What I'm about to say I don't view as a defense of Joe Paterno. Not knowing all of the facts of what was said behind closed doors, of course, it's not uncommon for people to disbelieve what they see or hear as a defense mechanism to avoid dealing with something they can't handle or wrap their minds around. This most commonly happens with women who don't want to believe their husband/boyfriend is sexually abusing their child.
Let me be clear: Joe Paterno had a moral obligation to confront/report anything he might have heard or possibly known regarding sexual abuse. My point is I don't believe Joe Paterno was intentionally ignoring this tragic issue because he was some calloused, inhumane dirt bag who had no regard for the children being hurt by that sick predator. My guess is he most likely couldn't wrap his mind around what was going on and found ways to obscure or completely circumvent the truth. Still wrong and I can judge him on his actions (or lack thereof) of being wrong. But in terms of his heart and soul, only God can touch that. Because nobody but God knows for sure what is in any man's heart, and I think some of you should bear that in mind.
The date is January 12th, 2011, 11:06 a.m. The questions were asked by
Ms. Jonelle Eshbach, Witness,
Joseph V. Paterno.
Q: Would you please introduce yourself to the Grand Jury?
Mr. Paterno: My name is Joseph V. Paterno.
Q: I’m sure everyone in the room knows, but just in case there’s anyone that doesn’t, how are you employed?
Mr. Paterno: I’m a football coach at the Pennsylvania State University.
Q: As that football coach at the Pennsylvania State University, did you have as employed under you an individual by the name of
Jerry Sandusky?
Mr. Paterno: I did for a while, yes.
Q: Do you currently have employed for you since sometime in the early 2000s an assistant coach named
Michael McQueary?
Mr. Paterno: Yes.
Q: I’d like to direct your attention to what I believe would be a spring break of 2002, around that time. Do you recall Michael McQueary calling you and asking to have a discussion with you about something that he observed?
Mr. Paterno: I’m not sure of the date, but he did call me on a Saturday morning. He said he had something that he wanted to discuss. I said, come on over to the house.
He came over to the house.
And as I said, I’m not sure what year it was, but I know it was a Saturday morning and we discussed something he had seen.
Q: Without getting into any graphic detail, what did Mr. McQueary tell you he had seen and where?
Mr. Paterno: Well, he had seen a person, an older — not an older, but a mature person who was fondling, whatever you might call it — I’m not sure what the term would be — a young boy.
Q: Did he identify who that older person was?
Mr. Paterno: Yes, a man by the name of
Jerry Sandusky who had been one of our coaches, was not at the time.
Q: You’re saying that at the time this incident was reported to you, Sandusky was no longer a coach?
Mr. Paterno: No, he had retired voluntarily. I’m not sure exactly the year, but I think it was either ‘98 or ‘99.
Q: I think you used the term fondling. Is that the term that you used?
Mr. Paterno: Well, I don’t know what you would call it. Obviously, he was doing something with the youngster.
It was a sexual nature. I’m not sure exactly what it was.
I didn’t push Mike to describe exactly what it was because he was very upset. Obviously, I was in a little bit of a dilemma since Mr. Sandusky was not working for me anymore.
So I told — I didn’t go any further than that except I knew Mike was upset and I knew some kind of inappropriate action was being taken by Jerry Sandusky with a youngster.
Q: Did Mike McQueary tell you where he had seen this inappropriate conduct take place?
Mr. Paterno: In the shower.
Q: Where was the shower?
Mr. Paterno: In the Lasch Building.
Q: Is that on the campus of Penn State University?
Mr. Paterno: It’s right on the campus.
Q: Did you tell Mike McQueary at that time what you were going to do with that information that he had provided to you?
Mr. Paterno: I don’t know whether I was specific or not. I did tell Mike, Mike, you did what was right; you told me.
Even though Jerry does not work for the football staff any longer, I would refer his concerns to the right people.
Q: You recall this taking place on a Saturday morning, the conversation with Mike?
Mr. Paterno: Yes.
Q: When did you — did you do something with that information?
Mr. Paterno: Well, I can’t be precise.
I ordinarily would have called people right away, but it was a Saturday morning and I didn’t want to interfere with their weekends.
So I don’t know whether I did it Saturday or did it early the next week.
I’m not sure when, but I did it within the week.
Q: To whom or with whom did you share the information that McQueary had given you?
Mr. Paterno: I talked to my immediate boss, our athletic director.
Q: What is that person’s name?
Mr. Paterno: Tim Curley.
Q: How did you contact Mr. Curley?
Mr. Paterno: I believe I did it by phone. As I recall, I called him and I said, hey, we got a problem, and I explained the problem to him.
Q: Was the information that you passed along substantially the same information that Mr. McQueary had given you?
Mr. Paterno: Yes.
Q: Other than the incident that Mike McQueary reported to you, do you know in any way, through rumor, direct knowledge or any other fashion, of any other inappropriate sexual conduct by Jerry Sandusky with young boys?
Mr. Paterno: I do not know of anything else that Jerry would be involved in of that nature, no. I do not know of it.
You did mention — I think you said something about a rumor. It may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody.
I don’t know.
I don’t remember, and I could not honestly say I heard a rumor.
Q: You indicated that your report was made directly to Tim Curley. Do you know of that report being made to anyone else that was a university official?
Mr. Paterno: No, because I figured that Tim would handle it appropriately.
I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Mr. Curley and I thought he would look into it and handle it appropriately.
Q: We have no further questions of you.
