Share

Penn State president decries new Joe Paterno allegations

The firestorm started when a lawsuit involving Penn State and its old insurance company indicated that an alleged victim told Paterno in 1976 he was molested by Jerry Sandusky. Families packed into restaurants like The Tavern and The Allen Street Grill and picked up Penn State apparel at the shops along College Avenue.

Advertisement

The president of Penn State University said in a letter released Sunday that he is “appalled” by the way media has reacted to new allegations that longtime school football coach Joe Paterno was aware of sexual assault complaints against convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky.

CNN reported Friday that a man told Penn State officials in 1971 that he was raped by Sandusky, but that the school officials told him to drop the allegations.

He said he recognized Joe’s voice was Joe Paterno, noting “I’ve heard that voice a million times”.

These coaches reportedly still work in football.

“What’s really the facts behind it?”

Paterno, who died in January 2012, was sacked in 2011 after disclosures that he knew Sandusky sexually abused a young boy in the school’s football showers in 2002 and that, while he told university officials, he failed to notify police. In 2011, Paterno told a grand jury he did not know of any other incidents involving Sandusky, who retired from Penn State in 1999.

Barron said over the last two days, the university has been unable to find any evidence supporting the claims. Feinberg declined comment. Rozen did not respond to an email from the AP. “Allegations of various kinds have been made, and will likely continue to be made”, it said.

They came in a court opinion by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Glazer, who wrote that witnesses testified in depositions that Paterno was told in 1976, 1987 and 1988 about sex abuse by Sandusky.

It’s another report, she said, and people don’t know what to do without more information. “But I have had enough of the continued trial of the institution in various media. And I think you need more than anecdotal evidence or speculative evidence”. At a few other restaurants PennLive contacted, owners either had their hands full with the commencement crowd or weren’t on site, in most cases because of the long hours required before graduation weekend.

At Webster’s Bookstore Café the hubbub of commencement was relatively absent, as patrons worked on laptops at tables, sold back a used book or looked through the shelves and shelves of books in the underground establishment. However, there is no evidence to support the allegations making their way to higher-ups. Others cite assistant coaches that were witnesses or had knowledge – stating it as fact in headlines and text – even in the face of a denial and clear failure to corroborate from the individuals allegedly involved.

Advertisement

Meder-Wilgus said she’s never walked in Joe Paterno’s shoes, but the new allegations should be investigated. “We’ll call the authorities, ‘” he said they told him.

Penn State President Eric Barron