for BigTrial.net
The three top former Penn State officials that Judge John Boccabella just sent to jail so he could be tough on crime in a high-profile media case are in bad shape.
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier is 69 years old, and has had five operations in the past year, in addition to 35 radiation treatments for advanced prostate cancer. According to a sentencing memorandum prepared by Spanier's lawyers, Spanier is being evaluated for imminent open-heart cardiac valve replacement surgery. He's also being treated for high blood pressure, depression and anxiety.
Former Penn State VP Schultz, 67, is the primary caretaker for his wife, Karen, his high school sweetheart, who has MS. Schultz also cares for his 86-year-old mother-in-law, who moved into Schultz's house in November, 2015. Both Schultz's wife and mother-in-law depend on Schultz's assistance to get through their daily lives, Schultz's lawyers stated in a sentencing memorandum ignored by the judge.
But in the interests of "justice," the show must go on. And the Penn State trio must pay by doing jail time for misdemeanors, after seeing their careers torched, and their reputations destroyed.
Schultz got two months behind bars and up to 21 months of home confinement.
Curley will do three months in jail followed by up to 21 months of house arrest.
The charade of the Penn State trio going off to prison for supposedly turning a blind eye to the suffering of the sainted "victims" of Jerry Sandusky must play out. So in this morality play staged by the prosecutors and judges, the media and public must see someone pay for the sins of Jerry Sandusky.
Even though Jerry's already doing up to 60 years in solitary confinement.
The official Penn State storyline as promulgated by the media and justice system, is like Nebuchadnezzar's 90-foot tall golden statue in the Old Testament book of Daniel. There is the official truth, and only the official truth, and everyone must bow and worship before it.
Or be thrown into a fiery media furnace, in addition to jail.
As stated by the prosecutors and the judge in this car, the Penn State trio must may for the sins of the official deniers of the truth. Bloggers and blasphemers like former PSU trustee Al Lord, who famously said he was "running out of sympathy for 35 so-called victims with 7-digit net worth."
But anyone with a sane mind would have to view the Penn State storyline we've been fed for the past seven years and see some gaping holes.
Such as:
-- The entire 2011 grand jury report is built upon a lie, that Mike McQueary supposedly saw Jerry Sandusky in the Penn State showers engaged in an "anal rape" of a 10-year-old boy. Even McQueary wrote in an email to the prosecutors that it never happened, he never saw penetration, and that the prosecutors "twisted" his words.
-- Of the 24 original charges filed by the attorney general's office against the Penn State trio, the only three that stuck were three misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Charges that I've already explained were filed under an original 1972 state law that didn't even apply to them.
-- Many in Penn State nation seem to think that Jerry Sandusky was a master pedophile, and that the AG's office should have spent their time investigating Sandusky's Second Mile charity, instead of Penn State. A vocal minority believe that Sandusky was innocent, and that the prosecutors manufactured evidence against him. And victims.
But both sides should agree that Sandusky deserves a new trial, after the earlier farce that he was railroaded at. BigTrial has covered the incompetence of Sandusky's lawyer in an excerpt from a soon-to-be published book by journalist Mark Pendergrast.
-- If Jerry Sandusky was a pedophile, where's the evidence? The only pornography discovered in the case was on the computers of the prosecutors. Knowledgable law enforcement sources say they have never heard of a case of pedophilia not accompanied by large caches of pornography.
Also, after three years of investigating, the prosecutors had only found one so-called victim, Aaron Fisher. And this was a guy who initially said nothing ever happened with Jerry. Until he underwent six months of psychotherapy and many more skull sessions with investigators. I'm talking about two state troopers who admitted on a tape-recorded interview with another suspected victim that it took months for the cops to coax to a sex abuse story out of Fisher.
-- The identity of the victim of one of the most infamous sex abuse crimes in history, the alleged anal rape of that 10-year-old boy in the showers supposedly witnessed by McQueary, is "known only to God," according to the prosecutors. This after seven years of this highly publicized scandal. It makes no sense. Especially to the guy doing 60 years in jail in part for a crime where the state was unable to produce a victim.
If Sandusky gets a new trial, maybe some of these issues will be investigated. But don't expect the mainstream media to show any interest in digging into this. They already have their official story line that everyone must bow and worship before.
And nobody does more bowing and scraping before sacred cows and the prevailing wisdom than the mainstream media. Take my word for it; I've been a reporter for 40 years.
Meanwhile, those sentencing memorandums detail the pain and suffering that the official scapegoats of the Penn State scandal have already been subjected to.
"Dr. Spanier has become the subject of public debate, incessant and vitriolic media commentary [both traditional and 'social' media] and endless ridicule and scorn," wrote lawyers Samuel W. Silver and Bruce P. Merenstein.
"Dr. Spanier has already suffered severely through public shaming, loss of employment and significant repetitional harm," his lawyers wrote. "He is almost 70 years old and in worsening health."
In the sentencing memorandum, a doctor detailed those health problems, both mental and physical.
"Due to the chronic psychological stress from prolonged legal issues, as well as the chronic burden of severe medical problems, Dr. Spanier was diagnosed with major depression and anxiety," wrote Dr. Michael P. Flanagan, the Professor and Vice-Chair of Family and Community Medicine at Penn State's College of Medicine.
"In addition to his cardiac and prostate cancer medications, as well as extensive radiation therapy, Dr. Spanier has been prescribed three medications to treat underlying reactive depression and associated anxiety," Flanagan wrote.
In an unsuccessful effort to keep Spanier out of jail, his lawyers detailed Spanier's extraordinary accomplishments and many good deeds.
In 2005, Spanier was asked by FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director Porter Goss to take the "lead role in national security matters pertaining to higher education," his lawyers wrote.
In the sentencing memorandum, Tom Mahlik, former NCIS Deputy Assistant Director, told of Spanier's receipt of the Warren Medal.
"During the ceremony, it was said that 'No American has done more since 9/11 to bring the CIA and FBI closer together in a collaborative working relationship," Mahlik wrote. "Graham is courageous . . . Graham is transparent . . . Graham is trustworthy."
John R. Sipher, former member of the Clandestine Service of the CIA, described Spanier as "a man of integrity," a "patriot and a concerned citizen" who wasn't paid for his services to the intelligence community.
Steven L. Soboroff, a childhood friend of Spanier's, and the commissioner of the Los Angeles Police Department, described Spanier as a man of "truthfulness" and "unwavering integrity."
In the sentencing memorandum, Spanier's lawyers also documented their client's good deeds. Such as Spanier and his wife have donating almost $2 million to Penn State. The couple also has been honored for raising more than $700,000 for the Penn State Renaissance Fund scholarship endowment.
In Schultz's sentencing memorandum, Thomas J. Farrell and Emily C. McNally, Schultz's lawyers, included a handwritten note from Schultz's wife, Karen.
"My MS requires someone to be available in times of lack of strength and stability," she wrote. "I hope you understand how important Gary is to me and my well being."
In Tim Curley's sentencing memorandum, his lawyer, Caroline M. Roberto, tried to explain Curley's memory lapses on the witness stand, which drew the ire of the prosecutors.
"The Commonwealth asserts that the astonishing forgetfulness that Curley demonstrated during his testimony . . . was simply not credible," the AG wrote. The AG states that Curley's forgetfulness "was designed to protect those who deserved to share blame with Curley for the decisions that led to the colossal failure to protect children from Sandusky."
Roberto, in her sentencing memorandum, included a witness who talked about a time before his cancer treatments. When Curley's memory was so good he knew all 26 members of the men's soccer team by name, as well as the names of every coach at Penn State.
"I had never seen anything like this," wrote Sandra Rogus. "He was doing this with every coach in every sport." Curley, Rugus wrote, "cared deeply about supporting every coach."
In Curley's sentencing memorandum, his lawyer wrote about the "pain" and "deep and substantial punishment" already inflicted upon Curley during a "media firestorm."
"Mr. Curley was subjected to epic international shaming and humiliation through relentless media frenzy that went on for years through the Sandusky trial and the publication of the dubious and frequently discredited Freeh Report," Roberto wrote."As well as the dubious and eventually vacated NCAA sanctions against Penn State," Roberto wrote. "Such public shaming of a man revered by so many who was at the peak of his job performance must be taken into account when determining fair sentence to impose."
Sorry, Mr. Curley, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Spanier.
In the Penn State scandal, there is only one truth that we must all bow before and worship. To that end, the Penn State trio must be sacrificed on the altar of that official truth.
So the show can go on.