Freeh Report critique released by PSU alumni group
A Penn State alumni group, Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, this week became the latest in a growing list of those unhappy with Louis Freeh’s report on the Penn State / Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship (or PS4RS) released a detailed 57-page Critical Review & Analysis of Freeh’s report on August 13.
This follows earlier “critical analysis” of the Freeh report by groups and individuals including attorney Ed Monk, a Penn State Faculty leaders analysis, past chairs of the faculty senate analysis, and a critical analysis by attorneys for former PSU president Graham Spanier.
Those interested in the minutiae of the Penn State / Sandusky case will find plenty of detail in PS4RS’s analysis.
Regular readers of this column will find the groups’ complaints familiar.
As we wrote upon its release, the Freeh Report itself represents a cover-up and a non-investigation with no due process, witnesses, or open hearings, and was clearly designed to hermetically seal Penn State from glaring problems with Pennsylvania’s state and local government, including those involving Gov. Tom Corbett.
(A summary of PS4RS’s key complaints can he found here.)
PS4RS rightly blames the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, the Centre County Children and Youth Services, the State College Borough Police Department, and the Centre County District Attorney for dropping the ball on the Sandusky case in 1998.
Even so, among the glaring failures of PS4RS’s report is that it curiously fails to mention, even once, Gov. Tom Corbett.
This omission is all the more glaring since Gov. Corbett bragged at a July 2012 press conference that he had personally recommended that PSU hire Freeh. Freeh was paid $6.5 million to produce his report.
Allthis aside, what’s most noteworthy about the report is what it represents: the school’s alumni are finally coming together to question the hysteria, rush to judgment, and lack of thorough investigation and critical thought leading to, and following, the Sandusky scandal.
“This omission is all the more glaring since Gov. Corbett bragged at a July 2012 press conference that he had personally recommended that PSU hire Freeh. Freeh was paid $6.5 million to produce his report.”
I fail to see anything you cite that would fit the word “bragged” when describing Corbett’s actions. Louis Freeh is a highly respected individual with impeccable credentials. I don’t know if $6.5 million dollars is fair or not, but with so much at stake it was important to hire the best.
Ask Richard Jewel if he thinks Freeh is highly respected with impeccable credentials.