You'd think that this Penn State scandal had taken every stupid turn you could have. Here's a guy that has been accused of various crimes involving young boys since 1998. But he has a charity for underprivileged boys from which he selects victims at his leisure, and NOBODY tries to boot him out, NO ONE runs the appropriateness of his being involved with kids past social services. He gets booted out of a high school campus for inappropriate acts, but has Emeritus status at Penn State, including run of the campus. He CONFESSES to indiscretions to a victim's mom while police listened in, and the prosecutor says, "It was all a big misunderstanding". He gets caught red handed not once, but twice, at the PSU campus, with one incident never reported, the other reported to his former boss, Joe Paterno. JoPa reports it not only to the AD but to the VP who is over Campus police. Said VP "never knew" about other such reports worked on by campus police, never reported this one to his own police force (let alone the authorities, and then lies under oath that he contacted Child Services when he should have realized the grand jury would SUBPOENA CPS's records. Everyone involved in the whole deal from the University President to the dishwasher's assistant gets fired. But is this the worst of the STUPID side of the story? Oh, hell, no.
Because when it goes to court, it goes before this wise woman:
Meet Judge Leslie Dutchcot, a member of the law firm Goodall and Yurchak. Dutchcot, who had not only been a contributor to the charity/farm for perverts, but had been a VOLUNTEER for them. Ant not only did she not RECUSE herself from the case, NOT ONLY did she cut Prosecution's bail request by 80%, but she also left it UNSECURED- he only has to pay anything if he doesn't show for his trial date!!!!! Her friends at G&Y quickly responded- by pulling ALL bios off of its website, including hers(which is where everyone found out about her conflict of interest in the first place). There are SO MANY crooked hands in this story, from a legal system bent on protecting a serial child molester, to a university operating on the same disclosure laws as the Catholic Church, to a system of authority operating solely on the CYA principle, that I have just one more question:
HOW FAR BACK IN THE WOODS IS STATE COLLEGE, PA????? I'm half waiting for them to call JOP Sam Drucker from frickin' Hooterville to sentence the scum! Bobby G. you're my expert in all things Pennsylvanian. WTF is going on back there?
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Well said! It's a big old cluster you know what. So tired of people getting away with this crap. It's sickening.
ReplyDeleteThis whole thing is sad beyond words. There is going to be fall out from this for a long, long time. :-(
ReplyDeleteIt is a disgrace. I didn't know all of the background that you wrote here - I've tried to avoid media overload on it.
ReplyDeleteCWM:
ReplyDeleteState College is nestled far up in the near eastern middle of Pennsylvania...but not close enough to the Poconos to bother the newlyweds, skiers, and hunters.
Been past there a few times, but never STOPPED there (good thing too - I prefer solo-showers)
My take is that WHENEVER something like this surfaces, the BEST thing to do is NOT COVER IT UP...no matter who winds up running for cover.
Get the facts and get it OUT in the open, ASAP, get the people fired who need to be, help for the victims that's required, and for God's sake don't give the media MORE fodder than they can manufacture through conjecture.
That (to me) would be the hallmark of a GOOD school.
Such wasn't the case at STATE PENN...uh, I mean PENN STATE
(we always reversed it ages ago...now we HAVE a reason - who knew?)
Good post.
Stay safe up there.