Covering the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, the attorney for former Penn State University President Graham Spainier is fighting back.
He's taking shots at the Freeh Report, saying it's simply a myth and that's not all he said.
He calls the Freeh report blundering, biased, indefensible and Spanier himself told The New Yorker he's stunned by what's inside.
Spanier is waiting to see if he'll ever be charged.
The Freeh report says he and Coach Joe Paterno knew there was something going on with sex abuse and Jerry Sandusky and they tried to cover it up.
The report says two other top guys, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz also participated in that cover up.
Spanier's attorney says that's not true.
“Dr. Spainer, himself a victim of child abuse would have been the first to act in 1998, 2001 or at anytime if he knew a predator of this ilk lurked on or around Penn State’s campus,” stated the attorney, Timothy Lewis. “The Freeh Report said he did know.”
Spanier says its ridiculous to think he would cover-up a pedophile to avoid bad publicity.
The Freeh group stands by its report. Those two other officials will now head to trial in January on charges they lied to a grand jury.
Also, the Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship issued the following statement on Wednesday's press conference:
"In this morning's press conference regarding characterization of Dr. Graham Spanier within the Freeh Report, his attorney, the Honorable Timothy Lewis, a former United States federal judge, could have no more clearly stated the position of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship when he said, 'Penn State University deserved better and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania deserved better.' We would add, that under the leadership of the Board of Trustees, specifically the students, parents and alumni of Penn State also have deserved far better. Every criticism articulated by Judge Lewis today should have been obvious to each and every member of the Board of Trustees when — and if -- they reviewed the Freeh Report in detail. With the perspective today of more than 50 years of federal investigative and judicial experience, it is more clear than ever that the Board of Trustees has failed in their fiduciary responsibility to Penn State by allowing such a blatant distortion of facts and rush to judgement to be the foundation for NCAA sanctions, Middle State accreditation warnings, and scathing deterioration of the Penn State brand. We call for their collective resignation immediately."
PS4RS will itself be issuing a comprehensive analysis of the errors, unsupported conclusions, and misstatements of the Freeh report in mid-September. That analysis, conducted by the PS4RS Legal and Regulatory Task Force, will further outline the failure of the Board of Trustees in their stewardship of the University.
He's taking shots at the Freeh Report, saying it's simply a myth and that's not all he said.
He calls the Freeh report blundering, biased, indefensible and Spanier himself told The New Yorker he's stunned by what's inside.
Spanier is waiting to see if he'll ever be charged.
The Freeh report says he and Coach Joe Paterno knew there was something going on with sex abuse and Jerry Sandusky and they tried to cover it up.
The report says two other top guys, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz also participated in that cover up.
Spanier's attorney says that's not true.
“Dr. Spainer, himself a victim of child abuse would have been the first to act in 1998, 2001 or at anytime if he knew a predator of this ilk lurked on or around Penn State’s campus,” stated the attorney, Timothy Lewis. “The Freeh Report said he did know.”
Spanier says its ridiculous to think he would cover-up a pedophile to avoid bad publicity.
The Freeh group stands by its report. Those two other officials will now head to trial in January on charges they lied to a grand jury.
Also, the Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship issued the following statement on Wednesday's press conference:
"In this morning's press conference regarding characterization of Dr. Graham Spanier within the Freeh Report, his attorney, the Honorable Timothy Lewis, a former United States federal judge, could have no more clearly stated the position of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship when he said, 'Penn State University deserved better and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania deserved better.' We would add, that under the leadership of the Board of Trustees, specifically the students, parents and alumni of Penn State also have deserved far better. Every criticism articulated by Judge Lewis today should have been obvious to each and every member of the Board of Trustees when — and if -- they reviewed the Freeh Report in detail. With the perspective today of more than 50 years of federal investigative and judicial experience, it is more clear than ever that the Board of Trustees has failed in their fiduciary responsibility to Penn State by allowing such a blatant distortion of facts and rush to judgement to be the foundation for NCAA sanctions, Middle State accreditation warnings, and scathing deterioration of the Penn State brand. We call for their collective resignation immediately."
PS4RS will itself be issuing a comprehensive analysis of the errors, unsupported conclusions, and misstatements of the Freeh report in mid-September. That analysis, conducted by the PS4RS Legal and Regulatory Task Force, will further outline the failure of the Board of Trustees in their stewardship of the University.