PSU Covered Up Whistle-blower's Letter.

The National Whistleblowers Center asked President Erickson to question Louis Freeh about his knowledge of botched child sex crimes investigations by the FBI.  Erickson and the BOT covered up this letter.

Copy of letter follows (hat tip, Jimmy W)

TAKE BACK PENN STATE NOW. An Opportunity to Reclaim Penn State for the Open TRUTH -

Take back Penn State from those who caused the damage and now want to hide the TRUTH. 

PENN STATE OPPOSES PATERNO FAMILY REQUEST TO SEE FREEH DOCUMENTS.

WE ARE PENN STATE - SAYS THE SLOGAN 

WHAT PENN STATE OPPOSES THAT REQUEST?  

Penn State via its legal counsel, speaking for the administration and Board of Trustees, is opposing open display of the TRUTH by opposing the release of documents related to the Freeh Report. It is believed that such materials are not only being withheld from public view but are also being withheld from some members of the Board of Trustees themselves. Yet Penn State has repeatedly argued for transparency and open disclosure, as represented by the alumni who voted for new Trustees who advocate such transparency and responsibility. The motion filed by Penn State's counsel makes it seem like Penn State wants to hide the TRUTH.  

Make no mistake – Stephen Dunham, the University General Counsel and Vice President for the last two years, is opposing the revelation of the TRUTH in your name. He acts at the behest of the Board of Trustees.

Do Penn State's Alumni Elected Trustees oppose the release of these documents? No.

Do Penn State Alumni oppose the release? No.  Does the student body? No. 

Why would Penn State want to hide the TRUTH about the Freeh Report?

Is Dunham afraid the actual documents will show that the Freeh Report was fatally flawed? Would the documents show that Freeh manufactured his damning evidence that Penn State administrators were involved in some cover up of Sandusky's activities?

Help me out here. Who would be harmed if the documentation supports the Freeh findings? Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier are already under indictment and evidently headed to trial. Joe Paterno's reputation is already in tatters. So what is the potential harm to Penn State if the documents confirm the Freeh Findings? 

Let's keep this very simple:

What SMSS wants is the TRUTH - and the release of this documentation is relevant to that search for Truth.  Isn't that something we can all agree is a good thing?

The Paterno family is obviously searching for the TRUTH in order to prove that Joe was innocent of any wrong doing. If they are correct and these documents prove their point it's a good thing for Penn State. Joe Paterno's legacy was great for Penn State and if it can be shown that Freeh was wrong and Joe did not do anything that could be construed as covering up for Sandusky his reputation could be restored and his legacy could once again become a positive aspect of Penn State's reputation of SUCCESS WITH HONOR.

The only people who stand to lose if Joe is fully exonerated seem to be the Freeh team and those people at Penn State who hired him and then chose to ratify his findings without bothering to read the report. Those people are Tom Corbett, John Surma and the BoT members who were unduly influenced to fire Joe, hire Freeh, and accept the NCAA sanctions. 

So we have a very interesting situation that should be addressed by all trustees, but undoubtedly led by the Alumni Trustees. It seems that Stephen Dunham has either taken it upon himself or has been instructed by the faction in control of the Board to oppose the release of these documents.  So as members of the Board of Trustees is it not your duty to make your opinion known to the General Counsel and any elements on the Board that support his objection to this release of documents? If you are not in favor of that move on behalf of PENN STATE you should now make that known. 

PENN STATE should want the TRUTH revealed. Is PENN STATE the Trustees who were openly elected by the Alumni? OR is PSU the cronies and appointees of Tom Corbett – the man who convened the grand jury that accused Penn State via its administrators and then became the Governor with power over so many trustees with the fiduciary duty to protect Penn State from his attack on Penn State launched as Attorney General?  

PS4RS and the other anti-"move-on" groups who helped defeat the "move-on" candidates should  encourage the trustee's they helped to elect openly oppose this move by Stephen Dunham. 

A vote on this would clearly show PENN STATE alumni and students who has the university's best interests at heart. The TRUTH is in Penn State's best interest and this is a chance to call for a vote by the Board of Trustees. A vote to instruct the General Counsel to withdraw his objections and to file a brief in favor of the release of these documents is a vote for revealing the TRUTH. Any board member who opposes it is in favor of hiding the TRUTH.

It really is that simple. You either want the TRUTH or you want to hide the TRUTH

Call for a vote and don't let those who oppose the Truth hide. 

WE ARE PENN STATE - says the slogan. 
Don't allow Dunham and Corbett to be Penn State. Neither one of them even attended PSU. They should not have the right to speak for the real PENN STATE anymore than I do. .  

Paterno Subpoena Seeks to Discover What Else Freeh’s Team Covered Up

The July 2013 Preliminary hearing revealed that Louis Freeh covered up the evidence that would have exposed DPW’s failure in 1998.  The Paterno lawsuit may find out what else Freeh hid from the public.

By

Ray Blehar

On May 19th, please direct your attention to the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. Paterno, Et Al will make its arguments for discovery of the 3.5 million documents allegedly used by Louis Freeh to construct his work of fiction known as the Freeh Report.

Penn State is siding with the NCAA, Freeh, and Pepper Hamilton to fight release of this information because discovery will ultimately bring us closer to the truth -- and that's something that PSU wants desperately to remain hidden.  Many suspect that "something worse" lies beneath the the surface and it is that "something worse" which will ultimately explain why the PSU Board of Trustees rolled over so easily in November 2011 and July 2012. 

Discovery should also reveal that the well-publicized story that  3.5 million documents were used to create a “thorough and comprehensive” report is a myth.  Evaluations of the Freeh Report have shown it to be of little substance, poorly constructed, and of little evidentiary value.  While the evidence to support the Freeh Report is scant, I suspect there is a lot of other valuable evidence about "something worse" in that pile of documents.

The judicial process has already revealed that Freeh lied about his independent discovery of the emails and his co-discovery of the Schultz "secret file." We have also learned that the flow of evidence was NOT from Freeh to the Office of Attorney General (OAG), but in the opposite direction. Freeh was the recipient of information gathered in response to OAG and Federal subpoenas.
 

A Federal subpoena issued in February 2012 required PSU to provide the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District with correspondence and financial transactions between the PSU and The Second Mile.  It's a pretty safe bet to assume this is some of the information that the PSU General Counsel is attempting to preclude from discovery.

WE WON - Analyzing the Result of the PSU Board of Trustee's Elections

The success of the "reform and hold responsible" PS4RS candidates for Board of Trustees is only another step for those of us who worked hard to secure their election. We now need to support them with suggestions and help consolidate the collective power of the only popularly elected members of that body. Congratulations to the new board members.

Now there are NINE -  NINE popularly elected new Penn State Trustees since the 11/9/11 Board who, under the "guidance" of John Surma and the control of Tom Corbett, voted to destroy the reputation of the great institution they had a fiduciary duty to defend.

2012  Election Results Candidate – Vote Total Winners

Adam J. Taliaferro, '05, Swedesboro, NJ -- 15,629

Anthony P. Lubrano, '82, Exton, PA -- 10,096

Ryan J. McCombie, '70, State College, PA -- 4,806

2013  Election Results Candidate – Vote Total  Winners  

Barbara L. Doran, '75, New York, NY – 15,085

William F. Oldsey, '76, Basking Ridge, NJ – 13,940

Edward "Ted" B. Brown, III, '68, State College, PA – 11,403

and NOW  2014  Election Results Candidate -- Vote Total Winners

Alice W. Pope -- 10,025

Albert L. Lord -- 9,516

Robert C. Jubelirer -- 8,101 

The Onward and Upward "MOVE ON" oriented candidates included Myers, Dan Cocco, Julie Harris McHugh, and Matt Schuyler.  UpwardState used some rather devious tactics, such as using photographs of protesting Alumni at the March4Truth, to misrepresent their position about moving forward.  The tactics didn't work.

Cocco and McHugh scored 3800 and 3500 votes respectively - less than half the total of Bob Jubelirer, who was smeared with negative campaign tactics.
Joel N. Myers - the sole 11/9/11 Trustee who sought re-election scored 3500 votes after spending thousands. His role in the 11/9/11 disaster was clearly repudiated by the Alumni.   

Ryan Bagwell (who is responsible for obtaining the emails that exposed the 11/9 members) and Rudy Glocker (endorsed by Sue Paterno)  scored a respectable 3400 and 2700 votes - votes that can be counted against the "move on" movement. 

Ted Sebastianelli - organizer of a group proposing a Joe Paterno statue - and obviously opposed to the "move on" agenda, scored 5700 votes in 4th place. 

So put another way Move On candidates - Myers, Cocco, and McHugh totaled roughly 11,000 votes total  or an average of 3500 votes each while reform and "HOLD RESPONSIBLE" candidates totaled roughly 43,000 votes or 14,000 voters x3 for reform and responsibility. 

Of the Penn State Alumni who cared enough to pay attention and vote on a very basic difference in position and opinion:

3,500 wanted to "move on"   

14,000 want those responsible held accountable

That's 20% vs 80% 

That isn't just a simple victory for the forces of right vs wrong - It is a MANDATE giving the reform trustees a base of support within the Alumni that is powerful and focused on an agenda holding the perpetrators of the 11/9/11 agenda responsible. 

The winning candidates won the PS4RS primary and were thus endorsed by PS4RS. The PS4RS group has spawned additional groups with some differences of opinion on details and tactics like PSU Re-BoT, March4Truth, Put the JoePa Statue Back, and PSU Alumni for Re-Organization of the BoT. But all of these groups were unanimously opposed to the "move on" agenda of the well funded Onward and Upward State groups. The Facebook Pages and websites for the various "Reform and Hold Responsible" groups see significant daily activity.  

This SMSS website is approaching 1.5 million visits this month (the 26th of active existence). That's  60,000 visits a month from Penn Staters who want the TRUTH about what was done to their Alma Mater by Tom Corbett, John Surma and their partners in crime (Ken Frazier, Karen Peetz, the Corbett appointees, etc) exposed.  We supported the "Reform and Hold Responsible" Candidates in order to sustain the 'hold responsible' agenda.  

Only NINE of the Trustees are popularly elected. They alone have a constituency of concerned Penn State Alumni who care about their University - not the interests of corporations or politicians who control their appointments. 

The next move for those who want to hold the 11/9/11 BoT responsible for the damage done - and alter the negative narrative spawned by the Corbett-conflicted 11/9/11 board - is to get actively involved in the defeat of Tom Corbett.  Our impact in damaging Corbett should convince a new Governor to consider our advice on his appointed replacements - as well as reform measures being considered to downsize the BoT and make it more responsive to students and alumni, as opposed to business interests. 

When 80% of the active concerned alumni demonstrate their support with their votes and hard work - these new trustees join the previous six with a significant power base they alone enjoy. These reform trustees were not appointed or chosen by Ag or Business groups - they were elected with a mandate to right the wrong done to Penn State by Tom Corbett and his cronies. This election demonstrates our power to effect change. We need to help set an agenda that makes the best use of that power. 

SMSS will have some suggestions that could alter the narrative during this upcoming election cycle. We herein initiate a discussion of tactics that might re-open the debate in the Commonwealth concerning Penn State's culpability in the Second Mile Sandusky Scandal. 

The election offers an opportunity to focus on Corbett's conflicted agenda that failed to investigate The Second Mile and the Dept of Public Welfare while attempting to blame Penn State. Corbett's failure to protect the children of the Commonwealth by failing to investigate TSM and DPW is a great campaign issue for us. 

A media focused on the gubernatorial election would have to cover 1) Corbett's clear Conflict of Interests concerning Penn State and 2) Corbett's part in the Freeh Fiction. 3) Corbett's clear failure to investigate TSM and DPW - the real agencies that failed the children of the Commonwealth.  Once the public sees how Corbett manipulated this crisis to harm Penn State, everything will be exposed to public view. That will be a very good thing and I think we can help make that happen with the help of the elected BoT members. 

In my view the gubernatorial election not only offers a chance for a new governor to replace a large number of 11/9 Trustees - done right, it could afford reform and responsibility forces input in who replaces them. 

But perhaps more importantly,  this election offers the last best chance to alter the narrative in the Commonwealth concerning Penn State's culpability in what should have always been known as the Second Mile Sandusky Scandal by focusing attention on Corbett's failure to protect children who were failed by The Second Mile and PA's child protection agencies. 

Eileen Morgan: Comments at PSU BOT Meeting, 9 May 2014

In their most recent court filing, the NCAA makes two very important statements:

·        1-Penn State, that would be you, ‘publicly embraced the Freeh Report’(which we know forced Penn State to shoulder the responsibility for Sandusky’s crimes.)

·        2-PA governor, Tom Corbett was quoted as stating: “….This case is of such significance that I hope people will learn from it and we will see that the failure to protect children does not happen again.”

We all know, and we know you know, the Freeh report was an unsubstantiated report that, once you ‘embraced’, before even reviewing it, allowed the NCAA to waltz in and levy unjust sanctions upon our school.

Your decisions over the past 2.5 years have been costly.  You already know what they cost Joe Paterno.  Your decisions also cost the reputations of the other senior officials before they have had one day in court, along with costing our school into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

But of utmost importance, are you aware that your decision to accept the Freeh Report has and is continuing to put children’s safety &welfare in jeopardy? Mr. Corbett says ‘we will learn from it’ and ‘we will see that the failure to protect children does not happen again.’  Well, I’m sorry to say Mr. Corbett, it is happening again, and has been and will continue unless those very agencies that have been failing these children for over a decade are investigated and held accountable.  CYS, DPW, and yes, The Second Mile have failed this community.  

Don’t you see by accepting the ENTIRE blame for Sandusky’s crimes, by allowing Penn State to take the fall for these agencies’ failures, you are obstructing the truth? You are obstructing justice for these kids by preventing those who truly failed them to be held accountable.

Do you know that only 8 abuse reports actually trigger an investigation per 1,000 children in PA?  PA performs 80% less investigations compared to the national average.

Did you know that there are only 1.3 abuse reports are actually substantiated per 1,000 children in PA?  That is 85% less than the National Average.  

No wonder Sandusky roamed free for decades.

 These Child Protective Service agencies need to be examined if Mr. Corbett and the citizens of PA want to actually prevent further failure.

When blame is deflected truth cannot prevail.

I know the past is behind us and cannot be undone. But together we can change the future for PA’s children if and only if these child welfare agencies are thoroughly examined.

Now that 2.5 years has gone by and the dust has settled and you have had the chance to reflect. I ask, by a show of hands, knowing what you know now, how many of you would have done things differently regarding Joe Paterno or the Freeh Report or the NCAA sanctions?

Anyone?

Mr. & Mrs. Trustee and Mr. Erickson, history is being written.  

Welcome to your legacy.

The Lesson of Hillsborough: Refuse to Tolerate Injustice

“People's views remain tainted by allegations made by the police, politicians and an often hostile media in the immediate aftermath. It shaped people's understanding and played to their prejudices, until the powerful 2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel Report finally blew away the myths and exposed how manipulative those in authority had been.” – Daniel Gordon

By

Ray Blehar

Recently, ESPN ran the story of the Hillsborough soccer tragedy as one of its 30 for 30 Soccer Stories and it is quite accurate to say it parallels the Sandusky scandal.  Previously, I compared the Sandusky scandal to the Duke Lacrosse case, calling the Sandusky scandal, “Duke on Steroids.”  I also compared the treatment of Joe Paterno to the treatment of Richard Jewell, which was also featured on 30 for 30.

However, the Hillsborough tragedy blows both of those incidents away in terms of comparisons.

The Hillsborough tragedy occurred on April 15, 1989 and resulted in 96 Liverpool fans losing their lives and hundreds injured during an overcrowding crush behind a soccer goal during an FA Cup match.   The police blamed the tragedy on drunk and ticketless Liverpool fans breaking through a gate and overcrowding the end, causing deaths and injuries.  The story was not at all true, but the media reported it that way.  Liverpool fans had to fight the injustice for 24 years, until an independent panel reviewed the incident and revealed that police failures to manage the crowd caused the tragedy.

I watched the seven part series on YouTube (before it was removed by ESPN), then followed that up by watching the BBC Panorama Hillsborough – How They Buried the Truth documentary and found many parallels between Hillsborough and Penn State.  To wit:

·         Big Lies:  A top government official made false statements about the cause of the tragedy;

·         Failure to Protect:  Authorities did not employ appropriate plans to protect life;

·         Blame:  Innocent people were blamed for the tragedy;

·         Prior Act:  A related past incident was used to bolster a case against the innocent;

·         Lapdog Media:  The media ran with the illogical false reports by government officials;

·         Official Reports Were Wrong:  Evidence was altered and omitted;

·         Credible Reports Dismissed: The media dismissed reports revealing errors in official reports;

·         Persistence: Those wronged by media and government did not move forward;

·         Unsealing of Documents:  Finally seeing the evidence;

·         The TRUTH:  Results of independent reviews.

Freeh Report: Patriot News Coverage Repeated Freeh's Errors, Never Corrected Them

In today's Centre Daily Times, my letter to the editor stated that Penn State should not move forward until it corrects the inaccuracies of the Freeh Report.  

The inaccuracies of the report were quickly publicized in the initial media coverage of the Freeh Report press conference.  The media reported Freeh's statement as facts, without verifying them in the body of the report.  However, as this Patriot News article reveals, even with the time to review the report, and in light of new evidence, the erroneous information remained uncorrected.  

Red text indicates erroneous statements. 

 Bold text explains why the statement is incorrect and/or unsupported by evidence.

By

Ray Blehar

Penn State Freeh report: Highlights of findings

By SARA GANIM, The Patriot-NewsThe Patriot-News
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on July 12, 2012 at 9:43 AM, updated January 21, 2013 at 12:34 PM

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A team led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh releases its findings into Penn State University’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal today. It alleges that Penn State officials, including coach Joe Paterno and President Graham Spanier, worked to cover up Sandusky's crimes.

View full sizeThe Freeh report on Penn State's handling of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse case was released today.

Read the Freeh report here. [PDF]

Report highlights:

-- Joe Paterno followed the 1998 police investigation closely, contrary to his grand jury testimony and public statements before he died.

UNSUPPORTED:  There is one email with the subject line, “Joe Paterno” from 1998 stating that Curley has touched base with “coach.”  That is the entirety of the evidence of Paterno’s alleged knowledge of the 1998 incident.  In no way does the evidence support that Paterno "followed the investigation closely."

-- Vice President Gary Schultz wrote in notes questioning an opening of "Pandora's Box" and "More children?" in 1998.

-- Penn State had more than 350 policies for reporting crimes, but the structure was uneven.

CDT, LTE: Moving forward leaves kids behind

May 1, 2014

This is the final week for voting in the board of trustees election, and one of the issues of debate is that candidates who want to revisit the Freeh report aren’t focused on the best interests of Penn State.

Those who don’t want to revisit the Freeh report must have forgotten that the board promised to make the university the nation’s leader in child abuse prevention, research and treatment. While the university has taken many initiatives in that regard, the one thing it has not done is recognized how the Freeh report whitewashed the failures of the commonwealth’s child protection system.

One of the many things it omitted was the failures of CPS in 1998 and 2008 to put protection plans in place to ensure that Jerry Sandusky did not have access to children while he was under investigation. In both instances, Sandusky accessed and abused children.

Conversely, Louis Freeh spared no quarter when it came to levying blame for enabling Sandusky’s abuse on Penn State officials — and for that he received more than $8 million in compensation while costing the university hundreds of millions.

However, the worst thing about the Freeh report is that it drew the media’s attention away from the true cause of the Sandusky scandal — the failures of CPS. As a result, the needed improvements to CPS have not materialized and children are still at risk.

When alumni cast their votes for new members of the board of trustees, they should remember that moving forward leaves Pennsylvania’s children in harm’s way.

RAY BLEHAR

ANNAPOLIS, MD

http://www.centredaily.com/2014/05/01/4158582/letter-to-the-editor-moving-forward.html?sp=/99/145/

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2014/05/01/4158582/letter-to-the-editor-moving-forward.html?sp=/99/145/#storylink=cpy