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Sandusky/Penn State scandal
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WeAreNDHockey
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GopherBigGuy911
The one you hate to love
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
Created: 11/23/2011 7:55 AM KSTP.com | Print | Email
By: Leslie Rolander
Ex-PSU Officer Questioned Player Treatment
A former Penn State official charged with enforcing discipline at the school said Tuesday that Joe Paterno's players got in trouble more often than other students, and got special treatment compared to non-athletes.
Vicky Triponey, who resigned her post as the university's standards and conduct officer in 2007, confirmed that she sent a 2005 email to then-president Graham Spanier and others in which she expressed her concerns about how Penn State handled discipline cases involving football players. The Wall Street Journal published excerpts from the email on Tuesday.
Paterno "is insistent he knows best how to discipline his players ... and their status as a student when they commit violations of our standards should NOT be our concern ... and I think he was saying we should treat football players different from other students in this regard," Triponey wrote in the Aug. 12, 2005, email. "Coach Paterno would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code," she wrote, "despite any moral or legal obligation to do so."
The email surfaced as Penn State is reeling in the aftermath of criminal charges filed this month against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach accused of molesting eight boys, some on campus, over a 15-year period. But Tuesday night, a Penn State administrator who reported to Triponey and was directly responsible for overseeing student discipline noted that Paterno did not have the authority to change his office's decisions when football players were sanctioned.
Joe Puzycki, who still works at the university, said in an email to The Associated Press that while Paterno was vocal in sharing his opinions, "we adjudicated athlete cases the same as we did any other student." The Sandusky scandal has resulted in the ousting of school President Graham Spanier and Paterno, whom trustees felt did not do enough about one accusation involving a 10-year-old boy. Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university's police department, has stepped down.
Schultz and Curley are charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report to police, and Sandusky is charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse. All maintain their innocence. Interviewed by The Associated Press at her Charleston home, Triponey said that throughout her tenure at Penn State there was "an ongoing debate" over who should deal with misconduct by football players. Her 2005 email was sent the day after a heated meeting in which Paterno complained about the discipline process.
"He knew better than anyone how to discipline them. We wanted to show him the (disciplinary) data and suggest that `Well, whatever it is we're doing, it's not working.' They're getting into trouble at a greater rate than they should. We wanted to find a way to address that," she said. "The meeting ended up being a one- sided conversation with the coach talking about his frustrations, his anger, his not being happy with the way we were running the system."
Paterno's lawyer, Wick Sollers, defended his client in a written statement. "The allegations that have been described are out of context, misleading and filled with inaccuracies," he said. "In the current atmosphere, it is not surprising that every aspect of Penn State University's academics and athletics will be reviewed." Puzycki told the AP he never remembered Paterno saying that players should be treated differently than other students, "but he was clear to express his disapproval, in general, of my handling of cases involving football players."
Puzycki added that he could site just two cases in his 10-plus years as director of judicial affairs in which changes were made to disciplinary decisions - each time by superiors. One was an off-campus fight involving about a dozen players in 2007, in which he said Spanier intervened; the other involved an unidentified player who was kicked off the team. Puzycki said that sanction was lessened by Triponey, who told the Journal she had been directed to do so by Spanier. Penn State football has long been regarded as an example of a well-run program that graduates an above-average percentage of its players while operating within the rules and winning on the field. But the Sandusky case has forced a re-examination of the Nittany Lions and Paterno's 46-year tenure as coach, highlighted by two national championships.
A review of Associated Press stories over the last decade shows at least 35 Penn State players faced internal discipline or criminal charges between 2003-09 for a variety of offenses ranging from assault to drunk driving to marijuana possession. One player was acquitted of sexual assault. Penn State has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to lead an internal investigation of the Sandusky case, while the NCAA announced last Friday it was launching its own inquiry focused on Sandusky and whether Penn State exercised "institutional control" in handling accusations against him. Asked Tuesday whether other disciplinary cases at Penn State would be reviewed, an NCAA spokeswoman said she had nothing else to say at this time.
Triponey, who arrived at Penn State in 2003 - four years after Sandusky retired and a year following an alleged assault by him in the football showers - told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" she was not involved in any conversations with or about the former assistant coach. She told the AP that pressure to go easier on football players increased as her tenure went on. "Many times, (because of) the pressure placed on us by the president or the football coach, eventually, we would end up doing sanctions that were not what another student would've got," she said. "It was much less. It was adapted to try to accommodate the concerns of the coach."
Triponey said she's a longtime football fan and worked at universities for most of her career. She said the relationship with coaches was different at other places, citing Randy Edsall, whom she worked with at Connecticut, as an example of someone who ran an open program and helped his players learn from mistakes. Edsall is now head coach at Maryland.
"He would invite us to go on road trips to the away games so we could see inside the program," Triponey said. "But there was a wall at Penn State where we never had that kind of relationship." Curley and Spanier did not reply to messages for comment. A representative for Curley told the Journal that "he tried to make sure all student athletes were treated equally with regard to the code of conduct."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
This will get major NCAA Sanctions if true....
Created: 11/23/2011 7:55 AM KSTP.com | Print | Email
By: Leslie Rolander
Ex-PSU Officer Questioned Player Treatment
A former Penn State official charged with enforcing discipline at the school said Tuesday that Joe Paterno's players got in trouble more often than other students, and got special treatment compared to non-athletes.
Vicky Triponey, who resigned her post as the university's standards and conduct officer in 2007, confirmed that she sent a 2005 email to then-president Graham Spanier and others in which she expressed her concerns about how Penn State handled discipline cases involving football players. The Wall Street Journal published excerpts from the email on Tuesday.
Paterno "is insistent he knows best how to discipline his players ... and their status as a student when they commit violations of our standards should NOT be our concern ... and I think he was saying we should treat football players different from other students in this regard," Triponey wrote in the Aug. 12, 2005, email. "Coach Paterno would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code," she wrote, "despite any moral or legal obligation to do so."
The email surfaced as Penn State is reeling in the aftermath of criminal charges filed this month against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach accused of molesting eight boys, some on campus, over a 15-year period. But Tuesday night, a Penn State administrator who reported to Triponey and was directly responsible for overseeing student discipline noted that Paterno did not have the authority to change his office's decisions when football players were sanctioned.
Joe Puzycki, who still works at the university, said in an email to The Associated Press that while Paterno was vocal in sharing his opinions, "we adjudicated athlete cases the same as we did any other student." The Sandusky scandal has resulted in the ousting of school President Graham Spanier and Paterno, whom trustees felt did not do enough about one accusation involving a 10-year-old boy. Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university's police department, has stepped down.
Schultz and Curley are charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report to police, and Sandusky is charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse. All maintain their innocence. Interviewed by The Associated Press at her Charleston home, Triponey said that throughout her tenure at Penn State there was "an ongoing debate" over who should deal with misconduct by football players. Her 2005 email was sent the day after a heated meeting in which Paterno complained about the discipline process.
"He knew better than anyone how to discipline them. We wanted to show him the (disciplinary) data and suggest that `Well, whatever it is we're doing, it's not working.' They're getting into trouble at a greater rate than they should. We wanted to find a way to address that," she said. "The meeting ended up being a one- sided conversation with the coach talking about his frustrations, his anger, his not being happy with the way we were running the system."
Paterno's lawyer, Wick Sollers, defended his client in a written statement. "The allegations that have been described are out of context, misleading and filled with inaccuracies," he said. "In the current atmosphere, it is not surprising that every aspect of Penn State University's academics and athletics will be reviewed." Puzycki told the AP he never remembered Paterno saying that players should be treated differently than other students, "but he was clear to express his disapproval, in general, of my handling of cases involving football players."
Puzycki added that he could site just two cases in his 10-plus years as director of judicial affairs in which changes were made to disciplinary decisions - each time by superiors. One was an off-campus fight involving about a dozen players in 2007, in which he said Spanier intervened; the other involved an unidentified player who was kicked off the team. Puzycki said that sanction was lessened by Triponey, who told the Journal she had been directed to do so by Spanier. Penn State football has long been regarded as an example of a well-run program that graduates an above-average percentage of its players while operating within the rules and winning on the field. But the Sandusky case has forced a re-examination of the Nittany Lions and Paterno's 46-year tenure as coach, highlighted by two national championships.
A review of Associated Press stories over the last decade shows at least 35 Penn State players faced internal discipline or criminal charges between 2003-09 for a variety of offenses ranging from assault to drunk driving to marijuana possession. One player was acquitted of sexual assault. Penn State has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to lead an internal investigation of the Sandusky case, while the NCAA announced last Friday it was launching its own inquiry focused on Sandusky and whether Penn State exercised "institutional control" in handling accusations against him. Asked Tuesday whether other disciplinary cases at Penn State would be reviewed, an NCAA spokeswoman said she had nothing else to say at this time.
Triponey, who arrived at Penn State in 2003 - four years after Sandusky retired and a year following an alleged assault by him in the football showers - told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" she was not involved in any conversations with or about the former assistant coach. She told the AP that pressure to go easier on football players increased as her tenure went on. "Many times, (because of) the pressure placed on us by the president or the football coach, eventually, we would end up doing sanctions that were not what another student would've got," she said. "It was much less. It was adapted to try to accommodate the concerns of the coach."
Triponey said she's a longtime football fan and worked at universities for most of her career. She said the relationship with coaches was different at other places, citing Randy Edsall, whom she worked with at Connecticut, as an example of someone who ran an open program and helped his players learn from mistakes. Edsall is now head coach at Maryland.
"He would invite us to go on road trips to the away games so we could see inside the program," Triponey said. "But there was a wall at Penn State where we never had that kind of relationship." Curley and Spanier did not reply to messages for comment. A representative for Curley told the Journal that "he tried to make sure all student athletes were treated equally with regard to the code of conduct."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
This will get major NCAA Sanctions if true....
huskyfan
New member
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
I don't see the story that way at all. sure, coaches would like to have the final say. do coaches work to make it easier for their guys (let's check with some UND fans here). sure. but this seems to me to be part of a widespread systemic corruption of Penn State all for the glory of the football program. not at all what the public was being sold as the high and mighty PSU standards.
in related matters ... no local judges will be allowed to sit on the molestation charges.
and two under 18 victims have come forward and more charges are likely to follow.
I don't see the story that way at all. sure, coaches would like to have the final say. do coaches work to make it easier for their guys (let's check with some UND fans here). sure. but this seems to me to be part of a widespread systemic corruption of Penn State all for the glory of the football program. not at all what the public was being sold as the high and mighty PSU standards.
in related matters ... no local judges will be allowed to sit on the molestation charges.
and two under 18 victims have come forward and more charges are likely to follow.
Twitch Boy
Defacing this tagline is a MAX foul
ExileOnDaytonStreet
Drunkard
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
*vomit*
*vomit*
Twitch Boy
Defacing this tagline is a MAX foul
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
The coward's way out is probably looking better and better to him every day.
The coward's way out is probably looking better and better to him every day.
walrus
Wind up workin' in a gas station
GopherBigGuy911
The one you hate to love
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
Naw not until every who what when where why and how comes out - not the sexual details but the detail who knew about it and who didnt.....
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
In response to the PSU administrator...I have two views on this. Athletes shouldn't be allowed to get away with things just because they are athletes..they should face the same justice as any other student(which includes children of big donors, legacy kids and children of faculty and staff)...but they shouldn't be treated more harshly than regular students.
If a regular student wouldnt be suspended from all extra-curricular activities for DUI then neither should a football player. If a regular student has to pay parking tickets then so should football players. etc.
In response to the PSU administrator...I have two views on this. Athletes shouldn't be allowed to get away with things just because they are athletes..they should face the same justice as any other student(which includes children of big donors, legacy kids and children of faculty and staff)...but they shouldn't be treated more harshly than regular students.
If a regular student wouldnt be suspended from all extra-curricular activities for DUI then neither should a football player. If a regular student has to pay parking tickets then so should football players. etc.
duper
Well-known member
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
I'm not sure that I totally agree with this. It sounds great, but I do think that you have to consider the fact that these kids, while they are still basically kids, are role models. They may not have asked to be, they may not want to be, but they are. Another factor is that a DUI for a student-athlete is bad publicity for the schools' athletic department. As an employee in the real world, if you are charged with a crime that makes your employer look bad, there's a strong chance that you suffer consequences from your employer. I don't know, just maybe things to consider.
Twitch Boy
Defacing this tagline is a MAX foul
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
Sandusky's attorney reportedly considering a guilty plea.
That's about the only option left. No way this thing ends up in front of a jury.
Sandusky's attorney reportedly considering a guilty plea.
That's about the only option left. No way this thing ends up in front of a jury.
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
Not so fast:
http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-says-sandusky-not-considering-seeking-plea-165519032.html
Not so fast:
http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-says-sandusky-not-considering-seeking-plea-165519032.html
Kepler
Si certus es dubita
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
Maybe it's a just a PA thing...
Only way to do this is like a Serbian war crimes defense. Stretch it out, muddy the waters, and hope your client dies of old age before the verdict.
Maybe it's a just a PA thing...
Last edited:
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
During a lengthy interview at his lawyer's home, Sandusky told the newspaper he and Paterno never spoke about the alleged 2002 incident or a 1998 child molestation complaint investigated by the Penn State campus police.
"I never talked to him about either one," Sandusky said. "That's all I can say. I mean, I don't know."
**If you're Paterno, how do you defend not even talking to Sandusky about the allegations?
During a lengthy interview at his lawyer's home, Sandusky told the newspaper he and Paterno never spoke about the alleged 2002 incident or a 1998 child molestation complaint investigated by the Penn State campus police.
"I never talked to him about either one," Sandusky said. "That's all I can say. I mean, I don't know."
**If you're Paterno, how do you defend not even talking to Sandusky about the allegations?
Almington
Blood Boiling with Rage and Hate
Re: Sandusky/Penn State scandal
Plausible Deniability: If they never talk about it, Paterno can say he never talked about it with Sandusky and never saw anything himself. Everything he knows he learned second hand.
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