Legal Expert Links PSU, Catholic Church Scandals

Legal experts say emails and other evidence from the Penn State sex abuse case suggest that Joe Paterno and other university officials put boys in danger with their failure to report sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago.

The allegations are similar to those made against a top Philadelphia archdiocese official who was convicted on child endangerment charges last month.

Duquesne University law professor Wes Oliver said former FBI Director Louis Freeh's investigative report on the Penn State scandal reads like a prosecution case for a child endangerment charge against Paterno, then-President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired vice president Gary Schultz.

Oliver noted that Monsignor William Lynn was convicted for allowing a suspected pedophile priest to be around children. Prosecutors said Lynn helped the Philadelphia archdiocese keep predators in ministry and the public in the dark.

"If you look at what happened here, it's very clear that they were aware that they had a pedophile on their campus," Oliver said.

Will Spade, a former Philadelphia prosecutor who worked on a grand jury investigation of priests about a decade ago, agreed: "Spanier, Paterno, Schultz and Curley are arguably responsible for endangering all of those kids that were abused later."

AP

A portrait of Sue and Joe Paterno by artist Bill Rettig hangs in the Pattee and Paterno Library on the main campus of Penn State University in State College, Pa., Friday, July 13, 2012. After an eight-month inquiry, Former FBI director Louis Freeh's firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that Paterno and other top Penn State officials hushed up child sex abuse allegations against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky for more than a decade for fear of bad publicity, allowing Sandusky to prey on other youngsters. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Close

Freeh's report, released Thursday, also suggests that Paterno may have misled a grand jury when asked when he first heard about Sandusky's misconduct. Paterno died in January of lung cancer at 85.

So far, the only two figures arrested in the alleged cover-up are Curley and Schultz. They were charged last fall with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse and are awaiting trial. They have denied any wrongdoing.

Spanier, who was ousted as Penn State president over the scandal, has not been charged, but a grand jury continues to investigate

Paterno family spokesman Dan McGinn declined to comment on the criminal legal issues on Friday.

At the very least, the Freeh report provides powerful ammunition to Sandusky victims looking to sue the university or Paterno's estate.

The report said that Paterno and the other university officials hushed up child sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky in 2001 for fear of bad publicity. Asked on Thursday whether the actions of the four men amounted to a crime such as conspiracy or obstruction, Freeh said that would be for a grand jury to decide. But the former FBI chief and federal judge said the evidence shows "an active agreement to conceal."

Freeh described Paterno as "an integral part" of that agreement. According to his report, Spanier, Schultz and Curley drew up a plan that called for reporting Sandusky to the state Department of Public Welfare in 2001. But Curley later said in an email that he changed his mind "after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe."

The report also called into question the truthfulness of Paterno's grand jury testimony last year, when he was asked whether he knew of any abuse allegations against Sandusky before the 2001 episode in which Sandusky was spotted assaulting a boy in the locker room showers.

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