Penn State President Goes On Rant, Fails To Mention Additional Sex-Abuse Payout

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will likely be in prison for the rest of his life for sexually abusing young boys in the mid-1990s.

But just as the horrific case had seemingly faded into the background, new evidence emerged in the past several days (including from the school itself) that Sandusky’s crimes — and the cover-up by the university and legendary coach Joe Paterno — started long before that.

Here’s what’s happened:

• Penn State’s insurance company claimed in court documents Thursday that a child told Paterno in 1976 that he had been abused and that Paterno failed to adequately report the claims.
• CNN released an interview with a victim Friday night who said that after he told Paterno that he had been raped by Sandusky in 1971, Paterno told him to drop the claims.
• Penn State President Eric Barron wrote a letter to the school community, defending Paterno's honor. “Unfortunately, we can’t control the 24/7 news cycle, and the tendency of some individuals in social media and the blogosphere to rush to judgment,” he said.
• Just hours after the letter was published online, the school admitted that some of the settlements they have paid out cover abuse dating back to 1971.

In other words, Penn State's president defended Paterno even though he knew or should have known that the university paid out victims of abuse that happened as early as 1971.

On Thursday, amid a lawsuit between Penn State and its insurers over who should be on the hook for paying settlements to victims’ families, allegations were made that Paterno and two assistant coaches knew about the abuse as early as 1976.

But the allegations never made it beyond the coaches, Judge Gary Glazer said.

"There is no evidence that reports of these incidents ever went further up the chain of command at PSU," Glazer wrote.

Then CNN reported Friday that a 60-year-old man had accused Jerry Sandusky of raping him in 1971. The man, then 15 years old, had told Paterno about it.

Paterno told him to drop it, the man claims.

Penn State President Eric Barron responded to the news Sunday with an open letter to the university community brimming with indignation over the “media frenzy” and “rush to judgment” that had accompanied the new revelations.

“I am appalled,” he asserted.

"The two allegations related to knowledge by Coach Paterno are unsubstantiated and unsupported by any evidence other than a claim by an alleged victim," he wrote. "They date from the 1970s. Coach Paterno is not alive to refute them. His family has denied them."

It resembled an internet comment from an angry reader. Only it was spelled correctly.

Barron added that he and other university officials were “reanalyzing the record of reports and depositions to ensure that our reactions and comments are both responsible and trustworthy.”

That deep dive into university records hardly resulted in proof that the "media frenzy" was unfair.

Rather, Sunday, the university provided The Associated Press with information that made it appear President Barron had no idea what he was talking about in his rant. The information: Payouts to Sandusky’s victims stemmed from abuse as far back as 1971.

Since Sandusky's conviction in 2012, Penn State has paid out more than $90 million to settle 32 civil claims over Sandusky’s serial sexual abuse.

Oddly, Barron's letter remains online, unedited.

Marc Torrence contributed to this report.

Photo of Joe Paterno from Wikimedia Commons.