“Paterno, the man testified, just walked away.”

It seems Penn State has fallen victim to one of the classic blunders – the most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” – never go in against an insurance company when there’s serious money on the line.

A man testified in court in 2014 that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno ignored his complaints of a sexual assault committed by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 1976 when the man was a 14-year-old boy, according to new court documents unsealed Tuesday in a Philadelphia court.

The victim, who was identified in court records as John Doe 150, said that while he was attending a football camp at Penn State, Sandusky touched him as he showered. Sandusky’s finger penetrated the boy’s rectum, Doe testified in court in 2014, and the victim asked to speak with Paterno about it. Doe testified that he specifically told Paterno that Sandusky had sexually assaulted him, and Paterno ignored it.

“Is it accurate that Coach Paterno quickly said to you, ‘I don’t want to hear about any of that kind of stuff, I have a football season to worry about?’” the man’s lawyer asked him in 2014.

“Specifically. Yes … I was shocked, disappointed, offended. I was insulted… I said, is that all you’re going to do? You’re not going to do anything else?”

And there’s more where that came from.

That is but one of the multiple depositions from the documents illustrating claims of abuse that spanned more than two decades before it was brought to the attention of law enforcement. The documents stem from an insurance lawsuit over allegations that a boy told Paterno that Sandusky was abusing young boys.

It’s sad to think there are still plenty of Penn State fans who want Paterno’s statue restored to its place on campus.

45 Comments

Filed under You Can't Put A Price Tag On Joe Paterno's Legacy

45 responses to ““Paterno, the man testified, just walked away.”

  1. Hardcoredawg 93

    Damn, these arrogant Penn State fans that vehemently still defend Paterno are unreal. I wish there was a way to somehow impose MORE penalties on PSU.

    The good thing is that everyone outside of the state of PA that is paying attention knows what a shithead Paterno was.

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  2. Russ

    Those PSU boosters are friends of the Baylor boosters that wanted Briles back. Sick people.

    But just wait, we’ll have people wailing about “political correctness” or some other bullshit to try to deflect criticism.

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    • gastr1

      It’s true, it’s become a standard response to any kind of moral outrage that someone somewhere doesn’t want to be troubled with…even Miko Grimes, for chrissakes.

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  3. DawgPhan

    gross

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  4. Dawg Vegas

    It’s not just fans, but a whole lot of lettermen who want the statue restored. The deep-seated denial the fans and those ex-players are continuing to display angers me. A lot.

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    • Ricky McDurden

      What angers me isn’t denial. What angers me is that they acknowledge what happened and who knew but STILL want the man honored because “he did a lot of good things, too.”

      Yeah, well, he failed miserably at doing the single most important thing that was ever put in his charge; he failed to defend the innocent from a monster that he specifically used to help him win the football games that these loons adore him for. It’s like they can’t reconcile that not only did Paterno know, but he knew when PSU players and fans carried him off the field after they beat UGA for a National Title. He knew that it was ignore it all and win a championship or blow the whistle and spare some kids a lifetime of trauma and suffering.

      Paterno chose the championship.

      Fuck him.

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  5. rchris

    If Paterno and Penn State had done the right thing, the bad publicity would’ve prevented them from winning as many games as they did. The NCAA was entirely justified in making them vacate wins and should have stuck to their guns. It rankles me that UGA is not in the top 10 in wins alltime because PSU cheated. Those poor guys can never get back the innocence of their childhood, but if there were consequences it might ease their pain somewhat.

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  6. mwo

    Paterno was very vocal about UGA during the Jan Kemp fiasco if I remember correctly. In the immortal words of SJ III, ” beware the karmic bitches”

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    • Hardcoredawg 93

      Interesting- that was a bit before my time.

      So, he is carrying around a known (to him) child molestor as D coordinator against us in the Sugar Bowl and then talks shit about us for having a comparatively minor scandal. Beautiful.

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  7. Gurkha Dawg

    I agree they should restore the statue of Paterno, just so they also place a life size statue of Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy. They could have the statue of Paterno looking the other way, while Sandusky has sex with a child. IMO harming a child is the most vile, disgusting thing a person could do. Ignoring it is just as bad. I’ll quit typing now, I’m getting sick to my stomach.

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  8. Debby Balcer

    How did no one report this to authorities. Disturbing all around.

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    • gastr1

      Because they had a football season to worry about.

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      • Debby Balcer

        You would think someone cared enough about children they would have turned him in.

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        • gastr1

          Obviously they cared about football more.

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        • Russ

          But all the nice Penn State people told me Joe reported it to his “boss”, the athletic director. I mean, what else could he have done?

          (that was cynical sarcasm, of course. Joe should have beat the crap out of the guy, and then called the police. )

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  9. Penn State looks worse and worse whenever something new comes out. Someone should have blown the whistle and gotten this guy out of Happy Valley and behind bars.

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  10. ASEF

    This was only ever a legal issue. There is no law requiring the removal of a statue because someone was accused of something he cannot defend himself against. The statue was unlawfully removed. It must be restored.

    That’s how they get there. If the argument sounds familiar….

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  11. 83dawg

    The entire situation is just Inconceivable for me (and yes, I do know what that word means).

    I was a volunteer youth soccer coach for 20 seasons (and am getting the itch to go back to it, really). In Georgia, that makes me a mandatory reporter (depending upon how one reads Ann. Code §§ 19-7-5; 16-12-100). Just to be a volunteer coach I had my fingerprints taken, and every damn season had to fill out a form and provide a copy of my drivers license and this was sent to the county sheriff where they ran a background check on me. Season after season after season.

    And it was made very clear to the coaches what our responsibilities were to our players.

    And how a County Rec department can both set and maintain a higher standard than Penn State is just mind-boggling. Background checks would have done nothing in the Penn State situation, of course. But how a county rec department can have thousands of kids playing soccer every season for 20 seasons without a single incident vs Penn State…

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  12. Russ2

    A dead man is an easy target to attack. Where was this guy back when shit was hitting the fan ? I stiil don’t believe Paterno had any knowledge of this .

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    • Hardcoredawg 93

      Please elaborate why you think Paterno had no knowledge. Have you studied the case or is it more of an opinion because it’s so shocking if he did know?

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      • RandallPinkFloyd

        He was probably well on his way to being a confused and frightened teenage boy seeing as how he was just violated. If this was the only accusation, that’d be one thing. Where there’s smoke there is fire, Paterno allowed this monster to do what he did.

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    • wet willie

      Well, I guess you’re having dinner with Elvis tonight also.

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    • Derek

      Can I assume that you think that the birth of the holocaust denial movement was the moment that bullet penetrated Hitler’s skull and that it’s just too easy to question the deceased’s motives and methods since he’s no longer here to defend himself? If it’s really a question of proof in your view, not Paterno’s death that really causes your hesitation, what would it take for you to believe that Paterno’s was on notice that his DC was a serial child rapist?

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  13. DawgFlan

    A victim with emotional and psychological scars is also an easy target to attack, at least by you, apparently. Wow.

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  14. The Chairman Mow

    I’ve said it from the beginning – I think Paterno was a participant with Sandusky. Nothing that has come out has changed my mind on this.

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  15. Derek

    Burn….it…down….

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  16. On the other hand, do we remove the statue of Mr. Vince for supporting Trump, LOL.

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  17. Dawggone Truth

    I’m not being insensitive (perhaps ignorant since I haven’t fooled this case nor have I read any of the court documents, so this response is solely to this article), but of all the rhetoric I’ve read on this here I have a question:

    Where were the parents? Does anyone find it odd that Paterno was where this issue ended? Did the kid not tell his parents? Close friend? Family.member? Clergy? Anybody else? I just find it awfully strange putting myself in those shoes that, as 14 year old boy going to a georgia camp back in the day, if I were assaulted by Erk Russell that my first response would be to talk to Vince Dooley about it…. by myself… with no other witnesses. Let me be clear- I am not absolving Paterno of responsibility. If true, it’s completely despicable if he was complicit in the cover up. I’m just struggling with testimony that can’t be refuted by anyone and even more so about the amount nasty comments with no regard to the validity of the claims.

    I thought we were a nation of innocent until proven guilty… not vice versa.

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    • Hardcoredawg 93

      The testimony of this JohnDoe 150 and the Mike McQuery testimony in 2001 about reporting abuse to Paterno is enough for any reasonable person to assume Paterno knew Sandusky was a child molestor.

      Also, think about if you worked with a goofy guy very closely like Sandusky for decades- you see him surrounding himself with children all the time- wouldn’t you pause and think maybe something fishy was going on? Anyone observing that would at least ask themselves if that guy looked to be on the up and up. Plus, I would bet rumors were flying around that Lasch building for years about Sandusky.

      Paterno is a shithead. End of story.

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  18. Macallanlover

    As stated before, I don’t think the media should ever bring up the Baylor situation with out mentioning Penn State, the new “gold standard” of having ignored/covered up sexual issues to protect their own athletic interests. That does not say Baylor’s actions were insignificant but they were a flash in the pan versus a decades long cover up that was not punished severely enough initially, and then saw the NCAA reduce the sanctions they imposed. Now State Penn fans and lettermen want to act as if this is all behind us? Sickening.

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  19. Go Dawgs!

    Thank God we beat them last year in the bowl. I just wish it had been a game that meant something to them. The people who continue to cling to Paterno’s “legacy” in the face of all this proof deserve to be very, very unhappy for a very, very long time.

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  20. Galion

    We don’t you Dawg fans worry about keeping your players out of jail and in class. Jan Kemp was right. Read the facts about Paterno not what the media headlines are.

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    • Hardcoredawg 93

      This is rich. A Penn State Pedophile lecturing Dawg fans on morals. Y’all need to rework those uniforms so you have a “P” on the helmet and jerseys – kind of a scarlet letter for all of the shame you should be carrying around for the foreseeable future.

      Paterno knew about it, and looked the other way. These “facts” you speak of are made up bullshit that die hard PSU fans have put together and convinced themselves because their world got rocked with the shock of it all.

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    • Macallanlover

      Because driving without a license, having a beer at 19, speeding on a scooter, etc. is sooo comparable to defending ignoring a pedophile on your staff. Puts you guys at the low end of fan bases in CFB, close to your conference mates ohio. How low class and despicable can you get?

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  21. Galion

    No shame. Proud of my school and degree. This recent information is all a smoke screen from an insurance company so they don’t have to pay. Why is this Joe’s fault. The Attorney General, District Attorney, State Police, Child Prtection Services all knew and nothing was done. What would you have liked Joe to do? Why isn’t Kirby keeping all these kids out of jail.

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    • Hardcoredawg 93

      Well, nothing I say is going to change your mind- you are dug in on your beliefs and so am I.

      Just so you know, the vast majority of college football fans that are not looking through Blue Glasses believe Paterno covered it up. You can be proud all you want if that lets you cope but that Paterno’s and PSU’s reputation has turned to ashes and that’s that.

      And, if you think taking a shot at Kirby bothers many Dawg that is laughable for multiple reasons. Now, if he fails to report multiple child rapes I’m sure he will start catching heat.

      Now, go get another drink – might help with the pain.

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      • Macallanlover

        And the logical question is: if this wasn’t considered egregious enough to warrant taking action, how can anyone feel any action was EVER taken at State Penn? I remember Paterno acting high and mighty bout how he handled discipline internally? So someone could actually belief that? Total joke, the NCAA should have given you the Death Penalty and all of CFB would have given them a standing ovation. Go away, State Penn fans being this close makes me feel like I need another shower.

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