I can't answer your question directly, but I doubt Curley was the one to approve the arrangements relating to the Friends Fitness program. They might have run it through Tim, but I would suspect the approval came from above.
Breaking Curley News, WTAE.
- Thread starter jomouli23
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All these accolades AFTER (except for example 1) the fully investigated 1998 incident.
Then, in the midst of all these accolades, in 2001, an incident is reported to C/S/S that is nothing more than Sandusky showering with a kid around 9 or 10 o'clock at night (I can't tell you how many times I showered that late at night at either Rec Hall or the IM building after games. Lots of guys did). Even the kid in the shower agrees there was nothing to this until $3 million dollars is waived under his nose over 10 years later.
Move ahead to 2010/2011. The political climate changes, and, nationally, Jerry Sandusky's name is fading into history. The sitting Governor, who used to be the Attorney General, gets into a political power play with the most powerful College President in the State, and decides to utterly and eternally destroy him and his University. He throws all his investigators into State College, and bribes and manipulates victims to turn on a case that was going absolutely nowhere up to that point.
He bends every rule in the book wrt Statute of Limitations, timelines, etc, and changes thousands of peoples lives forever.
Moral of the story......stay the f-ck away from kids unless they are your own. Everyone has a price that they would accept to falsely stick you in the back years later if they ever needed it.
Yeah...to your last paragraph, sad that it has come to this. But after watching what a couple of parents who coached kids sports, I came to that conclusion long ago. Specifically, and I posted this before, a guy was accused of weird behavior when a young gal jumped into his arms after scoring a goal. He was forced to quit by the parent. Later, going through a divorce, his soon-to-be-ex brought it up as leverage in their settlement.
The absolutely LAST thing I would ever do is coach a girls team. As I told my wife, that is just a lawsuit waiting to happen.
We both agree that we were blessed to grow up in an era when both social media and the constant threat of a lawsuit didn't exist. I would absolutely hate being a kid or a young adult today. In fact, if I were 21 again, the safest thing to do would be to stay single so I wouldn't be accused of "stalking", and work at Walmart so I would never get sued.
From what I can tell from the relevant exhibits from the Freeh report, Erickson signed off on the "emeritus rank", which comes, apparently, with the same access as other faculty/staff to recreational facilities (which I doubt would include the football team facilities, though I don't see any solid information on that).
Looking at exhibit 3H, Sandusky and Curley negotiated, and Schultz signed off on, access to and an office in the East Area locker room complex (among other things).
I would assume that there's a finalized retirement agreement outlining all the details that Schultz and/or Spanier signed off on (I don't see why Curley would sign off on the final agreement), but isn't publicly available (that I can find anyway). I don't know if Erickson had to sign off on that final agreement or just had to sign off on granting "emeritus rank". Either way would make sense.
Exhibit 3H of the Freeh Report is the retirement agreement signed by Sandusky, Curley, and Schultz on June 29, 1999. Item 4 reads: "The University will permit you to use, at no charge, a locker, weight room, fitness facilities and training room in the East Area Locker Room complex. This benefit will continue for the balance of your lifetime." Item 6 reads: "For a period of 10 years, commencing July 1, 1999, and subject to renewal upon concurrences of both parties, you will be given an office and phone in the East Area Locker Room complex for purposes of collaborative agreements referenced in no. 5 above (relating to collaborative programs to be established between Sandusky, The Second Mile, and Intercollegiate Athletics)."
Erickson wasn't approached about Jerry's emeritus status (which is only a formal approval; the President has final and ultimate authority to grant or deny emeritus status) until late August 1999 - more than two months after Jerry's retirement agreement (bringing with it Jerry's access to football facilities and office space) was executed and went into effect. This is Exhibit 3I of the Freeh Report.
Simply put, the designation of emeritus status was irrelevant to Jerry's access, and even if he hadn't been granted emeritus status it wouldn't have impacted the privileges he was given under the retirement agreement executed several months prior. In any case, emeritus status only provides access to university recreational facilities, not dedicated intercollegiate athletics facilities like Lasch or the East Area Locker Room.
Correct Joe was against it. Correct Erickson approved it. Erickson also thought it was unusual but approved it because Spanier requested that it be approved. Sandusky and the emeritus status and use of facilities is on Spanier.
And prison is also full of people who do not heed the advice of counsel, such as being advised by counsel to report an incident of possible child abuse to the authorities.
It wouldn't have mattered. Under the university's policies at the time, the President has exclusive authority to grant emeritus status on an "exception" basis, and there's no apparent mechanism in the policies for anyone (including the Provost) to overrule the President if he awards emeritus status on an exception basis. That's what Bob Secor told Erickson in their August 1999 email exchange: that if Spanier granted it, it was functionally done and there wasn't a mechanism to stand against it.
thanks for this post, I think people forget 'who' JS was and are like, 'well everybody knew that'.
Who cares? JS was viewed by all at the time to be a pillar of the community who received state and federal govt accolades for his state licensed charity's work. It would have been great if freeh's 8.5 MILLION dollar investigation actually figured out who was the person who ordered the agreement to be signed (my guess is someone on the BOT told Spanier to get it done since Spanier himself said he hardly knew JS or socialized with him).
This speculation is moot since JS' access to PSU facilities didn't enable his abuse, his access to kids did which PSU admins had NOTHING to do with. Both 98 and 01 were reported DIRECTLY to the folks who had control over JS' access to kids but alas the state wanted nothing to do with looking into how/why those folks FAILED to do their damned jobs and follow the CPSL.
MM himself testified that after 2001 he never once saw JS around the program with kids again. PSU admins did their job as far as I'm concerned. The ball was then dropped BIG time by JR and TSM after TC was on their doorstep complaining about JS inappropriate showering behavior.
It is odd for a sports coach to be given emeritus status. However, I know when JVP was first hired he was technically a professor of physical education (in addition to football coach), so it would not have been unusual with that title. I have no idea how long that hiring practice persisted (it is obviously outdated today) or if Jerry (who was with the program for along time) was originally hired with that title. That would make it less weird.
However, that doesn't make it unheard of. Dean Smith had an office at UNC for many years after his retirement and I'm sure had access to athletic facilities.
Woody was another one--though his emeritus office was in the ROTC building (he was a military history buff).
Ookk. Not sure what that has to do with anything. Fact is, JS was granted access. It wasn't tied to anything other than the fact that he retired, with emeritus status, and negotiated access to other facilities. But all that still doesn't mean that also doesn't come with Emeritus status. perhaps someone wanted to have it documented so that if emeritus status changed, it was specific to JS' package.
Either way, as part of his status as a former employee, coach and TSM founder, people were unconcerned at that time, to give him access to a ton of PSU facilities.
Are you suggesting that they should not have given him access or that the should have given him access? Giving him access, to me, shows that they were not alarmed by 1998.
I just don't understand your point.
I think the point was a previous poster's assertion that guys like Erickson who signed off on Sandusky's access to Lasch have gotten off the hook. It seems like Erickson may not have been involved at all on Sandusky's access to the football facilities (just his "emertius rank").
Erickson did really screw up once he took over as president by not taking MM's whistleblower status into account and handling his termination MUCH more carefully than his immediate predecessors.
Oh...I agree with that. I never blamed E for signing off on JS' status when he retired. At that point, who knew?
Moral of the story is that you don't let employees or former employees bring random kids into the office after hours for showers. It blows my mind is that this was not common sense to former Penn State administrators. If your work had a police investigation involving you in the shower with some kid would they continue to let you bring random kids in the shower after hours? It should have been a wake up call that this is a bad idea. Instead the incompetent administrators at Penn State thought it was no big deal. Penn State had no clue if these kids were second mile or just some kid he picked up off the street. He was employed by Penn State to be football coach. Not to shower with little boys. If he wanted to work out with second mile kids then he should have done it at the Y or at a Penn State facility that was open to other people. Just because you showered at Rec Hall late at night doesn't justify the stupidity of letting a grown man bring random kids into a locked facility to shower. If your kids coach said he wanted your kid to come over after the school was closed and everyone was gone for a work out and shower would you let him or her?
It blows my mind that the state of PA applauded and tried to spread to multiple counties the "Friend Fitness" program started by TSM in Centre County. How in the world did the state's child care experts think it would be a good idea to get adults to do 1:1 workouts with kids/teens (a lawsuit waiting to happen)??
How dare the PSU admins not know better than the phd's and child care experts working at TSM and PA CYS/DPW who promoted the "Friend Fitness" program and deemed '98 to be no big deal/normal coach behavior!!
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Rip Engle was given the same Emeritus status when he retired.
https://www.libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/272.htm
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Plus, those admins knew that the individual they were dealing with (Sandusky) had been fully investigated by law enforcement, and nothing came of it. That investigation was just one year ago when they were negotiating the retirement agreement with him. They were in a unique position to know that Sandusky was *less* of a liability with children than the average person, having had an unfounded allegation.
your problem is, right down the street from me, they have a public pool where you are supposed to shower before and after entering the pool. Kids, adults, babies...doesn't matter. No policing, no policies, no supervision. This isn't uncommon today, and it was even more common in 1998/2001. Moreover, Jerry (like a lot of people that work with single parents of a different sex) worked with kids that are going through puberty to teach them how to groom and wash. A mom doesn't know how to tell a boy, or a dad doesn't know how to teach a young gal.
That is what makes Jerry, and those that pray on young teens, so dangerous. This kind of creepy, edgy behavior isn't uncommon and in many cases, is needed. It has become a very dangerous business for those sincerely working in that industry.
Exactly correct. its not like Jerry fooled just CSS&P. That guy was working in the industry for decades and had several investigations by various groups charged with oversight. And not just of TSM, but when he adopted.
To suggest Joe should have known, is simply a fantasy. (and the basis of Clemente's report)
Fixed it for you:
This is on Jack Raykovitz. I'm sorry that I continue to harp on the issue - but Jack testified in March that Jerry did NOT provide any counseling, mentoring, therapy or services to Second Mile youth. He was purely that of Chairman, Emcee & Fundraiser.
Everyone else involved in this mess has told me that they thought Jerry was actively mentoring these kids with full oversight & approval of Second Mile leadership.
So someone is lying. I suspect it's Jack - and he did it while sitting in Laura Ditka's witness chair.
But hey - Just.Wear.Swim.Trunks
This is on Jack Raykovitz. I'm sorry that I continue to harp on the issue - but Jack testified in March that Jerry did NOT provide any counseling, mentoring, therapy or services to Second Mile youth. He was purely that of Chairman, Emcee & Fundraiser.
Everyone else involved in this mess has told me that they thought Jerry was actively mentoring these kids with full oversight & approval of Second Mile leadership.
So someone is lying. I suspect it's Jack - and he did it while sitting in Laura Ditka's witness chair.
But hey - Just.Wear.Swim.Trunks
I would bet a month's pay that JVP told Tim something on the order of, "Hey, you guys deal with this. He's not under my employ anymore, I told Erickson I didn't want him around the Lasch building with kids and Old Main over-ruled me. Fry his ass for all I care but leave me out of it."
And this is where Jack Raykovitz should have sat Jerry down in a chair and read him the riot act.
There is no legit reason for a non-related adult to do this - especially when you're the high profile figurehead of a successful kids charity.
The goal of the offender is to get the victim undressed. The shower or locker room is the perfect place to do that.
Why Jack didn't point this out to Jerry and slap him upside the head is beyond me.
There is no legit reason for a non-related adult to do this - especially when you're the high profile figurehead of a successful kids charity.
The goal of the offender is to get the victim undressed. The shower or locker room is the perfect place to do that.
Why Jack didn't point this out to Jerry and slap him upside the head is beyond me.
"If your kids coach said he wanted your kid to come over after the school was closed and everyone was gone for a work out and shower would you let him or her?"
When I was in school, this happened all the time. Now this was the 70's but the time when this all changed was 2002 after the Boston Globe blew up with the institutional issues of the Catholic Church.
In my school, coaches had unfettered access to the gym. Often, coaches would stay late to work with players in all sorts of athletics. Then, they were supposed to shower. Some schools had separate facilities for players and coaches, others did not. It was pretty common. I, as a teen, participated but don't recall ever being approached by a man at all. I do recall being groped by a dude who used to cut my hair (he'd drop his comb on your lap) and a local tailer (who'd check to see if you had enough room in your crotch). We used to laugh about it.
Totally agree, Wendy. And this is where Corbett comes in. The state is supposed to monitor these organizations? And that is where we see Mr. Corbett covering his ass by blaming everyone else.
As well as assigning a rookie narcotics cop to investigate the case. Not the pedo unit that he developed specifically for cases such as the JS deal. Why would he do that? He can't be that dumb....he knew what was going on at the 2M and he was protecting the "good ole boy" network.
I'd like to smack that man upside the head too.
WHY has he been allowed to fall off the radar? After all the damage he did?
WHY has he been allowed to fall off the radar? After all the damage he did?
Sassano being brought in makes some sense in that he was a PSU grad and lives close by. But, before he was assigned to the case, Tpr. Rossman was brought in to be the lead PSP investigator. Rossman was brought in from the Avondale barracks and testified recently at the PCRA hearing that he had no CSA experience prior to the case. There's 89 PSP barracks and they bring in a trooper from Montgomery County with no CSA experience. Strange coincidence @wensilver ?
Or maybe Corbett (along with Raykovitz) knew, like others in the know, that there was no actual wrongdoing, but just a bunch of unfounded allegations and misunderstood goofiness/boundary issues with Sandusky and TSM (so everything was actually monitored appropriately, if not adequately safeguarded for liability purposes).
However, Corbett was strongly opposed to Spanier and his approach at the university, and used the whole scandal as a weapon to depose him, completely in bad faith.
At least Corbett paid the political price for his wrongdoings when the voters deposed him in 2014. What irony...
There a huge difference in taking the kid to the YMCA when it open to work out and with others compared to bringing a kid to a closed restricted access building when no one else is around.
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I don't understand why I people don't get the difference between a public locker room like your neighborhood YMCA and a locked building after hours. The Lasch building and the west lockeroom facility is not a public facility that people come and go from. He was bringing kids in after hours when there was no one around. I hope you are not dumb enough to believe the only way to teach grooming habits is to take them into a locker room at night and get naked with them.
Child sex abuse was known well before 2002. Any coach with half a brain would not put themselves in a position to be accused and alone with a kid like that. I worked with kids well before 2002 and knew that you do not put yourself in a position or anyone else in a position to be falsely accused.
Actually, PSP Trooper Timothy Lear (Huntington) was originally assigned to the case, but he was taken off the case in mid-to-late 2009 because his ex-girlfriend filed assault charges against him (and unlawful breaking and entering). Rossman then served a couple months and ultimately Sassano was brought on in 2010. Pretty weak sense of urgency when AG Corbutt states this is what DPW handed to the OAG on 3/3/2009 in his seminal 2009 V1 SWIGJ Application:
This also demonstrates what a bald-faced lie Raykovitz's 3/31/2011 "Response" to the HPN was wherein he claims that TSM has never been under investigation. The DPW, via their Clinton County CYS Office, is the very STATE AGENCY that initiated the V1 Investigation under PA Child Protective Services Law! Sandusky was at Central Mountain High School under the auspice of The Second Mile with the permission of DPW's Clinton County CYS Office - not only that, but JS doing TSM work at CMHS had been going on for several years at the time of V1's late-Nov 2008 complaint and TSM was conducting so much work in Clinton County that the DPW's CYS Office there EMPLOYED A FULL-TIME "Second Mile Coordinator"!!! Not only all that, but upon V1's Complaint and DPW's subsequent investigation, the Clinton County CYS Office terminated the "Second Mile Coordinator" position, banned The Second Mile from Clinton County, Notified The Second Mile's Home Office of the Sanctions and Forwarded their "Indicated Report of Child Sexual Abuse" resulting from V1's Nov 2008 Report to Law Enforcement for prosecution! This is the same DPW "Indicated Report of CSA" with a request for Justice System Prosecution that was sent to ever-corrupt AG Corbutt on 3/3/2009 which resulted in Corbutt's initiation of a SWIGJ that:
- Investigation based upon a founded Clinton County Children and Youth Services complaint alleging sexual assault by a Centre county adult male upon a juvenile male with whom he became acquainted through his sponsorship of a· charity for disadvantaged youth.
- The investigation concerns allegations of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and corruption of minors in Clinton and Centre counties.
- It is believed that other minor males have been similarly assaulted through this connection (i.e., TSM).
well, that is the same as my high school gym. All the coaches had keys. They could go in and out at any time. But it was locked up to anyone else. If you were in there at 10:30 on a Friday night, you'd expect privacy (or at least here someone coming as the door slammed behind them).
Of course it was "known", but it wasn't exposed as an institutional problem. Tons of laws were changed as a result, and public was made aware. Any claim other than that is disingenuous, IMHO. When I was a kid, we made fun of sickos. We knew who they were and avoided them.
Tell you what, I've got a single guy down the road from me with a drinking problem. He's also got a drinking problem with a young teen age son. I see teen aged kids, under driving age, walking in and out at all times of the day and night. I know this happens when he is home and when he is not, same as his adult house guest. Should I call the cops? I am also good friends we two married guys (to each other) who adopted three young sons. They give the sons baths. Should I call the cops?
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