Penn State president Eric Barron called recent allegations that Joe Paterno knew about the Sandusky victims ‘unsubstantiated’.
If there’s one person that Penn State and Jerry Sandusky can count on for support these days, it’s school president Eric Barron. The sex scandal that will seemingly never go away resurfaced when multiple media outlets reported that Joe Paterno knew about Sandusky’s abuse since 1971, and even told certain victims to drop charges.
However, the PSU president hit out at these comments, stating that they haven’t been substantiated in a court of law:
"Over the past few days, allegations have surfaced from individuals who claim to be Sandusky victims and from unidentified individuals about the alleged knowledge of former University employees. None of these allegations about the supposed knowledge of University employees has been substantiated in a court of law or in any other process to test their veracity.All too often in our society, people are convicted in the court of public opinion, only to find a different outcome when all the facts are presented. The two allegations related to knowledge by Coach Paterno are unsubstantiated and unsupported by any evidence other than a claim by an alleged victim. They date from the 1970s. Coach Paterno is not alive to refute them. His family has denied them."
However, Timothy Burke at Deadspin did a brilliant job of breaking down Barron’s comments and halting him in his tracks.
For one, he points out that the university has paid out settlements going back to 1971, and that at least one of the allegations were provided in court under oath. Barron also refers to the claims that a victim communicated the assault to Paterno as a “press report” when in fact, it was considered to be public record in the PSU case.
The so-called “incomplete, sensationalized media accounts” that Eric Barron refers to were really found in published opinions by the court of law, and that Penn State filed a lawsuit in an attempt to avoid paying settlements. It appears he’s been left with trying to cover Paterno and Sandusky’s tracks yet again.
As Deadspin just demonstrated with this case, whatever comes out of Penn State regarding this matter should not be taken at face value. The sooner they own up to all their mistakes, the better for everybody involved.
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