Posted on 12/31/2014 1:15:30 PM PST by FlJoePa
The NCAA turned over 150 documents for Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey to review this week, as ordered before Christmas.
But the order was for 163 documents to be reviewed.
“Upon further review in preparing the materials for the court, and in the spirit of cooperation and trying to make the maximum information available for discovery, the NCAA determined that 13 documents were not protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine,” NCAA attorney Everett Johnson wrote in a cover letter to Covey on Monday. “The NCAA promptly produced these documents to plaintiffs without any privileged content withheld.”
The NCAA and Penn State are being sued by state Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and Treasurer Rob McCord over enforcement of the Endowment Act, the legislation that would keep in state hands the $60 million fine imposed by the college sports organization on the university after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The two sides have been clashing for months on the issue of privilege, both in discovery materials and deposition of witnesses.
The documents produced this week prompted an immediate response from Corman’s attorney, Matthew Haverstick, who called the revelation of the 13 unprotected documents an “astonishing admission.”
Haverstick selected one of those documents as an example. It was a communication between NCAA general counsel and Executive Vice President Donald Remy and the Big Ten’s outside counsel, Jonathan Barrett, with NCAA press officer Bob Williams looped into the conversation.
“The NCAA previously and steadfastly took the position (in a privilege log, at a deposition, and in response to this motion) that this document was protected by privilege,” Haverstick wrote. He cited questions put to Remy about the particular redacted email during deposition, in which Remy confirmed the privilege argument.
Haverstick included the redacted and unredacted copies of the communication as exhibits in his filing.
It starts July 10, 2012, with Remy contacting Omar McNeill, one of the investigators who prepared the Freeh report, the independent review commissioned by Penn State.
“It is breaking on Twitter that your report will issue on Thursday. Given that you indicated we would get two days notice before the release of the report, can I presume that this is inaccurate?” Remy asked, copying Barrett. The report would indeed be released in less than 48 hours.
Barrett’s reply was originally withheld. It now is shown to say, “The Big Ten is working on a communication to be ready for the release of the Freeh report tomorrow. Do you have a contact at your office for our folks to call to discuss the message?”
Remy’s unredacted reply: “Yes, please have them call Bob Williams.”
“Now the impropriety of the NCAA’s redaction has been laid bare. The document reveals that the NCAA and Big Ten were coordinating their public response to the forthcoming release of the Freeh report,” Haverstick wrote. “The NCAA has previously mocked plaintiffs’ expressed suspicion that the NCAA was improperly redacting discussions of public relations strategy. But the NCAA has now admitted to doing just that, but only in the face of a court order directing the NCAA to submit the document for in camera review.”
In a previous batch of documents, the NCAA gave up privilege to on 172 of 477 documents ordered for review.
Review of the second batch of documents pushed back the trial that had been slated to start next week. It has been postponed until Feb. 17.
This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these emails. This is not the stuff the ncaa, b1g, PSU 11-11 b.o.t. are hiding. That is to come soon.
What I’d like to see is the removal of all posts regarding Pedophile State University.
Good luck with that.
AS an Alabama fan, I can sympathize with your loathing of the NCAA. They are scoundrels. They will lie and cheat to get what they want.
But I have little sympathy for Penn State. The Penn St admin knew that Sandusky had lots of ugly issues bubbling. They turned a blind eye.
Having been around a sports locker room for several years, I know that other coaches knew about Sandusky. You don’t hide something like that.
The PSU athletic department knew. Sandusky was told he would have no chance to succeed Paterno. At the height of his career, he resigned and was not hired by anyone else.
They knew.
You have absolutely no proof of what you just stated other than freeh’s cobbled nonsense of a report.
If you think that JVP, Tim Curley, Spanier, and others knew that kids were being abused and did nothing about it, you’re insane. Sorry.
As for JS, he was a Jets’ firing of Al Groh away from becoming UVA’s head coach. JS was told he would never succeed JVP (by JVP) because he didn’t have the drive and the attention span. He spent too much time on the second mile.
As for any other coaches “knowing” something - you are accusing a LOT of quality people of something really bad with a blanket statement that makes no sense, and frankly stinks. Not quite fair either.
I read Freeh’s report. I read the news accounts. I have a brain. And I am not emotionally attached to the school or situation.
From the response of the coach who walked in on Sandusky to the actions of Paterno and the PSU administration, they handled this horribly. I don’t think PSU supporters “see” how bad this was. PSU supporters have spent almost all their energy attacking Freeh and the NCAA.
You read the freeh report? Really? Are you sure you didn’t just read the freeh report “summary”? Where freeh takes his nothing investigation and turns it into JVP roadkill so his customer (the PSU bot) can justify their actions.
Are you sure you read the whole report? Are you sure?
I needed NO information from Freeh’s report to know that that Spanier, Curly and Paterno needed to be fired on the spot.
You sound just like the PSU supporters who have been defending everything Penn State since this entire mess was made public.
No more reason to discuss this.
So did you read the report or not? If not, why did you state that you did?
My guess is you’ve gotten your information from media headlines and summaries and you’re happy with where things are at right now. Of course you don’t want to discuss it.
You are an idiot. Blame the dead guy is all you have. Discovery will be your downfall. Get ready to eat cold crow.
I’m still confused. Did you read the report or not? If you actually did, we wouldn’t be arguing. If you didn’t (which is the truth), you shouldn’t have said you did. Why claim you read something when you didn’t?
Blame the dead guy?
I blame Sandusky for his crimes.
I blame McQueery (sp?) for not stopping it on the spot. He should have called law enforcement RIGHT THEN.
I blame Paterno for not calling Law Enforcement AS SOON AS HE HEARD and for not vigorously following up.
I blame the PSU administration for not banning Sandusky from the PSU buildings after the FIRST incident.
What was MM to stop? He didn’t see anything wrt V2. Even V2 gave statements and wrote letters to newspapers saying nothing happened in the shower that night.
You do know that the GJ Presentment was a bunch of lies (anal rape) to attract more victims don’t you? MM himself said as much.
I don’t think you know as much about this mess as you purport to.
Hmm, let me remember what I read two years ago.....
I have read large quantities of various reports. I seem to remember reading Freeh’s report, hence my saying I read the report. I’m not going to search my computers for a copy of the report just to satisfy your misguided argument.
You said “If you actually did, we wouldn’t be arguing.”
You are a Penn State partisan bent on blaming Freeh for screwing up, blaming the NCAA for unjust punishment, and blaming the Board of Trustees for firing Paterno. I understand your desire to protect an icon like Paterno. But the Penn State nation needs to wake up and smell the truth.
Sandusky was a monster. PSU was warned of his behavior and treated it like a small alcohol problem. The PSU administration’s actions were revolting. Paterno either wasn’t that concerned or was too old to realize the implications of what Sandusky was doing.
“If you actually did, we wouldn’t be arguing.”
I don’t think you read what I posted. I did not have to read ANYTHING Louis Freeh wrote to realize that the PSU Administration and Paterno all needed to be fired.
Ya’ll are bent out of shape over Freeh’s report and his motives. You should be bent out of shape that your administration let a child molester use the PSU athletic complex for molesting children, and is more concerned about how THEY look than what actually happened in the locker room and showers.
Justly or unjustly, the NCAA hammered the PSU football program. You can fight all you want, that damage is done. Fighting over Freeh’s report will not repair the damage Sandusky did to those children nor will it restore the faith in the PSU administration.
Might as well end this conversation. I don’t care what the Freeh report said. I care what the News Media reported and what the principles said and did, and what the prosecution did.
Yeah man, it was all lies. No one did anything wrong. It was all a setup. They were out to get us.
You don’t know shit about this case. Educate yourself sometime.
You don’t even know - or realize - that PSU is a co-defendant in this case. Corman is suing the NCAA and PSU.
That’s how complicated it is.
Again, if you think JVP or Curley knew, you’re just wrong. If the PA OAG had anything on TC/GS/GS, there would be a trial date. It’s been THREE YEARS. JS was convicted in 7 months! So much for the 6th Ammendment.
No one knows the truth. Many assumptions on your part which are known lies. Be ready to eat cold crow.
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