A Baker's Dozen

By SMSS FREEHdom Fighters

As we begin a new year, the FREEHdom Fighters thought it would be fun to present a bakery

box brimming with some of the most memorable quotes of 2012 surrounding the Sandusky

scandal.  

This “Bakers Dozen” of Ring Dings, Ho Hos, Devil Dogs, Twinkies, Moon Pies, Yodels and 

Krimpets are fun to look at and attractively wrapped, but in essence….stale, spongy, crème-

filled snacks with no substance or nutritional value. 

Pairs nicely with a glass of Kool-Aid.

NCAA President Mark Emmert

The NCAA issued "unprecedented sanctions" against Penn State in July 2012, slamming the way the school gave precedence to football success and lost focus on the first priority of any institution of higher learning: education.

"We want everyone to pay attention," NCAA President Mark Emmert said. "This is indeed a cautionary tale, that the athletic tail can't wag the academic dog."

However when  Mark Emmert was the Chancellor of Louisiana State University he certainly espoused a different philosophy of the importance of football when he fired football coach Gerry DiNardo in November 1999 ...

"The critical role of our football program is clear: it is of vital importance to the entire community: Our students, our fans and alumni worldwide and the state of Louisiana. Simply put, success in LSU football is essential for the success of Louisiana State University."

  

What is Emmert's true view of the first priority of institutions of higher learning?
 

Randy Feathers, Former Investigator for the PA AG

Until January 2011, only one state police trooper, his supervisor, plus an PA state attorney's agent working under Randy Feathers were assigned to the Jerry Sandusky case. In addition to supervising a unit out of Altoona, Randy Feathers also worked on the case himself.

“I was asked weekly if I had enough personnel,” Feathers said. “I never asked for help until 2011 when we had many more subpoenas and more evidence. Then I got eight more troopers and four more agents. If anyone wants to criticize, I’m the one to criticize because I made that decision weekly." 

“I didn’t want a whole lot of investigators on this case,” he continued. “You don’t want 20 different investigators going after a bunch of kids. You want to keep it as small as possible.”

However, psychologist Mike Gillum, who counseled Aaron Fisher (Victim 1), immediately after he and his mother walked through the door of Clinton County's Children and Youth Services office in November 2009, provides a much different account than Feathers'.

Gillum co-authored a book, "Silent No More: Victim 1's Fight for Justice Against Jerry Sandusky," with Aaron Fisher (Victim 1) and his mother, Dawn Daniels. In it Gillum gives a detailed chronology of what went on behind the scenes. Gillum states that he became frustrated as the investigation slowed and prosecutors told him many times that an arrest was imminent. He also blamed Governor Tom Corbett for delaying the investigation when he was the attorney general and at the same time running for governor.

Randy Feathers is still employed by Tom Corbett. Corbett named Feathers to the Board of Probation and Parole in September, 2012. 

  

Why didn’t you ask for more help Randy?

 

 

Frank Noonan - former head of AG criminal

 investigations and current Commissioner

 of the Pennsylvania State Police

Following his retirement from the FBI in 1998, Frank Noonan was appointed Northeast Regional Director for the Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics investigation. After 11 years as Regional Director, Noonan was promoted to Chief of Criminal investigation for the PA Office of the Attorney General in July 2009 under Tom Corbett’s watch.  After Tom Corbett became governor, Frank Noonan was nominated on January 18, 2011, to be Commissioner of Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) and was confirmed by the State Senate on April 12, 2011.

 

Paterno may have fulfilled his legal requirement to report suspected abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said, "but somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child." Noonan added: "I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us."

However, in December 2012 the Associated Press released a story titled, Pa. troopers’ Asian sex Trips surface in lawsuit.

Records in a case pending in federal court in Pennsylvania say the three PA state police lieutenants, Martin Kruse and Lawver, all admitted that they hired prostitutes in Thailand and Vietnam on trips between 2002 and 2008, according to a February 2009 general investigative report filed with the state police's Bureau of Integrity and Professional Standards.

Child prostitution is a particular problem in Thailand and some other Asian countries.  State police leadership and internal affairs assigned to investigate the sex trips questioned the ages of the prostitutes repeatedly. The three state policemen have insisted that none was underage, records show.

"There was no indication, wherever they went, that there was [sic] any children involved, which is what our concern was".

"The age of the prostitutes they were with was not a concern to Lt. Martin (because according to him, they all looked old enough)."

Internal PA state police records examined by the Associated Press shows the three supervisors evaded significant punishment. Additionally, the U.S. attorney's office in Harrisburg said a federal investigation regarding the Asian sex tourism trips was closed without charges being filed, and prosecutors declined further comment.

Why aren’t your colleagues held to the same “moral standards” Frank? 

 

Tom Corbett, Governor of PA and former 

PA State Attorney General

 

In May of 2010, while running for Governor, State Attorney General Tom Corbett subpoenaed Twitter to appear as a Grand Jury witness to “testify and give evidence regarding alleged violations of the laws of Pennsylvania”.

The subpoena ordered Twitter to provide “any and all subscriber information” of the person(s) behind two accounts – @bfbarbie and @CasaBlancaPA – which at the time of the subpoena had  only 68 and 123 followers, respectively— and had been criticizing Corbett in 140 characters or less on the popular social media site.

It’s interesting that Governor Corbett was so quick to issue the subpoenas of critics’ Twitter accounts but the Second Mile didn’t receive subpoenas until January 2011 in the Jerry Sandusky case which the PA AG’s office opened in early 2009. Sandusky’s home wasn’t searched until the summer of 2011 and a second subpoena for The Second Mile financial records wasn’t delivered until after Sandusky was charged November 4, 201l. PA Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County said, in hindsight, the matter could have been handled differently.

Tom, why did you subpoena Social Media and not a Social Menace?

 

Rodney Erickson – Penn State University President

Rodney Erickson told "Outside the Lines" on July 25, 2012 that if Penn State had not accepted the package of NCAA sanctions announced on July 23, the Nittany Lions faced a historic death penalty of four years.

However, in an interview with Adam Rittenburg of ESPN the same week, Ed Ray, Oregon State president chair the NCAA's executive committee which sanctioned Penn State and represented the presidents and chancellors at the NCAA news conference, categorically denied that the suspension of play was threatened if Penn State did not agree to the consent decree.

When questioned during an open Q&A during the September Board of Trustees meeting, Erickson stood steadfastly behind the account he offered trustees in an August 12, 2012 teleconference, in which he said he was told that an overwhelming majority of NCAA officials "wanted blood" and the consent decree was "a take-it-or-leave-it proposition."
"Those are the facts ... I still believe that was the best course of action given what we were faced with," Erickson said. "It's a decision that no university president should ever have to make." 

Rodney, will we ever learn the truth?

 

11.9.11 Penn State Board of Trustees

In the November 9, 2011 press conference where John Surma announced that … “Joseph Paterno is no longer the football coach -- Effective immediately.”  During the Q&A portion of the presser, Surma was asked  by a reporter,  “Sir, what was the driving reason of removing coach Paterno? “ he answered, “In consideration of all the facts and the difficulties that we are encountering during this time, it was the trustees' view that it was in the best interest, long-term interests of our university to make that change.”

Later we find out that Joe was slipped a note by Fran Ganter which had John Surma's name and cellphone number scribbled on it. Paterno called Surma from his kitchen phone where Surma informed him that the board of trustees had "terminated" him as head coach, "effective immediately."  He hung up the phone and broke the news to his wife of 49 years, Sue.

A moment later a second call was made to Surma where Sue Paterno said, "After 61 years, he deserved better." Then she hung up.

In January 2012 the Penn State trustees, in an attempt to change the public’s perception of how they handled the firing of Joe Paterno, spoke to the New York Times resulting in an article titled, Penn State’s Trustee Recount Painful Decision to Fire Paterno . In it they outline their rationale for firing Joe Paterno: “The trustees also laid out what they said were three key reasons for firing Paterno: his failure to do more when told about the suspected sexual assault in 2002; what they regarded as his questioning of the board’s authority in the days after Sandusky’s arrest; and what they determined to be his inability to effectively continue coaching in the face of continuing questions surrounding the program.”

However, the Penn State community was persistent and not ready to “Move on”. They continued to raise questions as to why Joe Paterno was fired. Therefore, on March 12, 2012 the Penn State Board of Trustees board felt obligated to issue another statement to “state clearly” the reasons for his dismissal: a “failure of leadership" for his actions following a reported sex assault involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky. The board found that while Paterno fulfilled a legal obligation to tell his superiors that an employee claimed Sandusky abused a young boy in a shower, it said Paterno should have done more. "We determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership by Coach Paterno," the trustees wrote. 

Letter firing Joe Paterno from Cynthia Baldwin 
Penn State Vice President and General Counsel

 

However, the Board of Trustees neglects to mention that they had a second chance to speak to Joe on that fateful night when Sue Paterno called them back. Additionally, none of those plans was mentioned in the certified letter written by Penn State general counsel, Cynthia Baldwin and sent to Paterno one week after he was fired. It begins, "Pursuant to your termination … we are asking you to make the following arrangements.”

By April 4, 2012 Don Van Natta Jr. writes, “Joe Paterno was not fired. That’s what the board of trustees now says. He was simply relieved of his coaching duties but was allowed to continue on as an emeritus professor and would be paid his full salary under his contract, the trustee said in the weeks and months since then.  In a statement released on March 12, the trustees said that if Paterno had not hung up the phone so quickly, Surma had intended to tell him that the board was sorry for firing him by phone and that it was the board’s intention to fulfill his employment contract. They also said that it was always their intention to name Paterno “head coach emeritus,” a title that bestows honor and privileges.”

11.9.11 Penn State Board of Trustees, was Joe fired or not? 

 

Mark Schwarz – ESPN Reporter

In 2003, Mark Schwartz and his producer, Arty Berko interviewed repeatedly Bobby Davis, the former Syracuse ball boy after Davis had contacted ESPN's Outside the Lines with information alleging that longtime Syracuse associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine had molested him as a child. At Davis’ request in 2003, Schwarz and Berko also interviewed Davis’ step-brother, Mike Lang. According to Schwarz, Lang told the ESPN reporters that "Bernie grabbed my leg a few times but he didn't really do too much to me and I don't have anything to say to you." 
 

The network ultimately opted not to run the story because, according to ESPN officials, there were no other victims who would talk, and no independent evidence to corroborate Bobby Davis’ story.

However, as the Jerry Sandusky scandal unfolded and was so eerily similar to what Bernie Fine did to Davis, Davis texted his stepbrother, Mike Lang that he could not deal with it. Lang felt obligated to help his brother and called Mark Schwarz.

As irony would have it, the call to Schartz came in on November 11, 2011 just as he was about to leave the ESPN satellite truck to attend the candlelight vigil and moment of silence held in support of the alleged victims that evening on the Penn State campus. After reporting from the vigil, Schwarz called Lang back. The two men spoke for some time and Schwarz recalls Lang as "frantic, tearful and emotional."

ESPN aired its first story breaking the Bernie Fine scandal on Nov. 17 in which Davis, now 39, and Lang, now 45, accused Fine of molesting them, starting in the late 1970s and continuing into the 1990s. Ten days later, the network ran a second story with an audio tape, that ESPN had in its possession since 2003, which recorded a 2002 phone call that Davis recorded with Fine's wife, Laurie. ESPN stated that it added the audiotape after it hired a voice recognition expert to confirm that it was Laurie Fine’s voice on the tape.

Many have questioned why ESPN did not share the tape with police or administrators at Syracuse, even if the network believed the unauthenticated tape created a journalistic obstacle to airing the story.  In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Schwarz said that "journalists are not necessarily required or expected to hand over evidence that they did not obtain or create themselves to the police."

The Huffington Post reported, Bob Rucker, interim director of San Jose State University's department of journalism and mass communications, had this to say about the responsibilities of a journalist in such a situation when he was interviewed by FOX Sports.

"Since we are covered by the First Amendment, we don't have to turn over anything," Rucker told FOX. "Still, it's not always that obvious, especially when it comes to protecting the interests of children. I know I'd be hard-pressed not to go to my bosses and tell them I need to talk to the police."

Why did you hold on to the “Bernie Fine” tape so long Mark?

 

Kenneth Frazier - Penn State Trustee 

Elected by Business and Industry

Ken Frazier, Penn State alum, Harvard-trained lawyer and current chairman and CEO of the Merck pharmaceutical company, also headed the Board of Trustees “full and complete” investigation into the Sandusky matter.  In late November 2011, Frazier, announced that it had hired Freeh to look specifically at how the culture, policies, and practices of the university and its administration could have allowed the alleged sexual abuse to happen on campus and go unreported for so long. It will also seek to make recommendations to the board as to how to prevent similar events from ever occurring again, Frazier said. "No one is above scrutiny," Frazier said.

Frazier is a man with a track record of protecting powerful institutions from the consequences of their inaction and is best known for his phenomenal success in defending a sordid chapter in Merck’s recent past—its years-long silence about the safety problems of the popular painkiller Vioxx proving that he is skilled at preparing a no-hold barred defense that minimizes liabilities to potential plaintiffs. Not only did his hard-nosed tactics pay off for Merck in 2007 but they paid off personally for Frazier who became chairman and CEO of Merck in 2011. 

This is the same man who had this to say about Joe Paterno four days before Paterno died on January 22, 2012, “To me, it wasn’t about guilt or innocence in a legal sense,” Frazier said of Paterno’s decision not to go to police. “It was about these norms of society that I’m talking about: that every adult has a responsibility for every other child in our community. And that we have a responsibility not to do the minimum, the legal requirement. We have a responsibility for ensuring that we can take every effort that’s within our power not only to prevent further harm to that child, but to every other child.” 
 

Mr. Frazier, how do you reconcile that statement with your actions in defending the Vioxx suit at Merck?

However, once the Freeh report was released and implicated Pennsylvania State University's board of trustees alongside its top school officials, Frazier had this to say, "We failed to ask the right questions, the tough questions, or to take definitive action, Put simply, we did not force the issue."

So “in hindsight”, Ken, you wish you” had done more”?

When pressed about why the Board of Trustees did not force the issue with Dr. Graham Spanier, Penn State University President at the time, Frazier had this to say, “We were also being told there were restrictions based on grand-jury secrecy about what could be said at a particular point in time," he said

So how does the same legal-eagle, who defended Merck so successfully against the Vioxx class-action lawsuit, not know enough to push the issue of grand jury secrecy?

Will the real Kenneth Frazier please stand up?

 

Mark Dambly – Penn State Trustee

Critics of the Board of Trustees handling of the Freeh report have said that Penn State has “accepted” the findings, but Mark Dambly said that wasn’t the case.

The board said in a statement after the findings were released July 12 that it accepted full responsibility for the failures which occurred.

"There have been lots of suggestions that we accepted all 267 pages (of the report). That's not accurate at all," Dambly said. "We did not take any action on the Freeh report. It's open to anybody's interpretation."

Freeh challenged the trustees to look at the culture of the university. But, Dambly said, "We don't suggest that the entire culture of the university is flawed. None of us have ever said that. Unfortunately, it's been construed that way." 
 

What ARE you trying to say, Mark?

 

Carl Shaffer – Penn State Trustee

 elected by Agriculture Societies

In late July 2012, following the release Freeh report, PA auditor general, Jack Wagner sent a letter to the PA State Legislature that his office is working on a comprehensive report on Penn State, which was separate from the university-sanctioned Freeh report, outlining preliminary recommendations that Wagner said were necessary to improve the university's governance in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. 

As auditor general, Wagner is the state’s top government watchdog and has responsibility for ensuring all state money is spent legally. Because Penn State is a state-financed university, any change would have to be made by the General Assembly. After the Wagner letter was received by the State legislature, PA State Representative Scott Conklin introduced legislation based on Auditor General's recommendations to alter the structure and governance of the Penn State Board of Trustees. 

Wagner’s final report was released on November 14, 2012. Some of the main highlights from the report included: removing the university president from the board of trustees; removing the governor as a voting member of the board; reducing the board’s size to improve transparency and accountability; and preventing trustees from becoming high-ranking university employees, such as when the trustees made fellow trustee David Joyner the interim athletic director in November 2011.

It didn’t take long to get a reaction on the proposed reforms from current Penn State trustee, Carl Shaffer. “This is our university — this university is unique in a lot of ways from other universities,” said Shaffer during a committee meeting Thursday on governance issues. “I think it’s up to this board to decide how we’re going to take this university forward.”

You’re kidding Carl, aren’t you?

 

Karen Peetz – Chairman of the

Penn State Board of Trustees

Karen Peetz was elected to the Penn State Board of Trustees in 2010 and was elected Chairman of the Board in 2012. In December 2012, she was named President of Bank of New York Mellon. Prior to this appointment she was a Vice Chairman, with responsibility for the Financial Markets & Treasury Services (FMTS) group within BNY Mellon, which is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. The businesses that make up the FMTS group – treasury services, corporate trust, depositary receipts, clearing services (Pershing), broker-dealer clearing, collateral management and alternative investment services – represent more than 40 percent of the company’s revenue. Each of these businesses commands a leading global market position and ranks among the company’s most visible and best-performing franchises. Karen is a member of BNY Mellon’s Executive Committee, the organization’s most senior management body, which oversees the firm’s day-to-day operations.

As Chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees, Peetz was more than willing to comment on the Freeh report after it was released in July, 2012 when she spoke to Jeff Brady of NPR News. Brady asked Peetz if the report would change how the university honors Paterno. Peetz’s response, “I think our reaction is that the clarity that's come out of the report would show that 61 years of excellent service that Joe gave to the university is now marred. And we have to step back and say, what does that mean?”

In November 2012,   a BNY Mellon subsidiary, Ivy Asset Management, agreed to a $210 million settlement for advising clients to invest with Bernard L. Madoff, whose multibillion-dollar fraud landed him in federal prison, New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman. “Ivy Asset Management violated its fundamental responsibility as an investment adviser by putting its own pecuniary interests ahead of the interests of its clients,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “Ivy deliberately concealed negative facts it uncovered in its due diligence of Madoff in order to keep earning millions of dollars in fees. As a result, its clients suffered massive and avoidable losses.”

BNY Mellon did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Why No Comment, BYN Mellon President Peetz?

 

Cynthia Baldwin – former Penn State

 Vice President and General Counsel

Cynthia Baldwin, a former Pennsylvania state Supreme Court justice and past chair of the Penn State Board of Trustees, served as Penn State University's general counsel during the grand jury investigation of Jerry Sandusky before she stepped down in January 2012. Baldwin was repeatedly cited in the Freeh report for possible missteps in her handling of the matter.

"Baldwin told the Special Investigative Counsel that she went to the grand jury appearances as the attorney for Penn State, and that she told both Curley and Schultz that she represented the university and that they could hire their own counsel if they wished."

However, according to the transcript from the grand jury, both men said they believed Ms. Baldwin was representing them.

"You have counsel with you?" the prosecutor asked Mr. Curley.

"Yes, I do," he answered.

"Would you introduce her, please?" the prosecutor continued.

"My counsel is Cynthia Baldwin."

Mr. Schultz said the same when he was questioned.

"You are accompanied today by counsel, Cynthia Baldwin, is that correct?" the prosecutor asked.

"That is correct," Mr. Schultz answered.

Since Penn State was not a party to the criminal investigation, legal experts question Ms. Baldwin's presence in the grand jury room.  If she was a representative of the university, she had no business at the grand jury.

"The most significant matter in terms of ethics is what happened in the grand jury room," Mr. Ledewitz said. "The first thing you learn in legal ethics is to know who the client is."

Even though Baldwin has insisted that she was not representing Spanier, Curley and Shultz, when they testified before a grand jury investigating Sandusky's crimes, prosecutors now say the record shows she was.

Cynthia, who were you representing and where were your legal ethics?