Penn State Scandal: Should Joe Paterno face charges too?

So I heard today that the judge who set unsecured bail was a Second Mile volunteer...words fail me.

I also heard today that now the Citadel is having a similar problem in not reporting a pedophile during their summer camp. Well at least he wasn't running a charity aimed at poor boys so that he could rape them in the shower. You know...in all the college scandals or even high profile non-profit charity scandals I can't think of one that holds a candle to the Penn State, Second Mile thing. Thinking...nope.

 

Dude.. the Catholic Church scandal in the northeast US, never mind the rest of the US, is stunning on a level unreachable by anything that happened at Penn State.

High-Profile non-profit - check.
Hundreds if not thousands of victims - check.
Priests and former priests still being protected by canon law and canon process. - check.

Understood that looking at Penn State through blinders makes it look big, but "Drop your pants for Jesus" pretty much outstrips that.

Now, before I get killed by those with faith.. I'm not attacking your faith. I'm a former Catholic myself and I believe in a greater something.. I do however think the RCC has some issues.

 

Only one minor correction. The RCC sex scandal is global, not at all restricted to the USA.
Otherwise I agree in full.

 

I stand corrected...there is the Catholic scandal.

 

One of the more dissapointing things I heard in my life: A conversation between my wife and her Mom/Step-Father regarding priest sex abuse. My wifes parents are devout Catholics. Their favorite priest (that my wife's family grew up attending the sermons of) was found guilty of molesting over 15 boys. When the accusations started coming out my wife asked her parents if she was a boy and told them a priest molested her would they believe my wife? They both said no.

No doubt that in the grand scheme of things the Penn State < Catholic Church stuff. Still gross either way.

 

"McQueary also wrote that he 'did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police' after the alleged incident involving Sandusky."

Assistant coach made sure assault stopped, went to police, he says in e-mail - CNN.com

I think this continues to be an excellent case study in how to handle scandals poorly. Was Paterno still expected to call the police when McQueary already did? If the police are in the loop, investigating and then don't arrest anyone or press charges, should one assume that maybe it was a rumor and illegal activity wasn't taking place? Who knows. Time will shed more light on the truth, hopefully.

 

Another question I have... do the Penn State Campus Police maintain primary investigative authority on a case like this? If so they might be different than what campus police in Texas are, which while peace officers generally involve other agencies in their criminal investigations.

 

I'm not saying there wasn't a coverup, there could have been. But no one knows for sure yet. University Park Police (Penn State Police) are sworn officers of the law in Pennsylvania with arrest powers. They would have been the primary agency investigating unless they decided they were too close to the issue and needed to bring in outside help. I think if they were called, this might be part of the issue and why it didn't go anywhere. If you call 911 from a campus phone, however, this is who you get.

 

Now both Penn State and State College have denied that McQueary called the police. Craaaaazy. I give up following this circus.

 

I think McQueary is a liar and a coward.

 

The university president has already resigned but somehow you think that some college cop on the night shift is above reproach? This coverup was BIG. There were lots of people who knew the results of the grand jury testimony and yet they allowed this perp on campus with kids for years afterwards. McQueary is worried about his career but he'll be lucky if he stays out of prison.

 

Certainly not. I'm sure there was a vast coverup. I just don't buy a word of what McQueary is selling.

 

IMHO he should go to jail.

 

I would hope many would do what Friendorfoe says. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we all have an idea of what would need to be done. (Although I'm not a guy or ex-law enforcement as I believe friendorfoe is so I would just scream while dialing 911.)

I read (most of) the Grand Jury report and McQueary did not state in his testimony that he did any of the following: stopped it, made his presence known or called 911. So my guess is that he didn't report it until the next day and only to Paterno. Too bad. I can only assume that he was worried for his career if he accused a powerful coach, albeit a retired coach.

Such a tragedy.

 

I don't know about Pennsylvania, but in Massachusetts, the district attorney's office has to be notified of any major felony investigations (rape, murder), but for general crime, the large campus PD's (we have many in Boston) generally clean what they catch.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the campus PD is engaged in a coverup....I have many friends on campus PD's, and the politics involved are ridiculous. The football program at Penn State is sacrosanct, evidenced by this scandal happening in the first place.

 

That's interesting. I know we have some colleges that likely do just that, especially larger college districts but none of them have jails for instance and unless they have something worked out with the county would generally transfer an arrest. As far as I know our community college campus police (for example) in some less populated areas do not have actual investigators on staff, but like you said major crimes would be turned over to the DA who has and will exercise a criminal investigation. Rape would be one of those kind of crimes...

Anyhow I do not know many campus police officers but my brother is a county deputy and they are involved in criminal investigations (as are the city police) for crimes on campus. Maybe it's a shared jurisdiction thing, either way I would think a rape investigation would be outside the core competency of most campus police departments whether they have primary jurisdiction or not and as such the prudent and advised course of action would be to call in an agency capable of investigating major crimes even if simply in an advisory role.

 

Hah! Yes, I am back. Took a year off from my studies to deal with some stuff but now that I'm back working on classes, I thought I'd get more active here again.

 

You'd be surprised how many rapes get reported on college campuses each year ... I bet they get lots of practice :/