STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — A new report commissioned by the family of Joe Paterno, the former Penn State coach, challenges the conclusion by the former F.B.I. director Louis Freeh that Mr. Paterno had conspired to conceal child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator.
An executive summary of the critique, released Sunday, said Mr. Freeh’s “observations” about Mr. Paterno in a report for Penn State issued in July were unfounded. Richard Thornburgh, a former United States attorney general and one of the experts who reviewed Mr. Freeh’s report on behalf of the Paterno family, called the document fundamentally flawed and incomplete.
The “inaccurate and unfounded findings related to Mr. Paterno and its numerous process-oriented deficiencies was a rush to injustice and calls into question” the report’s credibility, Mr. Thornburgh said in the report.
The family released the report, which it billed as an exhaustive response to Mr. Freeh’s work, on the Web site paterno.com.
“We conclude that the observations as to Joe Paterno in the Freeh report are unfounded, and have done a disservice not only to Joe Paterno and the university community,” the family’s report said, “but also to the victims of Jerry Sandusky and the critical mission of educating the public on the dangers of child sexual victimization.”
In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Freeh said he stood by his conclusion that Mr. Paterno and three top administrators concealed child sex abuse allegations against Mr. Sandusky.
Mr. Freeh said he respected the right of the Paterno family to conduct a media campaign “to shape the legacy of Joe Paterno,” but the coach should have done more to stop Sandusky. Mr. Paterno died in January 2012.
Mr. Freeh’s report also implicated former administrators, including the university president, Graham Spanier, the athletic director, Tim Curley, and a retired vice president, Gary Schultz. Less than two weeks after the report was released in July, the NCAA acted with uncharacteristic speed in levying significant sanctions against the Penn State football program.
“Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University — Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley — repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse” from authorities, trustees and the university community, Mr. Freeh wrote in releasing the report.
The former administrators have vehemently denied the allegations. So, too, has Mr. Paterno’s family, though it reserved more extensive comment until its own report was complete.
The family’s findings say that Mr. Paterno never asked or told anyone not to investigate an accusation against Mr. Sandusky in 2001, not to report the allegation, or not to discuss or hide information reported by a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, about the allegation.
“Paterno reported the information to his superior(s) pursuant to his understanding of university protocol and relied upon them to investigate and report as appropriate,” the family’s analysis said.
Mr. Paterno’s widow, Sue, broke her silence Friday in a letter to hundreds of former players informing them of the report’s impending release. “The Freeh report failed and if it is not challenged and corrected, nothing worthwhile will have come from these tragic events,” she wrote.
Paterno Family Challenges Accusation of Cover-Up
This article
Paterno Family Challenges Accusation of Cover-Up
can be opened in url
http://marginsnewster.blogspot.com/2013/02/paterno-family-challenges-accusation-of.html
Paterno Family Challenges Accusation of Cover-Up
