Tag Archives: Patriot-News

Mar 1 2013

Penn State President Rodney Erickson gets chastised for university’s tacit acceptance of Freeh Report


By Charles Thompson |

The Freeh Report reared its head at today’s Senate hearing on the state’s annual appropriation to Penn State.

Several lawmakers engaged in the fight against the NCAA penalties that flowed from its findings lightly grilled President Rodney Erickson for letting former FBI Director Louis Freeh‘s narrative stand last summer as the official word on the university’s management of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Freeh’s conclusions, you will remember, were that Penn State’s top leaders chose to handle a 2001 allegation against Sandusky internally rather than turn them over to police or other investigative agencies.

That act of omission, Freeh and later state prosecutors have alleged, helped set the stage for assaults on several other boys over the next seven years.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, referencing the longstanding complaints about gaps in Freeh’s work, asked Erickson if he still believes its conclusions are accurate.

Erickson ducked, arguing it is “not appropriate for me to comment on that question here in this kind of forum.”

Noting there are pending criminal and civil cases that still have to play out, Erickson said, “I think it’s appropriate that we let the investigative and the judicial process take its course Mr. Chairman, with all due respect.”

And Corman pounced.

“But when Penn State decided to release this report without any review or due diligence it already entered into the fray of these criminal trials and to the public discourse of how this matter is treated….”

Corman then acknowledged the pressures the university was under at the time, noting “there is no manual to walk yourself through this.”

But, he concluded, “I guess I wish you would have taken that same position prior to the (release of the) report, which has been used not only to punish Penn State” but to frame the public narrative of the case.

On the whole, it was a gentler version of similar critiques Erickson has already received at various alumni town halls, or that he and trustees routinely field at public board meetings these days.

But given that Corman is perhaps Penn State’s most influential ally in the state legislature, today’s back and forth was another forceful reminder that the Sandusky wounds have not yet healed.

Erickson fielded other questions during today’s hearings about the Freeh report from Sen. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne County, and inquiries about the NCAA fine from Sen. Patricia Vance, R-Cumberland County

Jan 4 2013

O’Brien Stays at Penn State!


By David Jones, Harrisburg Patriot News

Penn State’s long holiday nightmare is over. Bill O’Brien is staying at Penn State.

In an exclusive conversation, the second-year head coach confirmed that he was contacted by and entertained overtures from multiple NFL clubs through his agent Joe Linta. But he has decided to remain at PSU for at least the 2013 season.

 ”I’m not a one-and-done guy,” said O’Brien. “I made a commitment to these players at Penn State and that’s what I am going to do.

“I’m a man of my word. I am what I am. Maybe I get fired in six years. But I’m not gonna cut and run after one year, that’s for sure.”

In addition to a clear testing of the pro head coaching waters, this was a strategic mission of sorts by O’Brien. By having Linta throw his name open to NFL openings and having the agent field offers, he was able to gain additional leverage that allowed him a chance to accomplish structural and personnel changes in the Penn State athletic department that may be forthcoming. O’Brien declined to be specific about those changes when asked but he did not deny those aims.

O’Brien acknowledged that PSU donor Terry Pegula, financier of the new Penn State hockey arena, has been a major ally in his efforts. Pegula was the first person who contacted O’Brien in late 2011 when he was eventually interviewed for the job.

Though O’Brien was not specific about it, high-level PSU sources have told me that a $1.3 million donation is to be added to O’Brien’s salary in the coming year that will bump his total compensation to $3.6 million and place him behind only Ohio State’s Urban Meyer ($4.3M) and Iowa‘s Kirk Ferentz ($3.8M) as the third-highest-paid coach in the Big Ten.

Dec 23 2012

Mark Emmert Has No Grasp of Penn State Facts


By John Zieger, www.FramingPaterno.com

Franco asked Emmert how he could find Joe Paterno “guilty” for covering up the 1998 and 2001 instances when Jerry Sandusky himself had been found “not guilty” for the same episodes (in 1998 an investigation brought no charges and Sandusky was acquitted at trial for the Mike McQueary ”rape” allegation). Emmert’s ensuing response, or, more accurately, non-response, spoke volumes about the credibility of the NCAA sanctions.

Emmert made some extraordinary statements.

He greatly diminished his own role in the sanctions (which he physically signed). He seemed to indicate that thought that the Freeh Report had somehow “read” 3.5 million documents and that Freeh had far more “authority” than he really did (Freeh didn’t even speak to any of the five people closest to the case). He even seemed to be under the delusion that Franco Harris, who famously played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, may have been on the 1998 Penn State team which was the first to, illogically, have its wins stripped.

But the most stunning statement Emmert made was that “no one” at Penn State was found “guilty” or even mentioned specifically by the NCAA, and that they did not take away Joe Paterno’s all-time wins record. He really said those things. Just listen to the recording.

If “no one” at Penn State was found “guilty,” then why was the school punished so severely? If Paterno was not specifically referenced, or didn’t have his record taken away, why does page 5 in the “punitive” section of the NCAA consent decree, clearly state, “the career record of Coach Joe Paterno will reflect the vacated records”?  The president of NCAA, who literally signed off on the worst sanctions in college football history against Penn State, didn’t even have a firm grasp on the basic facts of the case. Of all the many indignities that Joe Paterno has suffered in the year since his last birthday on earth, in some ways nothing has been worse than being convicted by people who didn’t even give him basic due process or the simple respect to have all the facts (or, in Emmert’s case, even have the courage to admit he had indeed been found “guilty”)?

 

Nov 28 2012

Our Coach of the Year is Staying at Penn State!


While Penn State fans awaited word from the Big Ten on its Coach of the Year

Bill O’Brien’s agent said the coach isn’t going anywhere, except on the recruiting trail.Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News

voting, the coach’s agent was telling ESPN on Tuesday that Bill O’Brien wasn’t taking another job.
“(O’Brien) is staying, and we’ve had no conversations with anyone else,”  Joe Linta said. “In fact, he’s leaving at 6 in the morning tomorrow to go out on the  recruiting trail.”

Linta added that recent talk about how much his client would have to pay in order to buy out  the remaining eight years of his contract at Penn State were “irrelevant.” Those rumors started recently when Patriot-News columnist David Jones asked O’Brien whether he was staying. The coach didn’t confirm that he was.

Here’s more on the agent’s remarks, including his reaction to the penalties that the NCAA levied on Penn State.

Jul 27 2012

Two Critical Errors in the Freeh Report


The Patriot News reported at least two instances recorded in the original Freeh report involving former Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley were corrected.

In the initial report, released July 12, Freeh said Curley met with Jerry Sandusky in 1998 after a police report was filed regarding his inappropriate conduct with a boy in the Lasch Football Building showers. Sandusky, was still employed at the time and that incident was investigated by campus police.

Curley had no interaction with Sandusky after that incident, but did instead in 2001, post-Sandusky retirement and after former wide receivers coach Mike McQueary told his superiors he had witnesses another incident of abuse by Sandusky in the showers.

An email exchange between Curley and university counsel Wendell Courtney also was amended, according to the Patriot News and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This was the Freeh report’s initial account of the email exchange: “Courtney emails Schultz a newspaper story about the Sandusky charges. Schultz replies: “I was never aware that ‘Penn State police investigated inappropriate touching in a shower’ in 1998.”

The corrected exchange: “Courtney emails Schultz a newspaper story about the Sandusky charges and states: “I was never aware that ‘Penn State police investigated inappropriate touching in a shower’ in 1998.”

Courtney said those words, not Schultz, as Freeh initially alleged.

Jul 27 2012

Majority of Pennsylvanians Disagree with Statue Decision


Joe Paterno still has support in Pennsylvania, Public Policy Polling found, but it has declined in the last several months.

Penn State head coach Joe Paterno receives congratulations from university president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley on Oct. 29, 2011, after the Lions beat Illinois 10-7 giving Paterno his 409th career win, making him the all-time wins leader in Division I football, surpassing former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson. July 23, 2012 the NCAA announced sanctions against Penn State vacating their 1998-2011 season, thus stripping Paterno of 111 wins and dropping him to 12th on the college football wins list. Paterno died January 22nd of lung cancer.

Penn State coach Paterno, who was fired in November over the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, died in January. He was accused in the university-ordered Freeh Report of helping to cover upthe crimes of Sandusky, his former assistant coach.

PPP found that 45 percent of Pennsylvania voters see Paterno favorably, 37 percent negatively. He was at 51 percent favorable, 28 percent not, in November.

Also, the poll found that 48 percent of state voters disagreed with Penn State’s decision to remove the Paterno statue from outside of Beaver Stadium Sunday morning. Thirty-five percent agreed.

Fifty percent of voters in the state express a favorable opinion of the university as a whole; 31% who see it negatively, the poll said.

PPP surveyed 758 Pennsylvania voters July 21-23. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.56 percent. This poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews

Jul 25 2012

Erickson May Have Broken Standing Order-Centre Daily Times


By Kevin Horne
The debate on whether or not the sanctions handed down to Penn State by the NCAA are warranted has been ongoing with Penn Staters and college football fans alike over the last several days. But one area that hasn’t been broadly discussed is whether President Rodney Erickson — without approval and vote from the Board of Trustees — had the authority to sign the agreement with the NCAA essentially accepting the sanctions without even a whimper of a fight.

Standing order IV of the Penn State Board of Trustees deals with “Matters Requiring the Approval of the Board of Trustees.”

According to provision 2-e of Standing Order IV, the following actions must be approved by the Board: Authorization to borrow money; authorization of persons to sign checks, contracts, legal documents, and other obligations, and to endorse, sell or assign securities.

Penn State President Rodney Erickson’s signature appears on the document that accepts the NCAA sanctions. Certainly, that agreement would be considered a legal document — and one that directly costs Penn State $72 million, with some experts saying it could amount to up to a half billion dollars in losses.

No hearings. No approval from the governing body of Penn State. No alumni input. All President Erickson did was accept the NCAA quasi-dictatorship’s ruling without a fight, and move on.

Newly-elected Board of Trustees member Anthony Lubrano has been outspoken in his opposition to Erickson’s decision, and says the Board of Trustees did not have a part in the decision making process. “I am very disappointed … because I am going to be held accountable that I wasn’t part of the process that led to the agreement,” Lubrano told the Patriot News.

Lubrano also interviewed with ESPN radio. “As a board member, I was very disappointed that I wasn’t consulted, nor were most of the board members, before our school entered into this consent agreement,” he said. “I’m troubled that we did this before most of us had any knowledge of what we agreeing to. I’m deeply disturbed by the sanctions. I hold that the NCAA doesn’t have the authority to do this.”

Adam Taliaffero, former Penn State football player and Board of Trustees member, also took issue with the NCAA violations. Shortly after the announcement was made Monday morning, he Tweeted, “To answer if I’m ok with everything…No! Gathering my thoughts …Will check back in this afternoon..did that promote healing?”

If Lubrano and Taliaferro’s statements are correct, it’s clear that Erickson did not fulfill his obligations under Standing Order IV to receive approval from the Board of Trustees to enter into the NCAA consent agreement.

In an interview with the Centre Daily Times, President Erickson said that he signed the agreement out of fear that the NCAA would issue the “death penalty” to Penn State if he didn’t consent. “We had our backs to the wall on this. We did what we thought was necessary to save the program….This is the decision you make: Accept the consent decree or the (NCAA) board will go in another direction,” Erickson told the CDT. “So we accepted that, and I signed it on behalf of the university (Sunday) night.”

However, NCAA Executive Committee Chirman Ed Ray denied Erickson’s claims, saying “I can tell you categorically, there was never a threat made to anyone about suspension of play if the consent decree was not agreed to…That was never even a point of discussion within either the Executive Committee or the Division I board.”

Someone isn’t being honest.

According to the CDT, Erickson conferred with his “closest advisers and members of the board of trustees” to reach the decision, including Chairwoman Karen Peetz and acting Athletic Director David Joyner. When asked which other university personnel Erickson consulted, Penn State spokesman David La Torre wouldn’t comment.

It appears that President Erickson entered into a legal agreement with the NCAA unilaterally — essentially writing a $72 million check without the entire Board of Trustees approval — which would seem to be a direct violation of Standing Order IV.

So what can we do now? I’m not sure, but there’s no doubt Lubrano and Taliaffero aren’t the only board members pissed about this egregious violation of policy by our University president. I think it’s about time our administrators start sticking up for the Penn State community instead of succumbing to public pressure as Erickson did the second he dotted the “i” in his name Sunday night.

President Erickson said in his statement Monday morning, “Today we accept the terms of the consent decree imposed by the NCAA.”

Well, President Erickson, I’m not sure who “we” is. But I can tell you that it is not me, my fellow students, the State College community, our student athletes, our alumni base, or our Board of Trustees.

So who, then, are you working for, sir?

Jun 9 2012

Sandusky Trial set to Begin on Monday


A judge has denied Jerry Sandusky’s latest attempt to have three of 10 cases of child sex abusedismissed before his trial begins Monday.

The Centre County courthouse is the venue for the Jerry Sandusky trial. Tuesday is the first day of jury selection for the former Penn State coach who is being tried on child molestation charges. Sandusky has been charged with 52 counts of child sex abuse allegedly involving 10 boys over 15 years.
That means jurors will hear about an allegation made in 1998 that was never prosecuted at the discretion of former and missing district attorney Ray Gricar. They will also hear assistant football coach Mike McQueary recount an incident he says he witnessed in the showers of the football locker room in 2001. And, janitors will testify about what happened one night in 2000, when they were cleaning those same showers and one of them witnessed Sandusky with a young boy. In that case, attorney Joe Amendola said the prosecution‘s entire case was based on hearsay, since the janitor who actually saw the act has dementia and can’t testify. At a hearing last month, the judge indicated he believed a jury should make a decision on the three cases. Amendola argued that the more cases put before a jury, the more likely they are to convict. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday at 8:30 a.m. at the Centre County courthouse in Bellefonte.
Apr 17 2012

Congratulations to Sara Ganim, 24, PSU Graduate


Congratulations Sara--PSU Proud!!

Sara Ganim and the staff of The Patriot-News on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for its coverage of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case. The Pulitzer Prize board lauded Ganim and the newspaper for “courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.” It’s the first Pulitzer Prize for the news organization, which was founded in 1854. In March 2011, Ganim broke the news that Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse. “This is definitely a win for the whole newsroom, for everyone standing here,” said Ganim, surrounded by Patriot-News staff shortly after the awards were announced. “But more importantly it’s a win for everyone in every newsroom just like ours all across the country because, better than any award, the most rewarding thing in this whole process has been people telling me that this story and our coverage has changed their mind about local reporting.” “What really struck me about this story and about Sara’s work is that this was not a case where a big newsroom put together a team to look at some issue,” said Patriot-News Editor David Newhouse. “This originally came from one reporter on her beat, doing her job.” Only 24, Ganim, a 2008 Penn State graduate, is one of the youngest reporters to ever win a Pulitzer Prize.

Feb 14 2012

Show Me the Money–for Penn State, Our Land Grant University


Are We Pricing our Children out of a Future?