What Price Football?

Jerry Sandusky
Man as Monster

The level of secrecy in place at Penn State is far beyond any Stephen King scenario I've ever heard of...all you have to do is swap some small, white-picket-fence Maine locale with Penn State, and only then is it possible to hear what is coming out of there now with any level of comprehension at all.

The recent reports that ex-coach Jerry Sandusky used his position, even his charity, to gain the trust of his community, and eventually began sexually abusing young boys, is is by far the most damning thing I've ever head of occurring in any sport administration.

The smallish Pennsylvania community that apparently hid this from the world should be seriously investigated with an interest in what evil they collectively harbor to quietly allow this to go on for decades--and, in fact, go to great efforts to hide it even now.

With all the talk about the regional Pennsylvania policies regarding the privacy they shroud themselves in, we should forgo the media proceedings and get on toward pushing for subpoenas and governmental intervention, especially in disallowing this state--and all others--from gathering such legal power to avoid the same transparency to which we rightfully hold our troubled government.

'Pa' Familia and Creepy Pal

That this secrecy was sought after prior to these events, is one evil--that it was granted among all the other proceedings to make our very gov't more transparent, is tantamount to granting these corrupt, evil men the same power that enabled high-ranking Catholic ministers to do the same type of thing. Worse, it's like granting any local priest with perverted tendencies the same power as the Vatican itself.

Watching this haggard, tired, and worried mother being interviewed on Anderson Cooper now, I'm most surprised that her son's school allowed Jerry Sandusky to come there and remove her child from school WITHOUT her consent, permission, or even notification of any kind. In fact, it was evident that the school principal who enabled that charade was not only behind it himself, but also could have attempted to hide that it ever happened from this mother.

It's hard to believe--but, if true, the school principal allowed the child to leave with Sandusky WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE, for hours at a time, even quite recently, then proceeded to level veiled threats toward her when she called them to account for their (in)actions...the principal, she said, warned her to "think what could happen" should she go to the police with her concerns (almost immediately after he asked her to help him try and look up Sandusky on the 'Megan's Law' website)...

Geragos with his previous client Scott Peterson
(now on death row for killing his wife Laci)

So many 'special places in hell' that the devil probably has to hire more architects and contractors every day; but one person who earned a place like that, for me, was Mark Geragos (the attorney who defended Mark Peterson), who showed up between Sunny Hostin and Jeffrey Toobin on Anderson Cooper's panel tonight; from the start, Geragos did his best to cast doubt and raise shameful, negative (immediately shown false by Cooper, BTW) proponents to his argument that the mother of the 1st child should have, quote "called 9-1-1" while sitting in the child protection services office ITSELF (tantamount to calling 9-1-1 from the ER, BTW)...

Geragos wrangled two or three minutes out of his shameful display, even after both Toobin and Hostin began openly displaying their astonishment and exasperation with his mindless and libelous, insulting behavior. Hostin pretty much gasped--Toobin, too, expressed his disbelief, with an incredulous look, his own gasp, and a comment or two on Geragos' ridiculous prattling.

One Sexual Predator
Representing Another

Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola himself committed a sex-crime. Back in the 90s, he had sex with his 16-year-old client-turned-intern Mary Iavasile, getting her pregnant, later even marrying her (when he was around 49). He has represented other known sexual predators himself, as well. See this article.

Ray Gricar, the former District Attorney
Missing Since 2005

And this morning, reports are now being released of the story of the disappearance of the previous District Attorney who was given evidence of the very first abuse case back in 1998. Ray Gricar--who would have been prosecutor over the case as it stands now--disappeared in 2005, but not before using his home computer to search the internet to learn which software to buy to completely erase his laptop hard drive. After his disappearance, his car, laptop, and separately, that laptop's hard drive, were each found in or near a local river nearby. He has never surfaced anywhere since, leading many to speculate that his disappearance had something to do with the cover-up in 1998--that he had enough incriminating evidence on his laptop hard drive against Sandusky (and indeed, the entire Penn State staff/admin) to put Sandusky away.  Click here to see the NY Times article does the best job of describing the strange details surrounding this aspect of the case.

It must have been enough to cause him to disappear.  Did he make some local deal with Penn State admins to ditch the evidence back then, only to be murdered for the 'Program's sake'?