Sick, making jokes about kids getting molested ****

Joe Paterno statue to stay on Penn State campus for now, sources say
Published Saturday, Jul 14, 2012 at 6:40 pm EDT Last updated 21 hours and 15 minutes ago
Staff report Sporting News 263 Comments
Join the conversation Text size A A A The Penn State Board of Trustees will not order the removal of Joe Paterno’s statue, at least not in the immediate future and maybe not ever, sources close to the trustees’ private discussions have told ESPN.com.

The trustees do not want to succumb to emotional outcries and media pressure to have the bronze statue taken down. They also are sensitive to the many alumni and students who hold on to adoration for the man who was a part of the program for 61 years.

Olson: Paterno exposed as Penn State's Cowardly Lion

Paterno’s role in the cover-up for convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, as alleged in the Freeh Report this week, makes the statue for so many a painful and infuriating reminder of Paterno’s abject failure to protect the innocence of Sandusky’s victims.

“You can’t let people stampede you into making a rash decision,” a trustee told ESPN.com. “The statue represents the good that Joe did. It doesn’t represent the bad that he did.”

According to ESPN.com, some trustees believed the statue eventually would have to be torn down. However, most reached the consensus that it should remain standing for now. Some, sources said, insisted that it should never be removed.

“It has to stay up,” a trustee told the website. “We have to let a number of months pass, and we’ll address it again. But there is no way, no way. It’s just not coming down.”

Paterno’s contemporary, former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, is among the most influential voices insisting the statue has no place on campus.

“You go to a Penn State football game and there’s 100,000 people down there and they see that statue and you know doggone well they’ll start talking about Sandusky,” Bowden told The Associated Press. “If it was me, I wouldn’t want to have it brought up every time I walked out on the field.”

Paterno, along with president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, knew of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, the Freeh report claims. Paterno also dissuaded administrators from exposing Sandusky after he was seen ###### a young boy in the shower in 2001, the internal investigation concluded.

At the same time, Paterno and his family donated more than $4 million to the university and coached hundreds of football players to victories achieved on and off the field. His 409 career wins is more than any coach in major college football—eclipsing the record held by the late Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson just before Sandusky was arrested.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that in the same month Paterno testified before a grand jury, he began negotiating to amend his contract. He would be paid $5.5 million and his tenure would end at the conclusion of the 2011 season. His original contract had him coaching through the 2012 season. Paterno died Jan. 22 of this year.

The Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium is being closely guarded by security these days, with rumors abound that the campus police will tear down the statue in the dark of night.

Trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz acknowledged that the statue is a “very sensitive topic.” She said the decision would not fall solely on the board, either. The board fired Paterno over the phone in November, a move that resulted in outrage among the Penn State community.

This time, if and when the statue comes down, it will be after careful consideration. Nike didn’t wait, removing Paterno’s name from its child development center. On Saturday, the halo atop Paterno’s head on the Heister Street mural was painted over by an artist, ESPN.com reports. The Lasch Building locker rooms, where Sandusky committed many of his crimes, will eventually be renovated.

As for the statute, a permanent decision will be made in due time.

Said trustee Ken Frazier: “I think we have to take some time, some reflection and distance before making a decision on how we will think about Joe Paterno’s entire life and body of work.”

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Look at this...................and decide.

Jul 16, 2012, 1:56 AM

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- If he were alive today, Joe Paterno - the coach who stood for so long for character and integrity both on and off the football field - could be looking at charges such as child endangerment, perjury and conspiracy.

Legal experts said emails and other evidence in the Penn State investigative report released Thursday suggest that Paterno may have misled a grand jury when asked when he first heard about Jerry Sandusky's misconduct, and show that Paterno and other university officials put boys in danger with their failure to report sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky more than a decade ago.

Duquesne University law professor Wes Oliver said the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh reads like a prosecution case for a child endangerment charge against Paterno, then-President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired vice president Gary Schultz. Oliver noted that a former top official in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was convicted of that charge in June for allowing a suspected pedophile priest to be around children.

"If you look at what happened here, it's very clear that they were aware that they had a pedophile on their campus," Oliver said.

Will Spade, a former Philadelphia prosecutor who worked on a grand jury investigation of priests about a decade ago, agreed: "Spanier, Paterno, Schultz and Curley are arguably responsible for endangering all of those kids that were abused later."

So far, the only two figures arrested in the alleged cover-up are Curley and Schultz. They were charged last fall with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse and are awaiting trial. They have denied any wrongdoing.

Spanier, who was ousted as Penn State president over the scandal, has not been charged, but a grand jury continues to investigate. Paterno died in January of lung cancer at 85.

Paterno family spokesman Dan McGinn declined to comment on the criminal legal issues on Friday.

At the very least, the Freeh report provides powerful ammunition to Sandusky victims looking to sue the university or Paterno's estate.

The report said that Paterno and the other university officials hushed up child sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky in 2001 for fear of bad publicity. Asked on Thursday whether the actions of the four men amounted to a crime such as conspiracy or obstruction, Freeh said that would be for a grand jury to decide. But the former FBI chief and federal judge said the evidence shows "an active agreement to conceal."

Freeh described Paterno as "an integral part" of that agreement. According to his report, Spanier, Schultz and Curley drew up a plan that called for reporting Sandusky to the state Department of Public Welfare in 2001. But Curley later said in an email that he changed his mind "after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe."

The report also called into question the truthfulness of Paterno's grand jury testimony last year, when he was asked whether he knew of any abuse allegations against Sandusky before the 2001 episode in which Sandusky was spotted assaulting a boy in the locker room showers.

"I do not know of anything else that Jerry would be involved in of that nature, no," Paterno testified in a grand jury appearance that lasted only a few minutes. He added that a rumor "may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody. I don't know. I don't remember, and I could not honestly say I heard a rumor."

But emails published in the Freeh report suggest Paterno closely followed a 1998 police investigation of Sandusky that ended without charges. In an email captioned "Jerry," Curley asked Schultz: "Anything new in this department? Coach is anxious to know where it stands."

Paterno, "were he alive, he would probably be scrutinized right now, as we speak, by a grand jury," said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who represents a young man suing Sandusky, Penn State and Sandusky's charity over claims of sexual abuse. "When he did give testimony, now revealed to have been dubious at best and false on its face, that is illegal perjury because it was given under oath. So he is exposed."

Perjury, though, is rarely charged and is famously difficult to prove at trial. A jury has to find corroborating evidence of the falsehood, and the lie has to be intentional, not a simple misstatement. In Paterno's case, prosecutors would have had to prove that Paterno had not simply forgotten about the 1998 investigation, according to University of Pennsylvania law professor Chris Sanchirico.

When the scandal broke wide open last November, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said Paterno was not an investigative target. On Friday, Kelly spokesman Nils Frederiksen refused to discuss the investigation, citing the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings.

Spanier's lawyers had no comment Friday but have denied he knowingly covered up Sandusky's crimes.

On the civil side, Paterno's role in the scandal could expose his estate to liability, said Altoona lawyer Richard Serbin, who has pursued lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church and other institutions in Pennsylvania for the past 25 years. Paterno was considerably wealthy; he and his wife donated millions to the university, and in April the school paid millions in retirement benefits to his family and estate.

"When a responsible party passes away, that does not mean to say their wrongful conduct is excused by death," said Serbin, who does not represent any of Sandusky's victims. "Their estate becomes the representative of that person, and assets of their estate ... remain exposed to any verdict or judgment."

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Penn State screws up again.

good, they should absolutely keep the statue

Re: good, they should absolutely keep the statue

You act like Sandusky said

Re: You act like Sandusky said

Re: You act like Sandusky said

Paterno never once spoke to Sandusky about

Re: Paterno never once spoke to Sandusky about

He gave McQueary a job. Kept Sandusky and hired the GA.***

Paterno wasn't the one who raped the kid, but he

Joe knew about it in 1998 when the first allegation

Re: Joe knew about it in 1998 when the first allegation- JS

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good

Don't look up, because....

^^^+1***

You obviously haven't read 1 page of the Freeh report

Youre right, I'm on page 30

I read the whole thing

Re: good, they should absolutely keep the statue

I agree

Re: good, they should absolutely keep the statue

This may have played a role in Paterno's thinking

a statue is something that people normally look at with joy

Look at this...................and decide.

ummm...I read the report, and this is an OPINION piece

Removing a statue DOES NOT..........

Re: Removing a statue DOES NOT..........

There shouldn't be statues of individuals in the first place

I heard they would be moving the statue

I believe he's stating a fact

If your kid was molested, would it be funny?

^^^^ Very poor taste joke ******

Re: Penn State screws up again.

It should come down just like this...

Racism?

Re: Penn State screws up again.

This direct quote from Louis Freeh is all I need to know..

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