As the story of sexual abuse against children unfolds at Penn State I find myself wondering how Paterno and crew are still standing. In fact, he’s holding his weekly press conference today. Should be interesting. Perhaps he’ll take a page out of Herman Cain’s book and scold the reporters.
Lawyers, Guns & Money breaks it down:
In any event Paterno did acknowledge in his grand jury testimony that he’s known since at least 2002 that Sandusky was a child molester, although incredibly enough now he’s even trying to walk back that admission. He testified that Mike McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy” in the PSU football locker room showers (McQueary testified that he saw Sandusky anally raping the child). Now in his statement Paterno is trying to get people to believe that he was told that his 58-year-old lifelong friend and co-worker was doing something “inappropriate” to a ten-year-old boy in a shower, but that he had no idea it was anything all that bad: certainly not bad enough to cause Paterno — by far the most powerful person in the PSU AD and arguably the most powerful person on campus — to wonder why the only thing that happened to Sandusky was that he was told not to bring the kids he was raping into the locker room any more (Sandusky retained all his access privileges to the campus until yesterday, and indeed was running football camps for young boys on Joe Paterno’s hallowed football field until two years ago).
Hmm… He testified that Mike McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy” in the PSU football locker room showers, but now says that he was told that his 58-year-old lifelong friend and co-worker was doing something “inappropriate” to a ten-year-old boy in a shower, but that he had no idea it was anything all that bad.
Perhaps Paterno could give us a list of “not all that bad” stuff a grown man does in a shower with a young boy. Seriously, what the hell? I’ve reached the conclusion, given the behavior of everyone involved who didn’t think calling the police was necessary, that molesting children wasn’t that big of a deal.
Time has more (including the the grand jury report):
The assistant (identified by the Harrisburg Patriot-News as current recruiting coordinator/wide receiver’s coach Mike McQueary) reported the incident to Paterno, but Paterno testified that the assistant left out the more graphic details. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report,” Paterno said in a statement. “Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky.” Paterno knew it was sexual in nature, according to the grand jury report.
Paterno then informed his boss, Curley, about the incident. The prosecution did not charge Paterno with any crimes, and he will reportedly testify for the prosecution at Sandusky’s trial. “I did what I was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention,” Paterno said.
Hey, he did what he was “supposed” to do. Perhaps he should apply that philosophy now and resign… in total disgrace.