STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) – The president of Penn State is decrying new allegations that former coach Joe Paterno was told that Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused a child as early as 1976 and that two assistant coaches witnessed the abuse of other children.
President Eric Barron said in a letter Sunday to the university community that he was “appalled by the rumor, innuendo and rush to judgment” accompanying the stories.
Some of the allegations were revealed in an order last week by Philadelphia Judge Gary Glazer in litigation between an insurance company and the university. The insurers cited an allegation that a boy had told the longtime Penn State football coach in 1976 that he had been molested by Sandusky, who was an assistant coach. The court document also cited reports by unnamed assistant coaches who said they witnessed inappropriate contact between Sandusky and children in the 80s.
Barron said those allegations, and others raised in some news reports in recent days about allegations related to knowledge by Paterno, are “unsubstantiated and unsupported by any evidence other than a claim by an alleged victim.”
“Coach Paterno is not alive to refute them. His family has denied them,” he said. Some of the press reports, he said, “should be difficult for any reasonable person to believe.”