By
Ray Blehar
The story so far: In
February 2014, I wrote Part 1 of this series, highlighting how the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney
General (PA OAG) suppressed and manipulated evidence in order to charge former
Penn State University (PSU) officials Curley and Schultz with crimes related to
the Sandusky scandal. Two weeks later,
in Part 2, I revealed how the PSU Board of Trustees (PSU BOT) engaged with Louis
Freeh and various public relations firms to perpetuate a false narrative that
former PSU President Graham Spanier and deceased coaching legend, Joe Paterno
had concealed Sandusky’s crimes from the public.
After the release of the Freeh Report, Governor Tom Corbett piled on, condemning the actions of “the prior administration” and “prior people who were in control.”
After the release of the Freeh Report, Governor Tom Corbett piled on, condemning the actions of “the prior administration” and “prior people who were in control.”
Corbett stated: “I’m very disappointed in the lack of
forthcoming evidence to the subpoena that was given to them by the Attorney
General’s office.”
The
statement was a continuation of a theme of misattribution – or assigning blame
or responsibility where it didn’t belong.
It is a fact that Cynthia Baldwin received a letter from the
Attorney General in December 2011 that admonished her for failure to comply with grand jury subpoenas. The letter referenced information that was subpoenaed before Curley, Schultz, and
Spanier had any knowledge of the investigation. Moreover, Schultz was retired at the time of
the subpoena, thus had no role in answering that particular request. Corbett’s July 2012 statement was part of the
Commonwealth’s strategy of trying the case in the court of public opinion. Their allies in the media had the easiest job of all -- do nothing. Let the public continue to believe that the AG's and Freeh's narratives on the case were not disputed by any of the legal proceedings. As you will see, they carried out their part magnificently.
Part 3: Keeping the PSU Three Convicted In the Court of Public Opinion
After the
release of the Freeh Report, the PA government, the “old guard” PSU Board of Trustees, and
especially the local media did everything in their power to ensure that the PSU
Three (Spanier, Curley, and Schultz) remained convicted in
the court of public opinion.
About three
months after the release of the Freeh Report and Corbett’s presser accusing the
“prior administration” of wrong-doing, the OAG made the Freeh Report "official" by issuing
the Conspiracy of Silence presentment (or the Freeh Report-Lite). The
conspiracy and obstruction charges in the presentment were mostly based on the
testimony of former PSU Counsel Cynthia Baldwin, who claimed that the PSU Three
were uncooperative in responding to the grand jury subpoenas.
Ray Blehar 