Penn State Sentences: Shakespearian Tragedy Or Comedy Of Errors?
The Man Who Made Penn State's Showers Safe Again
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net
I have posted this entire MUST READ article.
Penn State Sentences: Shakespearian Tragedy Or Comedy Of Errors?
The Man Who Made Penn State's Showers Safe Again
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net
Judge John Boccabella proclaimed that he was witnessing a Shakespearian tragedy on Friday when he sentenced Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz to jail for misdemeanors.
But actually it was a farce that the judge was presiding over. "The Comedy of Errors" -- [Shakespeare wrote that one too] -- that Boccabella had a starring role in.
To start things off, the prosecutors in the case wrote an insane sentencing memorandum where they proposed abandoning the law, as well as all logic and common decency, in favor of mob rule.
What the prosecutors proposed was to hold Graham Spanier and one of their own cooperating witnesses -- former athletic director Curley -- personally responsible for the actions of bloggers, and the politically incorrect statements of some of Spanier's defenders.
As crazy as that notion was, Judge Boccabella promptly ratified it by sending all three former Penn State administrators off to jail on Friday for a misdemeanor crime that they weren't guilty of, for supposedly breaking a child endangerment law that never even applied to them.
All because of the blasphemies of others.
According to the PennLive report on Friday's sentencing, the judge said that despite the fact that the three Penn State administrators had lost their jobs and their reputations because of this fiasco, a message of deterrence was still needed.
Because some at Penn State, including members of the board of trustees, were still making excuses about what supposedly happened at Penn State, the judge said. And some of those people actually had the nerve to question the truthfulness and motives of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims.
Oh no, not the sainted victims of child abuse! Horrors!
We're talking about the Happy Valley version of the Septa bus crash, where 33 alleged victims got in line to collect $93 million that the university was handing out, no questions asked. The actions of the Penn state trustees were so irresponsible that their own insurance carrier wound up suing them.
In case you haven't done the math, the payouts amount to $2.8 million each. And, according to the rules of the game, as practiced in Happy Valley, none of the victims had to even reveal their real names. But according to the Honorable Judge Boccabella, it's beyond skepticism to suggest that a few fakers might have gotten in line for that kind of lottery.
In case you're unfamiliar with the legend of the Septa bus crash, it's a Philadelphia specialty where a bus with 3 people on it crashes. And after all the lawyers in the case get through, 20 people file claims for damages in court.
But in Happy Valley, it's even easier to collect.
In the Penn State lottery, the university just put aside a pot of gold, and let the plaintiffs's lawyers decide who got what. And it didn't matter that the trustees only put $60 million in the pot. And the gold rush promptly overspent the budget by $33 million.
No problem, we'll just pay all those bills, no questions asked. After all, it's only fair. Why prolong the suffering of the alleged "victims" by asking them any questions. Like is it true you actually claimed that Joe Paterno got in the shower with you and Jerry? And then you got paid?
Anybody have any questions about such a process that's played out behind closed doors and under court seal, where the alleged victims grabbing those FAT CHECKS don't even have to state their real names?
No possibility of fraud there, right? After all, people don't lie. Especially alleged victims of sex abuse. And certainly their lawyers can be trusted.
All the way to the bank.
Never mind that in Philadelphia, in a travesty that coincided with the Penn State scandal, a fraudster dubbed "Billy Doe" -- whose real name is Danny Gallagher -- just collected $5 million for his alleged pain and suffering in an out-of-court settlement with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Even though Billy Doe/Danny Gallagher has since been revealed as a complete fraud who just stole that money.
And if you don't believe me, just ask the retired detective who was the district attorney's lead investigator.
If there was any justice in Happy Valley, it would be Penn State's trustees who would be on trial for abandoning their fiduciary duties. But instead, Judge Boccabella was conducting an inquisition. Where Spanier, Curley and Schultz would have to pay for the blasphemies spoken by others.
Because in Happy Valley, under the rules of the Penn State scandal, it's blasphemy to question the truthfulness and the motives of any of Jerry's alleged victims.
As long as such an atmosphere of denial exists in Happy Valley, the judge declared, "a similar incident could occur at any time"
That's right, Judge. At any moment, Mike McQueary could walk back into the showers at Penn State, and witness another former Penn State coach cavorting naked with another boy. And then, Mike could do nothing about it for another ten years.
Just like he did the first time.
Nice logic, Judge. But this is the same judge who introduced a 28-year-old witness to the jury as "John Doe." So everybody could pretend that instead of a grown man with a net worth of $8 million, Michal Kajak was a frightened 10 year-old boy who needed his Mommy and a box of Kleenex to get through a brutal inquisition where the defense lawyers in the case were too frightened to ask a question.
Oh, please stop the torture! And get that sobbing witness another tissue.
In case you missed it, after he got through ratifying the notion of mob rule, the Honorable Judge Boccabella promptly sentenced former Penn State President Graham Spanier to 4 to 12 months in jail, with two months of it under house arrest.
Former Athletic Director Tim Curley got 7 to 23 months; former Penn State VP Gary Schultz got 6 to 23 months. But half of Schultz and Curley's sentences will also be under house arrest.
Let's keep in mind that these three men had clean records and were being sentenced for a misdemeanor, where a fine and/or probation would have been appropriate.
In any other case where the media wasn't all over it, and the prosecutors weren't screaming for blood.
But actually, these guys should have never even gone on trial. But they did, thanks to one other legacy from Philadelphia -- bad case law made in the Billy Doe scandal.
I've written about this before, but I don't think people get it.
So, let's try again.
Before the Billy Doe case came along, between 1972 and 2007, the only 300 people in Pennsylvania who were charged with endangering the welfare of a child were people who had direct contact with children, such as parents, teachers and guardians.
In 2005, a grand jury investigating sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia wanted to charge Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and Msgr. William J. Lynn with endangering the welfare of a child.
The same stunt the AG's office pulled with Curley, Scultz and Spanier. Only it was about real crimes.
But a grand jury and Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham stated in the grand jury report that the state's child endangerment law, passed in 1972, only applied to people who had direct contact with children, such as parents, teachers and guardians.
So that's why the grand jury and Abraham couldn't charge the cardinal or the monsignor with endangering the welfare of a child. Even though, according to the grand jury, they had been involved in a cover up that had shielded some 60 pedophile priests from prosecution for raping hundreds of child victims.
Abraham promptly led a statewide drive to amend the law, and the state Legislature complied by passing an amendment tin 2007 that added supervisors to the law.
So, under the rules of the game in Pennsylvania, Spanier, Curley and Schultz could have never even been charged with child endangerment, until some bad case law got made.
Those blood-thirsty prosecutors in the state's Attorney-General's office would have never been able to write their insane sentencing memoranda. And the Honorable John Boccabella wouldn't have had to preside over a Shakespearian tragedy.
So what happened?
In 2009, along came an unscrupulous, ambitious District Attorney in Philadelphia, Seth Williams, who, like those blood-thirsty prosecutors in the AG's office, didn't have any interest in the rule of law.
Instead, Williams went out in 2011 and indicted Msgr. Lynn under the state's original 1972 child endangerment law with no explanation for what he did.
And what he did was pretend that there had been 2005 grand jury report from Abraham, and no 2007 amendment of the state law. Instead, Rufus Seth Williams decided to make his own law.
Keep in mind this is the same unscrupulous district attorney, Rufus Seth Williams, who is facing a 29-count federal indictment charging bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and wire fraud.
But maybe his worse crime was what he did to the law.
Msgr. Lynn, of course was convicted at a 2013 trial, on one felony count of child endangerment, and he got sentenced to 3 to 6 years.
Later that same year, the state Superior Court declared that the sky was blue. The court declared that the state's original child endangerment law didn't apply to supervisors. Only to people who had direct contact with children, such as parents teachers and guardians.
D.A. Williams promptly appealed.
That's when, in 2015, the state Supreme Court made some bad case law. The Supremes overturned the overturning of Msgr. Lynn's conviction. By saying the sky was purple.
They did it by clairvoyantly reinterpreting the meaning of the original 1972 state child endangerment law to declare that they originally meant to include supervisors.
In making bad case law, the Supremes ignored the actions of the 2005 grand jury in Philadelphia. And the actions of the state legislature in 2007 to amend the child endangerment law to include supervisors.
But that's of little comfort to Spanier, Curley and Schultz as they head off to jail.
But at least the citizens of Dauphin County, and the gullible media, can applaud the actions of the Honorable John Boccabella. That courageous judge, who with his tough jail sentences for the Penn State trio, assured that the showers at the Lasch Building will be safe again, and free of pedophiles.
The Man Who Made Penn State's Showers Safe Again
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net
I have posted this entire MUST READ article.
Penn State Sentences: Shakespearian Tragedy Or Comedy Of Errors?
The Man Who Made Penn State's Showers Safe Again
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net
Judge John Boccabella proclaimed that he was witnessing a Shakespearian tragedy on Friday when he sentenced Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz to jail for misdemeanors.
But actually it was a farce that the judge was presiding over. "The Comedy of Errors" -- [Shakespeare wrote that one too] -- that Boccabella had a starring role in.
To start things off, the prosecutors in the case wrote an insane sentencing memorandum where they proposed abandoning the law, as well as all logic and common decency, in favor of mob rule.
What the prosecutors proposed was to hold Graham Spanier and one of their own cooperating witnesses -- former athletic director Curley -- personally responsible for the actions of bloggers, and the politically incorrect statements of some of Spanier's defenders.
As crazy as that notion was, Judge Boccabella promptly ratified it by sending all three former Penn State administrators off to jail on Friday for a misdemeanor crime that they weren't guilty of, for supposedly breaking a child endangerment law that never even applied to them.
All because of the blasphemies of others.
According to the PennLive report on Friday's sentencing, the judge said that despite the fact that the three Penn State administrators had lost their jobs and their reputations because of this fiasco, a message of deterrence was still needed.
Because some at Penn State, including members of the board of trustees, were still making excuses about what supposedly happened at Penn State, the judge said. And some of those people actually had the nerve to question the truthfulness and motives of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims.
Oh no, not the sainted victims of child abuse! Horrors!
We're talking about the Happy Valley version of the Septa bus crash, where 33 alleged victims got in line to collect $93 million that the university was handing out, no questions asked. The actions of the Penn state trustees were so irresponsible that their own insurance carrier wound up suing them.
In case you haven't done the math, the payouts amount to $2.8 million each. And, according to the rules of the game, as practiced in Happy Valley, none of the victims had to even reveal their real names. But according to the Honorable Judge Boccabella, it's beyond skepticism to suggest that a few fakers might have gotten in line for that kind of lottery.
In case you're unfamiliar with the legend of the Septa bus crash, it's a Philadelphia specialty where a bus with 3 people on it crashes. And after all the lawyers in the case get through, 20 people file claims for damages in court.
But in Happy Valley, it's even easier to collect.
In the Penn State lottery, the university just put aside a pot of gold, and let the plaintiffs's lawyers decide who got what. And it didn't matter that the trustees only put $60 million in the pot. And the gold rush promptly overspent the budget by $33 million.
No problem, we'll just pay all those bills, no questions asked. After all, it's only fair. Why prolong the suffering of the alleged "victims" by asking them any questions. Like is it true you actually claimed that Joe Paterno got in the shower with you and Jerry? And then you got paid?
Anybody have any questions about such a process that's played out behind closed doors and under court seal, where the alleged victims grabbing those FAT CHECKS don't even have to state their real names?
No possibility of fraud there, right? After all, people don't lie. Especially alleged victims of sex abuse. And certainly their lawyers can be trusted.
All the way to the bank.
Never mind that in Philadelphia, in a travesty that coincided with the Penn State scandal, a fraudster dubbed "Billy Doe" -- whose real name is Danny Gallagher -- just collected $5 million for his alleged pain and suffering in an out-of-court settlement with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Even though Billy Doe/Danny Gallagher has since been revealed as a complete fraud who just stole that money.
And if you don't believe me, just ask the retired detective who was the district attorney's lead investigator.
If there was any justice in Happy Valley, it would be Penn State's trustees who would be on trial for abandoning their fiduciary duties. But instead, Judge Boccabella was conducting an inquisition. Where Spanier, Curley and Schultz would have to pay for the blasphemies spoken by others.
Because in Happy Valley, under the rules of the Penn State scandal, it's blasphemy to question the truthfulness and the motives of any of Jerry's alleged victims.
As long as such an atmosphere of denial exists in Happy Valley, the judge declared, "a similar incident could occur at any time"
That's right, Judge. At any moment, Mike McQueary could walk back into the showers at Penn State, and witness another former Penn State coach cavorting naked with another boy. And then, Mike could do nothing about it for another ten years.
Just like he did the first time.
Nice logic, Judge. But this is the same judge who introduced a 28-year-old witness to the jury as "John Doe." So everybody could pretend that instead of a grown man with a net worth of $8 million, Michal Kajak was a frightened 10 year-old boy who needed his Mommy and a box of Kleenex to get through a brutal inquisition where the defense lawyers in the case were too frightened to ask a question.
Oh, please stop the torture! And get that sobbing witness another tissue.
In case you missed it, after he got through ratifying the notion of mob rule, the Honorable Judge Boccabella promptly sentenced former Penn State President Graham Spanier to 4 to 12 months in jail, with two months of it under house arrest.
Former Athletic Director Tim Curley got 7 to 23 months; former Penn State VP Gary Schultz got 6 to 23 months. But half of Schultz and Curley's sentences will also be under house arrest.
Let's keep in mind that these three men had clean records and were being sentenced for a misdemeanor, where a fine and/or probation would have been appropriate.
In any other case where the media wasn't all over it, and the prosecutors weren't screaming for blood.
But actually, these guys should have never even gone on trial. But they did, thanks to one other legacy from Philadelphia -- bad case law made in the Billy Doe scandal.
I've written about this before, but I don't think people get it.
So, let's try again.
Before the Billy Doe case came along, between 1972 and 2007, the only 300 people in Pennsylvania who were charged with endangering the welfare of a child were people who had direct contact with children, such as parents, teachers and guardians.
In 2005, a grand jury investigating sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia wanted to charge Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and Msgr. William J. Lynn with endangering the welfare of a child.
The same stunt the AG's office pulled with Curley, Scultz and Spanier. Only it was about real crimes.
But a grand jury and Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham stated in the grand jury report that the state's child endangerment law, passed in 1972, only applied to people who had direct contact with children, such as parents, teachers and guardians.
So that's why the grand jury and Abraham couldn't charge the cardinal or the monsignor with endangering the welfare of a child. Even though, according to the grand jury, they had been involved in a cover up that had shielded some 60 pedophile priests from prosecution for raping hundreds of child victims.
Abraham promptly led a statewide drive to amend the law, and the state Legislature complied by passing an amendment tin 2007 that added supervisors to the law.
So, under the rules of the game in Pennsylvania, Spanier, Curley and Schultz could have never even been charged with child endangerment, until some bad case law got made.
Those blood-thirsty prosecutors in the state's Attorney-General's office would have never been able to write their insane sentencing memoranda. And the Honorable John Boccabella wouldn't have had to preside over a Shakespearian tragedy.
So what happened?
In 2009, along came an unscrupulous, ambitious District Attorney in Philadelphia, Seth Williams, who, like those blood-thirsty prosecutors in the AG's office, didn't have any interest in the rule of law.
Instead, Williams went out in 2011 and indicted Msgr. Lynn under the state's original 1972 child endangerment law with no explanation for what he did.
And what he did was pretend that there had been 2005 grand jury report from Abraham, and no 2007 amendment of the state law. Instead, Rufus Seth Williams decided to make his own law.
Keep in mind this is the same unscrupulous district attorney, Rufus Seth Williams, who is facing a 29-count federal indictment charging bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and wire fraud.
But maybe his worse crime was what he did to the law.
Msgr. Lynn, of course was convicted at a 2013 trial, on one felony count of child endangerment, and he got sentenced to 3 to 6 years.
Later that same year, the state Superior Court declared that the sky was blue. The court declared that the state's original child endangerment law didn't apply to supervisors. Only to people who had direct contact with children, such as parents teachers and guardians.
D.A. Williams promptly appealed.
That's when, in 2015, the state Supreme Court made some bad case law. The Supremes overturned the overturning of Msgr. Lynn's conviction. By saying the sky was purple.
They did it by clairvoyantly reinterpreting the meaning of the original 1972 state child endangerment law to declare that they originally meant to include supervisors.
In making bad case law, the Supremes ignored the actions of the 2005 grand jury in Philadelphia. And the actions of the state legislature in 2007 to amend the child endangerment law to include supervisors.
But that's of little comfort to Spanier, Curley and Schultz as they head off to jail.
But at least the citizens of Dauphin County, and the gullible media, can applaud the actions of the Honorable John Boccabella. That courageous judge, who with his tough jail sentences for the Penn State trio, assured that the showers at the Lasch Building will be safe again, and free of pedophiles.
