Fmr. Penn St. coach Jerry Sandusky charged with Child Sex Abuse

[Honestly, I'm surprised Mikey or Spotts haven't beaten me to this]

Reader's Digest version: Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky - who retired in 1999, but still had an office on the Penn St. campus and had full access to athletic facilities - was indicted on multiple charges of Child Sexual Abuse involving eight young boys, going back as far as the 1990s. Deadspin has a detailed breakdown of the charges, including a link to the full grand jury report, detailing the charges against Sandusky.

This would be bad enough on it's own, but what ticks this over from "break out the pitchforks and torches" to "arm the nukes" is that Joe Paterno - head coach of the football team for longer than half the campus has existed, Athletic Director Joe Curley (and Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz knew of at least one incident of abuse from 2003, and never reported it to the authorities - as is required by Pennsylvania law. From what has come to light, it's clear that Paterno and Curley knew about Sandusky for years and did nothing. He wasn't banned from campus. He wasn't stripped of any of his access rights to campus facilites. The charity he ran that dealt with underprivilged young boys (most of his victims apparently were part of this charity) was untouched.

Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report the abuse. Both have resigned their posts. Penn State President Graham Spanier has also resigned.

Joe Paterno resigned... effective at the end of the season. Or at least that was his intention. The Penn St. Board of Trustees decided unanimously to fire Paterno, less than 24 hours after Paterno announced his "decision."

The fallout from this is still ongoing: Who know what and when? Are there more victims to come forward? How hard will the NCAA come down of Penn St. for this? People are talking "The Death Penalty" - a complete shutdown of the football program for one season. There's rumblings that the entire Penn St. athletic department - all 29 sports teams - will get shut down.

This can only get uglier, folks.

Oh my God. How can they do a thing like that to football? Let's riot!
Wait, what do you mean that's actually happening?

Quijotesca wrote:

Oh my God. How can they do a thing like that to football? Let's riot!
Wait, what do you mean that's actually happening?

My exact thought when I saw the footage of the not-quite rioting: You guys do know why JoePa got the axe, right?

Freezer wrote:

Quijotesca wrote:

Oh my God. How can they do a thing like that to football? Let's riot!
Wait, what do you mean that's actually happening?

My exact thought when I saw the footage of the not-quite rioting: You guys do know why JoePa got the axe, right?

Like they really care...

And it's starting to hit them in the pocketbook already: Cars.com has told ESPN to pull their ads from Penn St./Nebraska this Saturday, and Penn St./Wisconsin next week.\

It also looks like Sherwin-Williams Paint was pulled their sponsorship of PS athletics. Nike (who's Swoosh PSU wears on their uniforms) is giving a "no comment" about their future.

Thing is... How many more people are still around to throw under the bus?

The whole thing is awful, but the rioting is the thing that sort of makes me loose my faith in humanity. Or at least in sports fans.

Oh, you haven't truly lost faith until you stumble upon sports forums full of JoePa defenders.

Seriously, I've seen people say Paterno got a raw deal because "he did what he was supposed to do."

Reepicheep-chan wrote:

The whole thing is awful, but the rioting is the thing that sort of makes me loose my faith in humanity. Or at least in sports fans.

This. My thought was, "Oh. So football is more important than kids being raped. FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU ALL RIGHT IN THE EARHOLES YOU DISGUSTING PIECES OF SHIT." Seriously, I want to do grievous bodily harm to these fuckstains until they reexamine their priorities.

It is uglier. The Sandusky case may be related to the disappearance of the area's DA.

This story runs thusly. Ray Gricar, the local DA, had a reputation for being tough, independent, and totally unintimidated by the university's athletic department - which is a rare thing in a football town. Back in 1998, allegations that Sandusky was involved with an eleven-year-old boy (and yes, that did feel skeevy even to type) surfaced and Gricar went over the case, but for one reason or another did not charge Sandusky.

Fast forward to 2005, when a new investigation into Sandusky's activities was begun. And Gricar was working on it. Right up until he vanished on April 15.

His car and cell phone turned up in the river. His laptop was discovered several months later, sans hard drive. Some time after that, the hard drive was found, but too damaged for any information to be retrieved. Searches of his home computer discovered that he had been Googling for information on how to destroy a hard drive. The Sandusky case was left open, but nothing came of it until recently, which brings us to the present day.

So, obviously, lots of questions here. Was he involved in covering up Sandusky's activities? If so, how deeply? Or, going the other direction, was he on to Sandusky and subsequently made to disappear? By whom? Hopefully there will be answers forthcoming, however given the fact that this is a cold case and no answers have come forward thus far, who knows?

The sister of one of the victims is a student at Penn State. I read an article on CNN.com that she's disgusted with the riots and protests over Paterno being fired.
What part of you don't fuck little kids do they not get?

karmyn31 wrote:

The sister of one of the victims is a student at Penn State. I read an article on CNN.com that she's disgusted with the riots and protests over Paterno being fired.
What part of you don't fuck little kids do they not get?

The part that starts with "you" and ends with "kids". They're too busy complaining about Penn State's injured reputation to realize most of those injuries are self-inflicted. They seem more worried about negative PR than about traumatized children. And I doubt the repercussions will stop with just the Penn State athletic department; we can also count on some serious political fallout before it's all said and done, because the legislators who control the school's purse strings are not going to be happy with the way Penn State's handled-- or more accurately, mishandled --the sexual abuse charges against Sandusky.

As for the charges themselves, if even a tenth of what they're saying about Sandusky is true, the bastard deserves to be hanged. From where I sit, sexual molestation is the worst crime short of murder one person can commit on another; had I been in JoePa's shoes that day, I would have called the cops on Sandusky within two minutes after the shower incident was first reported, then fired him and told the local prosecutors I wanted to be put first on the list of witnesses to testify against him.

Chris, I agree with most of what you said. However, I happen to thing sexual assault of any kind is worse than most murder. Serial and spree killers aside.
Most people are capable of killing or robbing someone. Get in certain circumstances, get desperate, people will do anything.
But it takes a really sick person to sexually assault someone. Because it's just wronge.

This managed to make the front page of several newspapers here, and we don't even follow "Yankee" sports. Congratulations, Penn State, you made the Church look good.

KelinciHutan wrote:

It is uglier. The Sandusky case may be related to the disappearance of the area's DA.

This story runs thusly. Ray Gricar, the local DA, had a reputation for being tough, independent, and totally unintimidated by the university's athletic department - which is a rare thing in a football town. Back in 1998, allegations that Sandusky was involved with an eleven-year-old boy (and yes, that did feel skeevy even to type) surfaced and Gricar went over the case, but for one reason or another did not charge Sandusky.

Fast forward to 2005, when a new investigation into Sandusky's activities was begun. And Gricar was working on it. Right up until he vanished on April 15.

His car and cell phone turned up in the river. His laptop was discovered several months later, sans hard drive. Some time after that, the hard drive was found, but too damaged for any information to be retrieved. Searches of his home computer discovered that he had been Googling for information on how to destroy a hard drive. The Sandusky case was left open, but nothing came of it until recently, which brings us to the present day.

So, obviously, lots of questions here. Was he involved in covering up Sandusky's activities? If so, how deeply? Or, going the other direction, was he on to Sandusky and subsequently made to disappear? By whom? Hopefully there will be answers forthcoming, however given the fact that this is a cold case and no answers have come forward thus far, who knows?

Whaaat? This is creepy and suspicious as shit. Also this is the first time that I've heard this mentioned despite the social justice leg of the blogosphere exploding about the whole thing.

As for advertisements being pulled for the game, good on em. There should be more, though.

EDIT: Oh and hey, found this in that link you gave: "Sandusky and Second Mile rumored to have been pimping out young boys to rich donors".

Score another one for humanity: Candlelight vigil draws thousands at Penn State, tries to brighten university's darkest week

Lets just hope that Kirk Ferentz of the Hawks (Yes I'm in UI college ) can surpass Joe Paterno.

I've always believed that University sports competition should focus their funding on things like Large Dangerous Rockets and BattleBots. That's far better than some muscled bound testosterone pumped oaf buggering a little boy and all the fallout. Having sex with a CNC milling machine may be creepy and dangerous but it's not illegal.

The part that Paterno loyalists seem to trumpet is the "he did what he was supposed to do legally".

This, of course, misses the point by a mile and change. There is a difference between doing what is legally required and what is ethically right.

Put it another way - someone in your employ comes to you and says they saw someone "fooling around" with a little kid in the showers. Would your first call be to your supervisor, or to the police?

Add to that that, despite the fact Paterno had known Sandusky for 30 years, he never once talked to him about it. I mean, I'm sorry, but if someone tells me someone I've known that long has been accused of horrific crimes, I'd at least have a one-on-one conversation to explain that things are being said and they better get their house in order.

The NCAA likely has no jurisdiction over it. But the Department of Education and the Department of Justice are taking a long hard look at whether PSU violated the law by not reporting anything as they are required to do. That's the kind of allegation that will shred a university.

Spotts1701 wrote:

The part that Paterno loyalists seem to trumpet is the "he did what he was supposed to do legally".

Which is why JoePa's not in jail right now. If he had half the integrity his defenders subscribe to him, he would've quit along with Curley.

At this point, I don't know if he tried to give himself a "farewell tour" because he's that arrogant, that completely out of touch with the real world or both?

Freezer wrote:

Spotts1701 wrote:

The part that Paterno loyalists seem to trumpet is the "he did what he was supposed to do legally".

Which is why JoePa's not in jail right now. If he had half the integrity his defenders subscribe to him, he would've quit along with Curley.

At this point, I don't know if he tried to give himself a "farewell tour" because he's that arrogant, that completely out of touch with the real world or both?

Eh, what's that old saying. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, seems to have a well used place here.

Every time a school athletic sports program is criticized defenders rush to claim that sports builds character. OH? What kind of character witnesses a crime and then reports it to your superior and then washes their hands of the whole thing, never once wondering why the perp has not been prosecuted!

zootie wrote:

Every time a school athletic sports program is criticized defenders rush to claim that sports builds character. OH? What kind of character witnesses a crime and then reports it to your superior and then washes their hands of the whole thing, never once wondering why the perp has not been prosecuted!

While others rush to tar all athletics with a broad brush.

Pot, kettle, etc.

If the shoe fits.

fapfapfap wrote:

KelinciHutan wrote:

Gricar story

Whaaat? This is creepy and suspicious as shit. Also this is the first time that I've heard this mentioned despite the social justice leg of the blogosphere exploding about the whole thing.

Yeah, this bit has been barely more than a sideline, though that could be because there just aren't a lot of available facts for it and possibly never will be.

fapfapfap wrote:

EDIT: Oh and hey, found this in that link you gave: "Sandusky and Second Mile rumored to have been pimping out young boys to rich donors".

I had heard this rumor, but I haven't heard anything beyond the rumor either. And while I guess I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was true, I kind of wonder if it's just the speculation that grows out of any scandal like this. I hope it's only that.