[NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff

Fri Nov 11 12:33:24 CST 2011

I don't want to see this story go any deeper than it has, but I will make one prediction. 

"The deeper issue with this entire story is that back in 1998, when Sandusky was caught the
first time, Paterno exercised his power as head coach and essentially fired him from the
program.'

It is highly doubtful that Sandusky's behavior started at age 55. By the time the dust settles, I think we'll learn that his trail of victims goes back to the 70s and that there were "rumors" around the football program for a long time before 1998. 

Jim

________________________________
From: Roy S. Lamberton <rstetson at capps-assoc.com>
To: 'Jim Leonard' <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>; 'Northwestern Wildcats' <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 11:24 AM
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff

Of course you realize that McQueary is getting death threats because he reported the
incident to Joe Pa, as you normally would do, and because of everyone else's inaction, he
is now perceived as the culprit in all this - the man who brought down the icon.

In reading almost all of the various stories about McQueary, he: 1. Is originally from
State College and was a HS football star there, 2. Was recruited by JoePa and apparently
considered him one step down from God 3. Played well enough at Penn State to eventually
start, 3. Was one of those guys who stay around their college program, trying to move up
the ladder until they reached the top job.

I'm sure that when he saw Jerry Sandusky engaging in sodomy against what it appeared to
be, and later turned out to be a young boy, he was shocked and figured his Penn State
career was over regardless of what he did. I'm sure he had heard the rumors about 1998,
and was conflicted about whether Sandusky would even be charged, much less convicted. 

Remember, nothing much came of the 1998 investigation.

So he told his boss, Joe Paterno, and carried on regardless of how he felt, because, I
would guess, Joe Paterno told him that he would take care of it. 

I'm sure Paterno thought, "Oh Crap, Sandusky is at it again..." and passed the info on the
his "boss" the AD.

The deeper issue with this entire story is that back in 1998, when Sandusky was caught the
first time, Paterno exercised his power as head coach and essentially fired him from the
program. To apparently ease the situation, they allowed Sandusky to continue in some kind
of emeritus position, and allowed him an office and a phone. He probably helped with
recruiting some of the kids he'd been working on prior to the first incident and Penn
State wanted to continue the apparently positive work of his foundation.

(FWIW - Oklahoma did the same thing for Barry Switzer after they forced him out, so I
wasn't surprised that they let Sandusky keep a campus presence.)

And remember also that back in 1998, Pedophilia was not quite the hot button with police
that it is today. Forming task forces in Attorney General's offices has been a relatively
new thing and prior to the 90's, making those cases could sometimes be difficult because
of needing credible witnesses, and a lack of laws making child pornography a separate
violation. Cracking computer storage also wasn't something at the front of vice units of
law enforcement. Besides, Sandusky engaged deviant sexual conduct with young boys, and
didn't collect dirty pictures.

Apparently the present State of Pennsylvania Attorney General, backed by the former AG who
is now Governor, will take more action regarding Sandusky's alleged crime. You have to
wonder if the disappearance of the County Attorney, who some speculate committed suicide,
is tied to the reappearance of the charges against Sandusky, especially since they had
originally decided not to prosecute Sandusky. It’s a shame the hard drive on the laptop
was unreadable.

At this point I don't think calling for shutting down Penn State's football program, or
taking the "profits" from the program, or any of the other things some people are
proposing will make a bit of difference in the final analysis. Or - IMHO - Wilbon was
right last night.

All head coaches will now have to take a closer look at their assistants, and the
hangers-on around their program. The issues surrounding Miami, and OSU, also related not
to the staff, but those who wanted to be close to the athletes for those schools and were
willing to pay for access. 

It is obvious that Sandusky needed his foundation to be close to the football program
because it gave him credibility, and Penn State wanted to be associated with the work of
that foundation. 

There will be a lot more changes around Div I athletics because of this, many not for the
better.

rsl

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-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jim
Leonard
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 10:00 AM
To: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff

For the record, it is very easy for me to say what I would have done. I was raised not to
look the other way when children are abused. McQueary was raised with some other standard
and he can live with that every time he looks in the mirror. I realize that I'm at
outlier, but I have challenged authority many times in my life. That's part of the reason
I am generally unpopular.

I am not going after him so much as I am attacking Penn State for standing by him. 

Imagine that today the PSU running backs coach used racial slurs in reference to Nebraska
players. What would happen? Penn State would immediately suspend or fire the guy because
"people who make statements like that cannot represent us." HOWEVER, you look the other
way when you see a boy being raped and then stay quite for 8+ years? Sure, stay on the
payroll and continue to represent the school. What. A. Joke. 

Jim

PS - I am still at a loss as to how McQueary's father didn't tip off police. That makes me
think this cover up gets MUCH bigger in the coming months. 

________________________________
From: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
To: Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>
Cc: Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff

In regards to the whistleblower part, I have absolutely no knowledge if that is the case
or not -- I was just saying that it was an interesting possibility when someone else
raised it. He may have made a deal with the prosecuting attorney.

And in regards to him going to the police, apparently they were the ones who made Sandusky
promise not to take any more showers with children in 1998 -- so again, look at this from
his shoes. The cops know and apparently did nothing but have a talk with him three years
earlier and no one in the district attorney's office did anything. McQueary told his boss,
Paterno, and nothing happened. And this guy apparently has friends high enough in the
university framework to have an office and full access after retirement.

State College is a small place and as we've seen the last couple days, it appears a lot of
the leaders and authority figures in town and on campus were aware of this and nothing had
been done. You're a grad assistant and (as we're seeing now) will probably see as much
blame/threats as a whistleblower than anything else.

As others have said, he could have just left town -- but again, that could be viewed as a
cowardly act that left this to happen to more children. And if, as reported, he was
recognized by Sandusky in the locker room, the protection of an anonymous report would not
be there either.

Like I said, I'm not excusing this at all and he's had to live with this for a decade. But
it's easy to say what we would have done in hindsight -- I would hope I would have done
the right thing, but looking back at my first job out of college, had I seen a powerful
figure in a small town doing something illegal and reported it to my boss and nothing was
done, I'm not sure how far I'd push it either if it looked like the cops, lawyers,
university officials and everyone else were in on the cover-up.

In any case, I think the anger and media frenzy is directed in the wrong place with the
talk about McQueary and the team canceling games (which thankfully saw a voice of reason
in the media today from NU alum Wilbon who called it absolutely absurd) -- the angry mob
has gotten Paterno's head and put McQueary under death threats. Let's shine the spotlight
at Spanier and Sandusky for a change.

Stephen

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super
Bowl XLIV Champions!

________________________________

________________________________
From: Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>
To: 
Cc: Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 8:13 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff

Stephen,

My gripe with McQueary isn't really about him getting a paycheck. It has to do with the
University saying "you can represent us" so he may be a small fish but what the University
stands for is a BIG FISH. 

Regardless, there is one flaw in your 'whistleblower' excuse. In the traditional sense a
whistleblower (say someone working in a baby food factor) has to be an insider and give
the inside information that makes or breaks the case. That is not true with a child rape
case. The police would be obligated to investigate even an anonymous claim if it was
credible. So McQueary could have made an anonymous phone call naming Sandusky and the
specific shower location and that would have triggered a police inquiry. When the police
showed up he could have played dumb and told them what he saw. 

I think I'm even more angry at his pathetic father who could have easily bailed his son
out of that pickle by making an anonymous
call. 

These two men (Jr. & Sr. McQueary) sold out good judgement. It's shameful. 

Jim

________________________________
From: Stephen Truog <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
To: Michael Vance <michael.vance at att.net>
Cc: Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff

Good point - I can understand that. Also a good point that mc query may have whistleblower
protection. 

In any case, bigger fish to fry and I do mean dry when it comes to spaniel and Sandusky.

STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com

On Nov 10, 2011, at 3:58 PM, Michael Vance <michael.vance at att.net> wrote:

> Stephen-
> 
> My only problem with that is that he stuck around. If you are correct in your
proposition that McQueary was simply too intimidated to say anything, he could have left
the program any time in the last nine years. He could have told Paterno that he thought it
was the right thing for his career to get some experience outside of the PSU system,
gotten a letter of recommendation, and with that, gotten a job anywhere. But instead, he
chose to stay among those who hid what he saw. Sorry, I don't have much sympathy for him.
> 
> -Michael
> Sent from my mobile device...
> 
> On Nov 10, 2011, at 5:40 PM, "SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> McQueary is not innocent in all this like the players, so I won't defend him with the
voracity I used against the absurd suggestion to give the student athletes on the team the
"death penalty" ... BUT ...
>> 
>> He's a grad assistant and sees a living legend on campus committing a crime - someone
with powerful friends in high places and he is recognized as a witness. He reports it to
an even bigger living legend on campus and never hears anything back.
>> 
>> What is he to assume? Either JoePa didn't take it up the ladder or the people up the
ladder rejected it -- in either case, the guy is being protected by someone at PSU and who
is he? Just some graduate assistant. If he presses the issue, he can assume he will be
fired, blacklisted or worse.
>> 
>> It's something he'll have to live with and it's inexcusible, but
he had to decide whether he wanted to accept what the powers that be had apparently
decided or push the issue and become a whistleblower, which takes great risk and usually
comes with attacks and questions of its own (just ask anyone who's brought up sexual
misconduct charges against a powerful political figure, or an employee trying to expose
corruption in corporate America).
>> 
>> It's easy to say what we would do in his shoes - but hopefully we'll never have to be
faced with that decision for real.
>> 
>> In any case, he's not the person the media mob of madness should be swarming right now
in their search for unquenchable headlines and justice. They need to be on the lawns of
Spanier, Sandusky and the AD ... dig into the files of the university and local police,
judges and district attorneys who knew of this ... heck, they should be looking into the
board of trustees themselves and what type of environment they
fostered and the type of people they hired (and why they said they were shocked).
>> 
>> McQueary is not the iconic coach who had nothing to fear from blowing the whistle, nor
the people in power who knew more and did less -- he's the low man on the totem poll who
was too weak to follow up on a report of a crime (though he did at least report it, which
a lot of witnesses do not even do) because he saw all of the people in power around him
wanting to look the other way.
>> 
>> Not a profile in courage to be sure, but also not someone I want to focus the spotlight
on in the search for justice.
>> 
>> - Stephen
>> 
>> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
>> sjtruog at yahoo.com
>> GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
>> Super Bowl XLIV Champions! 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>
>> To: Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:46 PM
>> Subject: [NU Sports] McQueary remains on staff
>> 
>> NU Friends,
>> 
>> I am at a loss to understand how Mike McQueary remains on the payroll at Penn State. By
his own sworn grand jury testimony he saw a young boy being abused. His only actions were
to call his father and later tell Joe Paterno. For years after that he must have seen
Sandusky on campus and bowl trips with more young children. I don't know how he can live
with himself. 
>> 
>> A) He could have intervened in the shower
room.
>> B) He could have pulled the fire alarm and then run to a phone.
>> C) He could have made an anonymous call to the police (his father could have too,
what's wrong with that guy?)
>> D) He could have made follow-up inquiries to several different people. 
>> 
>> Since 1993 Penn State has been my second favorite Big Ten team. If they allow him to
remain on the payroll and represent the school on Saturday, that is over. 
>> 
>> To be clear, my issue with him has NOTHING to do with the law or legal obligations. It
had everything to do with being a person of clear conscience and good character. Sadly, I
think the reason that he has been kept on staff is that if he is fired he's free to talk
and he'll have A LOT more to say. 
>> 
>> Success with Honor - what a joke. 
>> 
>> Jim
>> _______________________________________________
>>
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>> 
>> 
>> 
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