I realize the legal system in many places (most?) stinks. I have personally see CPS lie, cops lie, and a child removed from a parent for no reason other than outright lies.
That said, a powerful man like Paterno, with several witnesses (two janitors were mentioned elsewhere as well), and rumors abounding - what Sandusky was doing was not a dark secret - could have done something. He chose to remain working there for years, knowing that Sandusky was raping boys. Paterno chose to stay. His choice.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
— DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
When you find a sanitized place to work please feel free to post it. Even churches have their gossip and scandals. You don't get it do you? If the AD and those over the AD knew about it as well as the campus cops and likely the CPS just who was he going too go too then? You can not make investigating agencies do their job. They don't give a rip if you have folders full of evidence and taped conversations. People with connections or the right lawyer can get by with about anything.
So tell me would you feel better had Joe lost his home and been left destitute due to a libel suit? IF you accuse someone of something YOU had best have proof. Joe did not have police powers. Joe had no proof. He had second hand info. He reported it to his boss. He like any reasonable person inexperienced in such matters like I once was, trusted those in higher positions who were supposed to do their job and deal with it too do it. They didn't. That was not Joe's fault.
I'll go you one further and a lawyer will tell you this much. Since it was a juvenile involved Joe would have not had or been in any way Privy too the outcome of such an investigation. The judges clear the court rooms in these cases except for those directly related too the case. IOW Joe could not have even sat in on the case. CPS investigations are also confidential.
It looks like someone had some high connections within the state too keep the case under wraps for a long time and Joe did likely realize at least that much after some time passed. The university wanted persons fired only after the story broke. Who above Joe was fired? How far up did it go? To the university president wasn't it?
In the meantime while people feed on the get Joe media frenzy {fired to created a diversion and satisfy the call for heads too roll}} the ones who's job it actually was who should have acted will likely never see criminal charges nor even civil judgment out of their own pockets.