Helen Woodyard PN LTE: Holes in Freeh Report show that PSU should be covered by RTK

Published 30 July 2013, Patriot News

A new revelation illustrates why Penn State needs to be fully subject to the state’s Right to Know law. The Freeh report tells a tale about a janitor who allegedly witnessed Jerry Sandusky abusing a boy on campus. The janitor claimed that he feared for his job if he reported what he saw. This unconfirmed anecdote was a driving force behind Freeh’s negative portrayal of Penn State’s culture; a portrayal that factored heavily into the NCAA sanctions. 

Using Penn State’s payroll records, analyst Ray Blehar recently discovered that the janitor was not yet employed by the university when the alleged incident took place. 

This latest blow to the credibility of Freeh’s investigation raises a fundamental question – if such a basic fact was missed, what other examples of shoddy work by the Freeh team have yet to be discovered? 

It is unclear how Mr. Blehar obtained the payroll records given that such records are currently considered private information. What is clear is that if these records and others were made available to the public, harmful secrets would be much harder to keep and shoddy work would be much easier to detect. 

Given that taxpayers have invested billions of dollars in Penn State, they deserve to know what other mistakes are lurking behind the scenes. Please urge your state senator and representative to make Penn State fully subject to the state’s Right to Know law.

HELEN WOODYARD, Hickory, N.C.