Paternos Issue Report, Challenge Freeh's Findings
By Jenn Bernstein, Pat Loeb
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS/AP) — Former FBI director Louis Freeh is standing by his conclusion that former Penn State coach Joe Paterno and three top administrators concealed child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky.
VIEW: Full Response From Louis Freeh
Freeh responded Sunday to a new critique released by Paterno's family that called Freeh's report last July inaccurate and unfounded, resulting in a "rush to injustice."
Freeh says in a statement he respects the right of the Paterno family to conduct a media campaign in an effort "to shape the legacy of Joe Paterno" but the coach should have done more to stop Sandusky.
Freeh cited grand jury testimony in which Paterno said a graduate assistant relayed to him a 2001 allegation against Sandusky of a "sexual nature" with a child.
He said Paterno's attorney was contacted for an interview with the coach, who died in January 2012.
PHOTOS: Joe Paterno Through The Years
The new report commissioned by Joe Paterno's family challenges the conclusion by former FBI director Louis Freeh that the late Penn State coach conspired to conceal child sex abuse allegations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
An executive summary of the critique, released Sunday, said the "observations" of Paterno by Freeh in July were unfounded. Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, one of the experts assembled by the family's lawyer to review the report Freeh compiled for Penn State, called that document fundamentally flawed and incomplete.
A lack of factual support for the Freeh report's "inaccurate and unfounded findings related to Mr. Paterno and its numerous process-oriented deficiencies was a rush to injustice and calls into question" the report's credibility, Thornburgh was quoted as saying in the report.
The family released what it billed as an exhaustive response to Freeh's work, based on independent analyses, on the website paterno.com.
"We conclude that the observations as to Joe Paterno in the Freeh report are unfounded, and have done a disservice not only to Joe Paterno and the university community," the family's report said, "but also to the victims of Jerry Sandusky and the critical mission of educating the public on the dangers of child sexual victimization."
Freeh's findings also implicated former administrators including university president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and retired vice president Gary Schultz. Less than two weeks after the Freeh report was released in July, the NCAA acted with uncharacteristic speed in levying massive sanctions against the football program for the scandal (see related story).
"Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University — Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley — repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse" from authorities, trustees and the university community, Freeh wrote in releasing the report.
VIEW: Email From Gary C. Schultz To Graham Spanier; Tim Curley
VIEW: Note Referred To In Original Freeh Report
The former administrators have vehemently denied the allegations. So, too, has Paterno's family, though it reserved more extensive comment until its own report was complete.
The counter-offensive began in earnest this weekend. The family's findings said that Paterno:
— Never asked or told anyone not to investigate an allegation against Sandusky 12 years ago Saturday, Feb. 9, 2001.
— Never asked or told former administrators not to report the 2001 allegation.
— And never asked or told anyone not to discuss or hide information reported by graduate assistant Mike McQueary about the 2001 allegation.
"Paterno reported the information to his superior(s) pursuant to his understanding of university protocol and relied upon them to investigate and report as appropriate," the family's analysis said.
Paterno's widow, Sue, broke her silence Friday in a letter to hundreds of former players informing them of the report's impending release (see related story). "The Freeh report failed and if it is not challenged and corrected, nothing worthwhile will have come from these tragic events," she wrote.
The Associated Press left messages this weekend for representatives for Freeh.
"I had expected to find Louis Freeh had done his usual thorough and professional job," Thornburgh said in a video posted on paterno.com. "I found the report to be inaccurate in some respects, speculative and unsupported to the record compiled ... in short, fundamentally flawed as to the determinations made to the role — if any — Mr. Paterno played in any of this."
Freeh, in his report, said his team conducted 430 interviews and analyzed over 3.5 million emails and documents. The former federal judge said evidence showed Paterno was involved in an "active agreement to conceal" and his report cited email exchanges, which referenced Paterno, between administrators about allegations against Sandusky in 1998 and 2001.
Sandusky, 69, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in October after being convicted last summer of 45 criminal counts (see related story). Prosecutors said assaults occurred off and on campus, including the football building.
His arrest in November 2011 triggered the turmoil that led to Paterno's firing days later (see related story). Under pressure, Spanier left as president the same day (see related story). Curley was placed on administrative leave, while Schultz retired.
PHOTOS: Joe Paterno Tribute 2012
Spanier, Curley and Schultz are awaiting trial on obstruction and conspiracy, among other charges. They have maintained their innocence (see related story).
Critics have said that Freeh's team didn't speak with key figures including Curley, Schultz and Paterno, who died in January 2012 at age 85. The authors of the emails referenced in Freeh's report, which included Curley and Schultz, were not interviewed by Freeh, the family's anaylsis said.
Spanier spoke to Freeh six days before the report was released July 12.
"It's important to make a distinction between quantity of evidence. They missed so many key people. They didn't interview most of the key players, with the exception of President Spanier, who at the last minute we brought in and interviewed at a time when frankly the report ... was pretty well all prepared," Thornburgh said on the video.
The Paterno family report said Freeh chose not to "present alternative, more plausible, conclusions" about Paterno's actions.
Sue Paterno had directed the family lawyer, Washington attorney Wick Sollers, to review Freeh's report and her husband's actions. Sollers brought in Thornburgh, as well as former FBI profiler and special agent Jim Clemente, described as a child molestation and behavioral expert.
Also brought in was Dr. Fred Berlin, a psychologist from Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine whose profile lists him as the founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic.
The analysis included interviews, including of Paterno before his death, as well as a review of documents and testimony and "information from our access to the lawyers for other Penn State administrators."
The Paterno family's analysis said Freeh's report turned into a platform for scapegoating Paterno rather than seizing on an opportunity to educate about identifying child sex abuse victims, and ignored "decades of expert research and behavioral analysis regarding the appropriate way to understand and investigate a child victimization case."
It said expert analysis showed Sandusky "fooled qualified child welfare professionals and law enforcement, as well as laymen inexperienced and untrained in child sexual victimization like Joe Paterno." The coach respected Sandusky as an assistant, but knew little about Sandusky's personal life, the analysis said, though Freeh's report "missed that they disliked each other personally, had very little in common outside work, and did not interact much if at all socially."
Penn State removed a bronze statue of Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on July 22 (see related story). The next day, the NCAA in levying sanctions said Freeh's report revealed "an unprecedented failure of institutional integrity leading to a culture in which a football program was held in higher esteem."
The NCAA improperly relied on that report and never identified a rules infraction "based on Sandusky's crimes, much less an infraction by Penn State that implicated the NCAA's jurisdiction and core mission of ensuring competitive balance," the Paterno family report said.
A four-year bowl ban and steep scholarship cuts were included among the sanctions, while 111 wins between 1998 and 2011 under Paterno were vacated. It meant Paterno no longer holds the record for most wins by a major college coach.
Stacey Osburn,spokesperson for the NCAA, tells KYW Newsradio, "We stand by our previous comments on this matter and have nothing further to say."
Penn State responds to Paterno investigation:
Penn State Trustees have issued a statement re-affirming that they intend to implement all of the recommendations in the Freeh report by the end of this year.
They say they have already implemented the majority of the 119 recommendations and that they have made the University stronger and more accountable.
The statment says "It is understandable that people will draw their own conclusions and opinions from the facts in the Freeh report" but they have used it to ensure failures like the ones in the Sandusky matter don't occur in the future.
Wick Sollers released the following statement about Freeh's response to the Paterno family's report:
Mr. Freeh's attack on the report this morning should trouble everyone who wants the truth on the Sandusky scandal. He criticizes a report he obviously hadn't had time to read and consider. And he refuses to address the critical factual and procedural failures in his own report, particularly his flawed conclusions which have only added to this tragedy.
The assertion by Mr. Freeh that somehow the Paterno family declined to cooperate with his investigators is an unfortunate distortion of the truth. I personally met with the Freeh team and pledged full cooperation. Joe Paterno's cancer diagnosis, treatment and subsequent death prevented him from being interviewed. But Jay Paterno was interviewed and I shared additional information available to me.
Being angry does not constitute a defense of poor work. A failure to consider the facts carefully is exactly the problem our expert analysis highlights. I encourage everyone, including Mr. Freeh, to take the time to study this report.
In her letter, Sue Paterno said the family only sought "the full record of what happened."
For more information visit: paterno.com.
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