The statue of former Penn State University head football coach Joe Paterno stands outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa. After an eight-month inquiry, former FBI director Louis Freeh’s firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that Paterno and other top Penn State officials hushed up child sex abuse allegations against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky for more than a decade for fear of bad publicity, allowing Sandusky to prey on other youngsters. The revelations contained in the report have stirred a debate over whether the statue should remain.By MARK SCOLFORO and MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. – If he were alive today, Joe Paterno – the coach who stood for so long for character and integrity both on and off the football field – could be looking at charges such as child endangerment, perjury and conspiracy.
Legal experts said emails and other evidence in the Penn State investigative report released Thursday suggest that Paterno may have misled a grand jury when asked when he first heard about Jerry Sandusky’s misconduct, and show that Paterno and other university officials put boys in danger with their failure to report sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky more than a decade ago.
Duquesne University law professor Wes Oliver said the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh reads like a prosecution case for a child endangerment charge against Paterno, then-President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired vice president Gary Schultz. Oliver noted that a former top official in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was convicted of that charge in June for allowing a suspected pedophile priest to be around children.