he had doubts about the veracity of the statements in the documents.
“If (John Doe 150) didn't call the police, if he didn't call child services, if he didn't call the department of public welfare, something's not adding up,” Harris said. “And they want me to connect Joe Paterno to what this kid is saying?”
John Doe 150 said he told adults who he thought might have been coaches at a football camp he was attending about the alleged incident, according to the documents. Shortly thereafter, he told Paterno. It was another 20 years before he told anyone else, according to the documents.
Penn State trustee Anthony Lubrano, another Paterno supporter, said the documents change “nothing.”
“These are still unsubstantiated, uncorroborated allegations,” Lubrano said. “We have known since May there would be allegations regarding the '70s. Today, you got more of the details with the respect to the allegations. Unfortunately, Joe is not here to defend himself.”
In a deposition from 2015, former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary testified that assistants Tom Bradley and Greg Schiano also knew of abuse incidents.
Bradley, who was named interim coach in 2011 after Paterno was fired, has claimed no knowledge of inappropriate behavior. Bradley is now defensive coordinator at UCLA. He did not return a message seeking comment.
“The last time I spoke to Bradley, he said it's bunk,” said Masella, who added that was about two years ago.
Schiano, now the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, on Tuesday told ESPN he had no knowledge of the incidents.
Masella said the legacies of hundreds of former Penn State football players have been tarnished by the allegations.
“When this all broke, our legacies were destroyed,” he said. “Every time we wear a Penn State shirt somewhere, people look at us like we're guilty, like we did something wrong, like we covered something up.
“I don't want to upset child victim advocates, but they have to realize that (many) lives have been affected by this who had nothing to do with any of this.”
He said he refuses to believe Paterno covered up child abuse.
“Can you believe a man who led us in the Our Father and Hail Mary before and after a game would allow child sexual abuse?” Masella said. “No. No way.”
Pedophiles stick together.
Denial isn’t a river in Egypt.
Denial isn’t a river in Egypt.
Supposedly there are many, many others involved in the pedo ring. Sandusky was just the tip, which is why they murdered a guy and stole his hard drive. He was a lawyer, a DA I think, and had the goods on them.
There is no evidence to suggest Paterno was any such thing.
In this case it seems that the fellow after 20 years said he said something to Paternao in 1976, but said nothing for 20 years to anyone else.
Right.......Me thinks this chap hopes to make some money off of this by bearing false witness against some who is dead.
fair disclosure: Penn state grad.
Of 48 counts in the bill of indictment against Sandusky, he was convicted of 45. The ONE incident involving McQueary's testimony, the infamous shower assault, was one of only three counts the jury did not find credible. McQueary has told multiple, different, conflicting stories about the episode to different audiences at different times, privately, publicly under oath and otherwise. Both Bradley and Schiano have denounced McQueary's latest story as complete baloney; how McQueary's "new" "facts" are even admissible is puzzling since they involve pure hearsay. [Schiano doesn't even know McQueary; their tenure as assistants has a gap of decades.]
That won't stop the usual lynch mob on FR from showing up to weigh in on how believable Mike McQueary, the biggest liar in the history of PSU, is.
Oh... by the way ... going on five years since we were assured by Louis Freeh and various other jackasses that there was a "conspiracy" involving Curley, Spanier, and Schultz, the "conspiracy" has collapsed under the weight of the justice system. All of the conspiracy, obstruction and perjury charges were dropped before a trial date was even announced. What's left to bring to a jury -- maybe -- someday -- are charges of "failure to report," against two of the defendants. The single remaining perjury charge against one defendant involves a process crime unrelated to the accusations against Sandusky, and even for those charges we still have no trial date 43 months after the AG presented the arraignment. Why? [Here's a hint FR lynch mob: the Commonwealth has no case.]
Lie much?
I met a Penn State RB (55 school records)in NYC in 1985 when my girlfriend’s best friend was going out with him. As a long time BC football fan. I always admired Joe Paterno. The RB told me; “he’s not the guy you think he is.
I apologize if I have offended you.
However, the fact remains that a guy involved in the prosecution was murdered and his hard drive disappeared, and then soon after the media and DA got very uninterested in pursuing the obvious connections to high placed individuals.
It was a pedophile ring. They passed around young boys, and they raped them.
“Right.......Me thinks this chap hopes to make some money off of this by bearing false witness against some who is dead.”
It is not false when the independent investigation proved that Pedorno knew what was going on. In fact, he mentioned it to his AD but did nothing else. I am sure it went this way: “Hey, AD, my main assistant is raping boys. If it gets out, my good name will be damaged. And the university will suffer. What should we do? wink wink”
“fair disclosure: Penn state grad.”
Not so shiny now, is it?
The stupidity of the Paterno Lynch Mob just has no limits...
Your standard of evidence is high when it comes to accusing Paterno, but slandering the victims comes quite easy.
Oh sure, McQueery just somehow guessed that Sandusky was a pedo who liked to diddle little boys and got it right. What a coinkydink!
Yep...even our former scumbag FREEPER pedophile defender fljoepa
It wasn't PC to out and reject queers even THAT long ago?
Ray Gricar, whom I knew personally -- though only peripherally, was not involved in the prosecution of Jerry Sandusky in any way, shape, manner, or form. He was at the time involved in the investigation and prosecution of the NYC heroin pipeline into Central Pennsylvania and Maryland, and, like two other prosecutors who were murdered investigating that pipeline at the same time (One in PA, one in MD) he disappeared shortly thereafter. Most likely theories are that he was either killed by the mob, or is in WitSec.
and then soon after the media and DA got very uninterested in pursuing the obvious connections to high placed individuals.
Again: wrong, and more wrong.
The Office of the PA Attorney General (not DA, not local DA) impaneled an investigative Grand Jury to examine specific allegations against ONE, NAMED INDIVIDUAL, Jerry Sandusky, after a coach at Central Mountain High School found Sandusky and one of the boys connected to his charitable foundation, The Second Mile, engaged in what he regarded as inappropriate contact on a wrestling mat in a side facility of the main gym.
That is an unusual occurrence. In Pennsylvania we do not use a Grand Jury System. Accused are arraigned before a magistrate or in Superior Court. Grand Juries are impaneled only for investigative purposes, and even then rarely (IIRC, in the entire history of the Commonwealth there have been fewer than a hundred, it may even been fewer than 50.) The PA AG wanted a Grand Jury because the prosecution of a famous former coach and (potentially his charity) was political suicide, so he needed cover.
It was a pedophile ring. They passed around young boys, and they raped them.
Again: wrong and more wrong.
There was no "ring." There was ONE individual, Jerry Sandusky. No one "passed around young boys and raped them." Jerry Sandusky himself was the ONLY individual charged, indicted, and convicted of crimes. No one else connected with Sandusky has ever been so much as accused of a sex crime.
NO ONE. NOT ONE. NOT A SINGLE PERSON.
The allegations of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury against three PSU officials made five years ago have ALL BEEN DISMISSED with the exception of a single perjury charge against ONE of them concerning a process crime that is not related to the Sandusky conviction. To date, there is still no date for trial. Why would that be, if the Conmmonwealth has a case to bring?
The claims made against Joe Paterno have been demolished through the course of two civil cases, which are ongoing. In the course of depositions and motions for those trials, former FBI director Louis Freeh has admitted that his "report" conainted little, if any information not already known, had no authority to compel testimony, did not interview any of the principals in involved in the case and was not -- contrary to the idiotic opinions of many FReepers -- a factual determination in any meaningful sense of the word. This is what Freeh admitted in his evidence: "the report was a collection and summary of opinion." Freeh is the only person who ever claimed Joe Paterno had any guilty knowledge of any crime.
Louis Freeh was hired for one reason and one reason only: to clear the PSU Board of Directors from public blame in the unjust and possibly unlawful firing of the university president and Joe Paterno. He was hired to create scapegoats, and in the lynch mob mentality that then existed (and still exists as evidenced by your fact-free commentary) he was able to do just that.
Clinton stooge Janet Reno made her name in Dade county prosecuting a "sex ring" at a day care facility. Like most of the spectacular cases in the 1980's involving caretakers and alleged sex crimes, Satanism, and other horrific goings-on, her case was a complete fabrication which eventually collapsed, and restitution has been paid to the accused. It -- and many other cases like it -- was made possible by a gullible public that repeated every unsubstantiated rumor as Gospel Truth.
One poster on this board got it right -- cluelessly so. "Joe Paterno is not the man you think he is."
Wise up.
McQueary saw "something." He told his father, a coach, and the VP responsible for the University police "something." (And based on his testimony, it's likely he told each of them "something" else.)
Unfortunately, we will never know what the "something" was, because McQueary has told many different stories under many different circumstances to many different audiences.
What we KNOW about McQueary's "something" is that of all of the charges made against Sandusky, McQueary's evidence was one of the very few not believed by a Jury.
That is not a coincidence. McQueary is not believable.
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