Former president of Penn State University Graham Spanier signed Jay Paterno’s petition for Lieutenant Governor.
Spanier resigned from his post in the fall of 2011 amidst the Jerry Sandusky scandal that rocked the university. He’s been indicted on charges of perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Paterno was an assistant coach for Penn State’s football program for several years, working under his father, famed football coach Joe Paterno.
Spanier’s name, signature and address can be found on page 9 of Paterno’s petitions from Centre County.
Paterno jumped into the Lieutenant Governor’s race a few weeks ago, and immediately surged to the front of the pack, according to a survey from Harper Polling. However, his petitions put him on the cusp of a likely-challenge, as he filed just over the required number and several of his represented counties are close to the 100 signature threshold.
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13 Responses
I am sick and tired of people who don’t know what they are talking about dragging Joe Paterno and Penn State’s name through the mud. It is really no ones business who signed Jay Paterno’s petition. Why make a big deal out of it? Jay Paterno has every right to run for any office he wants to. He actually would make a good Lt. Governor and or Governor- 100% better then what we have now. My suggestion – leave Penn State and Joe Paterno’s family alone.
Doesn’t surprise me tom wolfs campaign manager in Pittsburgh was circulating a paterno petition i guess a wolf paterno ticket is what there looking for i agree with david they need to challenge his petitions this will not be good for democrats to have him on the ticket.
I appreciate the tone you’re handling this with, but as someone else suggested, read the Freeh report and see if you still agree with the exec summary conclusions you just repeated below.
I, like many, read the summary and was like, WOW! Then I flipped down to the evidence for those conclusions and found it not just want, but also completely supporting another view, or two. There were too many holes and unanswered questions, ESPECIALLY re:Paterno, and 2 AG offices agree.
The biggest mistake one could make after reading the Freeh report is to assign the four men: Schultz, Curley, Spanier, and Paterno the same culpability, as his report does. Some commenters will even throw Sandusky into the same basket…just a sad case all around.
KingOfSpades-
I said: “there were emails that contradicted his story”
I didn’t say that they were Paterno’s emails. It could have emails from other people discussing conversations and interactions with Paterno.
Paterno had claimed to the grand jury that he had no prior knowledge of Sandusky’s behavior. However, the evidence showed that there was in incident in 1998 that Paterno and his cohorts were aware of.
From Wikipedia summary:
“The evidentiary weight of Freeh’s report draws heavily upon retrieved emails from 1998 and 2001, which Freeh referred to as “the most important evidence” in the report. The report asserts that these emails demonstrate that in 1998 Paterno knew of the investigation of Sandusky, and followed it closely; and suggest that it was Paterno, “long regarded as the single most powerful official at the university,” who persuaded Spanier, Curley, and Schultz not to formally report Sandusky to law enforcement or child welfare authorities.”
Also:
“A May 1998 email exchange between Tim Curley, the athletic director and Gary Shultz, a campus administrator, references Paterno’s knowledge at the time of an ongoing investigation surrounding accusations that Sandusky had molested a young boy.”
@ David
Why don’t you try READING the report before you comment about what it says? There are very few emails from Paterno because he was a man in 80s who didn’t use email. The grand jury implicated Curley, Schultz and Spanier for obstruction and perjury but specifically said that unlike the other three, Paterno was cooperative and forthcoming with the investigation.
Freeh ‘concluded’ in his report that Paterno knew everything that the rest of them did, but offered very little real evidence to support his claim. Once Paterno died, Spanier and the others did everything the could to bury the scandal with him and save their own hides.
Paterno’s body should be buried in jail
jjcnpa-
My understanding of the Freeh investigation was that Paterno lied to the grand jury and there were emails that contradicted his story. He cut a sweetheart retirement deal with Penn State as soon as he exited the grand jury before they found out about it.
If Paterno hadn’t died, he should have been prosecuted for lying, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.
Seems Penn Staters remain in denial about where responsibility for Sandusky’s behavior sits. Time for Spanier to go to trial. In the meantime, Spanier still has reason to hitch his PR wagon to the Paterno train, but why the Paternos would want any association with a man indicted for five felonies is a mystery.
Paterno was not charged with lying to anyone and the day the AG’;s office released their report he was singled out for praise. It was when people in the national media (the next day) who didn’t take the time to try to understand the story that suddenly Paterno was the bad guy. The amateurish Freeh report took great leaps of faith to come up with their flawed conclusions based on innuendo and rumor. I think former US Attorney General and two term PA Governor Thornburgh has much more credibility and he has refuted the entirety of the (fact) Freeh report. Freeh’s reputation for conducting investigations is not very strong
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/paterno_praised_for_acting_app.html
jjcnpa
” And this is a big deal because?”
Because it’s a reminder of Paterno Sr’s role in covering up Sandusky, as Joe Sr was reported to have lied to the grand jury.
And this is a big deal because?
I am eager to see how a Democrat joined at the hip with Paterno would handle him. Political idiocy at its best.
If any of the other Lt Gov candidates have campaigns worth a damn, they will challenge Paterno and get him of the ballot.
Notable exception would be Stack, who probably benefits from Paterno splitting the non-Philly vote.