Newly-unsealed court documents contain testimony arguing that late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was told about assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse all the way back in the 1970s, but did nothing to stop it.
Paterno’s status as a universally revered figure in the college football world came crashing down in 2011, when it was revealed Sandusky molested numerous children through his charity, The Second Mile, while officials at Penn State failed to respond to multiple warning signs. Paterno was fired by the university, and just a few months later died of cancer. Sandusky was convicted and is currently serving a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years.
In the four-plus years since his death, the battle over Paterno’s legacy has continued to rage. Supporters called for a statue of him to be return to Beaver Stadium, and argued Paterno didn’t know about Sandusky’s crimes and was wrongly made the scapegoat for wider institutional failures.
But newly-unsealed testimony suggests Paterno may have been warned about Sandusky all the way back in 1976, but failed to take any action. The testimony was collected in 2014, but was only unsealed Tuesday by court order.
In the newly-revealed documents, a man identified only as John Doe 150 says he was attending a Penn State football camp in 1976 when Sandusky approached him in the shower and stuck a finger up his rectum. Doe 150 says he told Paterno about the incident, only to be brushed off. According to the man’s testimony, Paterno told him “I don’t want to hear about any of that kind of stuff, I have a football season to worry about?”
The unsealed documents suggest other Penn State personnel directly witnessed Sandusky’s misconduct but failed to do anything about it. For instance, John Doe 75 said that in 1987 assistant coach Joe Sarra walked in on Sandusky with his hands in Doe 75’s pants, and responded by simply turning around and leaving the room.
Another accuser said that after he reported abuse, disbelieving administrators forced him to apologize to Sandusky.
Paterno’s family strongly denies the coach was aware of the abuse, and they released a statement Tuesday saying he was simply being vilified now that it is impossible for him to offer any rebuttal.
“The overwhelming evidence confirms that Joe Paterno never engaged in a cover up of Jerry Sandusky’s crimes. Multiple independent parties have confirmed this conclusion,” the statement says. “The materials released today relating to Joe Paterno allege a conversation that occurred decades ago where all parties except the accuser are now dead.”
Paterno’s son Scott also used Twitter to offer a rebuttal of the newly-released accusations.
Headlines that “Joe knew in ’76” are based on a single uncorroborated report of an incident allegedly witnessed by 6 other people.
— Scott Paterno (@ScottPaterno) July 12, 2016
Yet not one of the 6 witnesses, nor any of the “many players and coaches” allegedly also told could be produced to corroborate.
— Scott Paterno (@ScottPaterno) July 12, 2016
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