Penn State Confidential: Mike McQueary Caught With His Pants Down

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

When the state Attorney General's investigators first came to see Mike McQueary in 2010, McQueary claimed he knew that they were there to talk to him about Jerry Sandusky. Even though nine years had passed since McQueary allegedly saw a naked Sandusky cavorting in the showers with an underage boy.

But a few reporters familiar with the case have long believed that McQueary was lying. And that when the investigators from the state Attorney General's office showed up, McQueary was actually worried that he was in big trouble for a couple of reasons.

Why? McQueary, a former Penn State quarterback and assistant coach, supposedly was betting on Penn State football games. McQueary also supposedly had used a Penn State phone to text photos of his privates to coeds who weren't his wife.

Today, one of those reporters who believes McQueary was lying just blew up McQueary, a female source, and quite possibly himself. John Ziegler did it by posting text messages and graphic photos on his website to show that seven years after he was visited by the AG, McQueary allegedly is still texting photos of his privates. And this time, to keep the scandal all in the PSU soap opera family, the gal McQueary allegedly was texting to was the former fiancé of Joe Amendola, Sandusky's former defense lawyer.

It's a story about porn but the reporter who broke it has a serious purpose behind his tawdry tale.

The whole Penn State grand jury report was built around Mike McQueary's alleged witnessing of Jerry Sandusky's alleged anal rape of a boy in the showers.

Even though investigators subsequently claimed that they never found the alleged victim of that alleged 2001 rape. And McQueary himself told the AG's office that he never said he witnessed penetration, but that the grand jury report had "twisted" his words.

So the whole credibility of the Penn State cases rises and falls, so to speak, with Mike McQueary, the star whistleblower.

If McQueary was lying about knowing right away what the AG's investigators wanted to talk to him about, Ziegler wrote, "It also meant that Mike was particularly vulnerable to being manipulated by the authorities."

Ziegler is known as a crusading reporter who became convinced hat Jerry Sandusky was innocent of the 45 charges that he was found guilty of. In furtherance of what may be construed as a suicide mission, Ziegler reveals that a couple of his original sources for the dirt on Mike McQueary were none other than former Penn State president Graham Spanier, and Jay Paterno, the son of the late football coach Joe Paterno.

Ziegler also credits Jay Paterno with the funniest line in the story. It happened when Jay quipped after allegedly seeing an earlier crotch shot from McQueary, "Well, it's either Mike or Ronald McDonald," referring to McQueary's flaming red hair.

But Ziegler isn't the only reporter who was onto the McQueary sexting story. On his website, Ziegler has posted a tape from 2014 where ESPN reporter Don Van Natta "bragged he had the entire penis picture story covered, all the way down to the phone records of Mike's panicked calls to friends convinced that his career would be over once Joe Paterno found out about the pictures," Ziegler wrote.

The penis picture part of the story, however, never made it into the ESPN story. But the posted audio shows Van Natta was clearly convinced he had that part of the story nailed down.

Deadspin also speculated in 2014 that way back during a 1995 blowout victory over Rutgers, McQueary, then the Penn State QB, came in to throw a last-minute Hail Mary just to beat the point spread.

John Snedden, a former special agent for the federal government who did a background check on Graham Spanier, said he was surprised to read the sexting story about McQueary.

"It certainly doesn't seem to be indicative of somebody who would be a credible witness in a sex-related case," Snedden said. "It certainly casts doubt on any credibility he [McQueary] might have if you're running around doing that."

In his blog post, Ziegler explains why he outed the woman in the story that McQueary was allegedly sexting. First, Ziegler says, the woman was the instigator in contacting both Ziegler and McQueary. She also promised to come on Ziegler's podcast and tell all, the reporter writes.

"One, when she backed out of our agreement, I was no longer bound by my part of it," Ziegler wrote. "Second, I just don't give a damn anymore."