Graham Spanier was president of Penn State since 1995. He arrived on campus vowing to make Penn State the most "gay friendly" campus in America. Apparently he succeeded beyond his wildest imagination. After seventeen years as Penn State president, do you suppose that "gay friendly" Spanier had influenced the selection of more than a few trustees???
Do you suppose that most Americans who could name a single person associated with Penn State, would name Joe Paterno, America's winningest college football coach or would they name Graham Spanier (probably a name unknown to 99+% of Americans?
The one known actual perpetrator of child rape remains Gerry Sandusky. He is doing hard time at the State Pen. It will get a lot harder if he is put into general population with a few hundred guys named Big Bubba. Prisoners really despise kiddie rapers.
There is no circumstance in which Joe Paterno is known to have failed in his contractual obligation imposed by Penn State to report exclusively to university higher ups in a well-established chain of command. At the top of that particular food chain was Graham "Gay Friendly" Spanier, but Spanier was protected in a sense since the chain prudently provided him with "buffers" to preserve his plausible deniability, as politicians might say since the days of Watergate. Joe Paterno was to report any information as to criminal activity ONLY to people such as Schultz and Curley. One of them (I believe it was Schultz) was a total civilian who was in charge of the Penn State University Police Department. Investigations by Penn State University police can be quashed at the outset when people like Paterno are forbidden to report directly to them but must go through CYA university civilian bureaucrats who are going to protect the university and its big shots (by which I do not mean 80+ year old football coaches).
Universities have their own police departments as a means of keeping conventional law enforcement off campus lest the university be embarrassed by negative publicity. If anyone called the Pennsylvania State Police, the Center County Sheriff's Office or the Bellefont Police Department, the uniform response would have been: That's not our jurisdiction and you will have to call the Penn State University Police. Paterno was contractually required NOT to report anything to the Penn State University police but ONLY to their civilian supervisor.
I very much doubt and disagree with your rendition of what you claim are the "facts" as to what McQueary observed, what he reported to Paterno and when he reported. There are also claims that McQueary has often changed his story even when under oath. I won't ask you to take my word for it any more than I am taking yours. I will further check and, if you are right, I won't be bashful about saying so and admitting I am wrong. For now, we are in disagreement on those factual allegations. Until I double check, I don't want to waste your time, my time or anyone else's in a tit for tat argument over what McQueary saw, heard or re[ported and to whom. I would observe that whatever McQueary actually witnessed, he had, if anything, a higher responsibility, IF he witnessed a crime, to personally report that crime to law enforcement. For him, as the actual claimed witness, to fail to do so is the felony called "misprision of a felony."
Louis Freeh's major credential in life is that Slick Willie appointed him to head the FBI. I don't remember Freeh doing a particularly good job at FBI. OTOH, I have never been much of a fan of GOP-E Thornburgh's either. It may well be that, whatever the facts, each of these lawyers was respectively dancing with the girl what brung him.
Additional items that are not yet referenced here up to and including your #59 is the curious disappearance and apparent murder (he has now been declared dead by the courts although never found) of Center County's veteran elected prosecutor Ray Gricar who disappeared in April of 2005. His car was found in Lewisburg in the parking lot of an antique store. His laptop was found relatively nearby in the Susquehenna River with its hard drive removed. The hard drive was found damaged beyond retrieval of any stored information about 100 yards further downstream. Gricar was believed to have been investigating Sandusky. I practiced criminal law for decades. I cannot imagine why it is that local law enforcement in Pennsylvania would EVER allow the investigation of the disappearance and probable murder of an elected official much less an elected district attorney to gather dust on the shelf.
Sandusky had set up a tax-free foundation: The Second Mile Foundation to arrange recreation for fatherless boys by arranging for them to be taken on various adventures by men including (surprise!) Gerry Sandusky. I would like to know whether any of Penn State University's big shots or trustees were, like Sandusky, "volunteers" for the foundation. Wouldn't you?
Most of all, I would like to see Graham "Gay Friendly" Spanier investigated relentlessly and, if appropriate, indicted, convicted and sentenced to the maximum available sentence in general population with Sandusky and Big Bubba X 200.
As a sports fan, I care almost exclusively for the New York Yankees. It would be nice if the Cubs would finally win a World Series for the first time since 1908. You could not pay me to watch basketball. Other than this year's magnificent ass-whuppin' of Notre Shame by Alabama, I have little to no interest in college football. I imagine that the pope rooted for Alabama as well. I have occasional but not very recent interest in pro football. My only connection to Penn State would be that I once drove past its football complex in the off season while driving through Happy Valley to visit Yalie college friends at their hobby farm a good distance from Penn State. I admire excellence and Joe Paterno apparently exemplified excellence as a coach and he deserves his reputation back.
When McQueary was asked why he didn't report the incident to the police he said "I did -- I met with Schulz".
To McQueary, Paterno and anyone else in the know, Schulz was the head of the Penn State University Police.
Joe Paterno was essentially a sideshow to the dark goings-on at Penn State, but he keeps getting all the attention because he was mega-famous. Even on this thread people are acting like everything that went down was essentially about Paterno. That is herd psychology. People are starving for a bete noire in this story, and only iconic types like Paterno can fill those shoes. Sandusky was never famous enough for that role.