The family of the late Joe Paterno is once again vehemently defending his reputation after it was reported that the former Penn State football coach knew as far back as 1976 that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had molested a child.
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A new investigation seems unlikely, since the allegation surfaced as the judge in the case, Gary Glazer of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, tries to interpret the underlying insurance contract between Penn State and Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association Insurance Co.
The court order is part of a case now being decided in which Penn State University hopes to get back the more than $60 million it has paid to settle nearly 30 civil claims surrounding the Sandusky abuse case.
Penn State told NBC News Thursday night it was aware of the allegations, “but the legal case and confidentiality commitments that govern our settlement agreements preclude us from discussing these matters at all”.
In 2001, Paterno told high-ranking university officials one of his assistant coaches reported seeing Sandusky acting inappropriately with a child in a team shower.
Sandusky, 72, is now serving 30-60 years after being convicted of molesting 10 boys starting in 1994.
“The university does not speculate publicly or hypothesize about individual allegations”.
The defense can also explore whether the state attorney general’s office leaked sealed grand jury material to a reporter in 2011 to encourage other victims to come forward.
In addition to the four assistants detailed by sources, court papers made public this week point to two more coaches who allegedly witnessed what was described as “inappropriate” or “sexual” contact between Sandusky and children in 1987 and 1988.
The judge also found that the liability insurance did not cover a seven-year period ending in 1999 because Penn State’s policies at the time did not cover abuse or molestation.
The victim says that Sandusky, who was 27 at the time and a year into his coaching career at Penn State after playing there, picked him up as a hitchhiker, bought him beer and gave him pot.
Court papers unveiled Thursday claim two additional assistant coaches witnessed Sandusky committing illegal sex acts on minors, and that Paterno, who died in 2012 shortly after being fired as a result of the Sandusky scandal, was informed of an incident in 1976.
“No”, Caldwell said when asked about the new allegations today.
The scandal, which broke in November 2011, rocked the Penn State campus, which had long held up Joe Paterno as a deified figure in the schools storied football history.
The coach’s son, Scott Paterno, called the new claim “bunk”, writing in a tweet on Friday that “it would be great if everyone waited to see the substance of the allegation before they assume it’s true”.
The claims were never aired or proven at trial. Never dealt with anything remotely like this, but there were certainly plenty of abuse cases.
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But Penn State is not able to determine if the 1976 claim has merit. “It’s insane. I am just kind of lost for words right now”. A second coach declined to comment. Sandusky is seeking a new trial.
