Unsealed court documents have revealed the disgusting Penn State pedophilia cover-up surrounding convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky was known to head coach Joe Paterno for decades — and he did nothing about it.
Paterno, told by a teenage boy in 1976 that assistant coach Sandusky molested him in a shower, responded that he didn’t want to hear about it and had “a football season to worry about,” according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
The boy, now a man identified as John Doe 150, said in 2014 that other boys in a shower heard him yell that Sandusky had just touched him sexually. He said he told several adults about it before seeking out Paterno.
“Is it accurate that Coach Paterno quickly said to you, ‘I don’t want to hear about any of that kind of stuff, I have a football season to worry about’?” a lawyer for Penn State’s insurance carrier asked the man.
“Specifically, yes,” the man replied.
“I was shocked, disappointed, offended. I was insulted,” John Doe 150 testified. “I said, ‘Is that all you’re going to do?'”
He said Paterno “just walked away.”
Excerpts of the man’s testimony were among dozens of documents made public Tuesday in Penn State’s fight with Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Co. over payments to Sandusky’s accusers. Sandusky was convicted in 2012 of dozens of child sexual abuse counts and is serving decades in prison while he appeals.
A judge disclosed the existence of the 1976 allegation two months ago, along with claims Penn State coaches witnessed inappropriate contact between Sandusky and children in the 1980s, but the newly unsealed documents provided greater detail.
Paterno told a grand jury in 2011 he first learned of Sandusky’s inappropriate sexual contact in 2001, though records show high-ranking Penn State officials dealt with a complaint in 1998 from a woman whose son had showered with Sandusky.
Paterno died in January 2012, two months after Sandusky’s arrest. Lawyers for the Paterno family and for Sandusky denied the allegation.
Testimony made public Tuesday suggested some Penn State coaches were aware of Sandusky’s abuse decades ago.
Mike McQueary, a former assistant coach who told Paterno he saw Sandusky abusing a boy in a team shower in 2001, said in a 2015 deposition former defensive coordinator Tom Bradley was “not shocked” when told of it.
Bradley, who briefly took over as head coach after Paterno’s firing, “said he knew of some things” about Sandusky dating to the 1980s, McQueary testified.
McQueary said Bradley told him he’d been approached by someone in the ’80s who saw Sandusky “doing something to a boy” and in the ’90s former assistant coach Greg Schiano saw Sandusky in the shower with a boy.
Bradley, now the defensive coordinator at UCLA, and Schiano, who holds the same position at Ohio State, denied witnessing any inappropriate behavior at Penn State.
The newly unsealed documents also provide additional information about 1987 and 1988 encounters accusers say were witnessed by coaching staff.
A man called John Doe 75 said in a 2014 deposition assistant football coach Joe Sarra walked into a coaches’ meeting room in 1987 and saw Sandusky with his hands down the then-13-year-old boy’s shorts.
John Doe 75 said Sarra may have said something like, “Oh, sorry,” and immediately walked out. Sarra died four years ago.
A 2014 deposition by a man called John Doe 101 said Sandusky fondled him when he was a boy inside a crowded Penn State pool and coaches often saw him showering with Sandusky. But the one coach the man named said he wasn’t working there at the time.
The records also include an insurance company lawyer’s analysis that Penn State overpaid to settle with Sandusky’s accusers, possibly as a result of the university’s concern about publicity and a desire to resolve the matter quickly.
Lawyer Eric Anderson said Penn State “made little effort, if any, to verify the credibility of the claims.” The university has paid $92 million to settle claims from 32 Sandusky accusers.
Lawyer Ken Feinberg, who helped mediate claims against the university, said the process was “very objective” and none of the cases was easy to resolve. He said Penn State was diligent in making sure the claims were supported by sufficient proof.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Such a sleazy joker. Some ignorant folks still call him a hero. He was coach for over 40 years and won only 2 national titles. He passed him self off as a religious inspiration. He and his overgrown jokers playing a kids game while real American heroes were in the service in Vietnam, and the Middle East.
Paterno said nothing, because he was poking those little boys out too. What a scumbag!!!
Re remove that statue of joe and destroy it on the news media
Give it to Sandusky to look at while he is in prison.
We need to keep in mind that child sex abuse allegations may not have been taken as seriously in 1976 as they are today. For Paterno, dealing with allegations would have distracted him from what he was hired to do–win football games.
With that said, Paterno’s indifference to this boy’s allegations was likely seen by Jerry Sandusky as approval for him to continue his child molesting as long as it was done discretely. In addition to the boys victimized by Jerry Sandusky, current and future students will have to pay the cost. This $92 million payout will affect students in the form of higher tuition and reduced resources. Jerry Sandusky’s sexually deviant behavior was rather expensive for all involved–I wonder if Sandusky thinks the price was worth it.
@ Justin: 1976 is a long time ago. Not the stone age though.. Even in the stone age that evil behavior was considered wrong.
Hasn’t this man, now passed away really suffered enough in all that he has lost for his mistakes fall that has happened? Why keep kicking the dead man’s already destroyed reputation more than it has already been now that he is gone forever. Personally I tend to believe proof, not hearsay.
A Moral and Social Conservative
He looked like an old Pervert & probably was one himself
Takes one to know one.
back then people did not want to talk or hear about perverts, maybe joe did not believe that Sandusky was such a man…..
No matter how you look at it Sandusky is was and still the same perverted old man now…… turn him loose into the population and let him get a little of his own medicine………the inmates will pop his cherry in all orifices available……
What was a 13 year old boy doing at a Penn State locker room isn’t Penn State a College?
Early recruitment is my guess…. Ask Chester the Molester Sandusky cuz Joe will never tell……MUUUUUUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one. Unless you were physically present for all these so-called abuses that Paterno condoned, stop with the abusive commentary about Paterno and his family because you don’t have a clue what actually is factual and what isn’t.. Isn’t it amazing how everyone who was molested as long as 40 years ago just had an epiphany when the big bucks started rolling in. Jerry Sandusky deserves everything he got and more. His slime did not rub off on everyone he ever knew at PSU and all its sports teams and students. There are only two parties that have actually knowledge about what JoePa did or didn’t know…Joe and God. Unless you are one of these two, STFU.
A “KODAK MOMENT” is one worth capturing on film, A “SANDUSKY MOMENT” is one worth punishing with prison.
Yo, Joe! You did know. You enabled a child molester for the sake of your stinking football interests. Now look at you and your “Legacy” ….SHAME!
Learn the real facts before accepting the conjecture of a few. This is yellow journalism at it’s worst. Perpetuate the narrative (sensational) created by the media back when the original story broke — it’s a false today as it was then. In addition to Sandusky the real villains here are the old guard of the PSU Board of Trustees who are doing everything possible to deny, obfuscate, divert attention from the real story — the second Mile Charity and the $ that were involved and where some of those $s ended up. follow the money folks that’s where the story is
And now they are selling a beer in honoring him. Hope they go broke. Serve’s them right.