Three quick takeaways from the Freeh report

Published July 12, 2012
Louis Freeh

I’m still reading, but here are some things we should take note of:

1. Wendell Courtney is an f’in liar

Penn State’s former lawyer-in-chief told the New York times in November that he would have been “duty bound to report to law enforcement officials any allegations of inappropriate conduct toward children by Sandusky” in 2001. Since it wasn’t reported,  he couldn’t have known about it, or so goes his logic.

The Freeh report begs to differ. On Feb. 11, 2001, Schultz and Courtney had a conversation about “reporting of suspected child abuse,” according to a billing record uncovered by investigators. And in 2010, when new general counsel Cynthia Baldwin was trying to figure out what happened a decade ago, he kept his conversation with Schultz from her.

Why would Courtney hide his knowledge from Baldwin? Your guess is as good as mine. He declined to talk with investigators, and has since lawyered up.

2. Sandusky retired because the time was right

Many blowhards – Altoona Mirror columnist Cory Giger immediately comes to mind – erroneously opined that Sandusky retired in 1999 as a result of the 1998 allegation. Instead, he retired because Paterno gave him an ultimatum – choose the head coaching job or The Second Mile, but not both. He choose The Second Mile, and took advantage of an early retirement package from the state. The 1998 incident had nothing to do with his retirement. But we already knew that. Now guys like Giger to do too.

3. Garban, Surma and Broadhurst have got to go

This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list, but we’ll start with these three buffoons. That’s because those trustees were told about the impending indictment a week before it was accidentally made public, but didn’t do much about it. Garban helped draft Spanier’s repugnant press statement that was released when the indictment was announced. But he kept knowledge of the indictment to himself. The other guys didn’t do much to prepare for the imminent disaster either. Hence the circus that ensued, and culminated with Joe’s firing. I can’t believe these guys are still on the board. If I were a trustee, I’d want them gone immediately.

That’s all for now. More to come.

 

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.klice John Klice

     Self-governing body

    Generally, the legal profession in the United States is a self-regulating and self-policing
    organization. Lawyers control the regulatory institutions that control
    lawyers, and such institutions are subject to supervision by the judiciary, which itself consists of lawyers who became judges. In contrast, many other professions, such as medicine, are controlled by executive branch
    disciplinary bodies that have many members who come from outside such
    professions, and who may have been appointed by the governor of the
    state, who is not necessarily a member of those professions.

    The concept of the self-regulating profession has repeatedly been
    attacked as ineffective in controlling unethical or incompetent lawyers,
    especially after the Watergate scandal.
    The Model Rules were specifically formulated by the ABA’s Kutak
    Commission after Watergate to demonstrate that the American legal
    profession was capable of regulating itself and to alleviate demands
    that lawyer regulation be centralized into federal or state agencies
    directly accountable to the public.

    NOTE: NO LAWYER HAS EVER BEEN ACCUSED, LET ALONE CONVICTED OF COVERING UP, (acting in concert<before, during, or after the fact), CHILD ABUSE, SEXUAL, PHYSICAL, OR PSYCHOLOGICAL….ANY PERJURY, OR SUBORNATION IN THESE CASES IS DISCIPLINED IN SECRET, BY A DISCIPLINARY BOARD… THE ROYAL TREATMENT THAT LAWYERS AND JUDGES GIVE THEMSELVES IN ANY CRISIS OF MORALITY…

    IF TOM CORBETT WERE HEAD COACH, WITH KBP AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR AND CB GIVING AWAY THE DEFENSIVE SIGNALS, EVEN A VAPID "HATCHET-MAN" FROM THE FBI COULD RUN FREEH WITH THE TRUTH… GOING WAY OUT OF BOUNDS AFTER THE SNAP…

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.klice John Klice

    NOTE: NO LAWYER HAS EVER BEEN ACCUSED, LET ALONE CONVICTED OF COVERING UP,
    (acting in concert before, during, or after the fact), CHILD ABUSE, SEXUAL,
    PHYSICAL, OR PSYCHOLOGICAL….ANY PERJURY, OR SUBORNATION IN THESE CASES IS
    DISCIPLINED IN SECRET, BY A DISCIPLINARY BOARD… THE ROYAL TREATMENT THAT
    LAWYERS AND JUDGES GIVE THEMSELVES IN ANY CRISIS OF MORALITY…

     

    IF TOM CORBETT WERE HEAD COACH, WITH KBP AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR AND CB
    GIVING AWAY THE DEFENSIVE SIGNALS, EVEN A VAPID “HATCHET-MAN” FROM
    THE FBI COULD RUN FREEH WITH THE TRUTH… GOING WAY OUT OF BOUNDS AFTER THE
    SNAP…

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.klice John Klice

    I am sorry something must be messing up my transfer with cut and paste… mea culpa…

     Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase traditionally attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal from his Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–8), which is literally translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?” Also sometimes rendered as “Who watches the watchmen?”