Paterno Family to Commission Review of the Freeh Report Findings

Last week, the Freeh Report was released to the public and Louis Freeh held a press conference to explain his group’s findings, the culmination of an eight-month investigation into a potential cover up of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of young boys at Penn State. The conclusions were damning. Freeh’s report indicates that Joe Paterno and university administrators covered up the actions of Jerry Sandusky. In the wake of the report, debates have stirred about the fate of the Joe Paterno statue that stands outside of Penn State’s Beaver Stadium and some have begun to argue that Paterno, if alive, might have faced criminal charges. On Monday morning, the late coach’s family released a statement indicating that they will commission a formal review of the Freeh Report, its findings, and the information divulged in last week’s press conference.

It can certainly be asserted that Joe Paterno could have done more. He acknowledged this himself last fall. But to claim that he knowingly, intentionally protected a pedophile is false.The process of reviewing the report and other relevant information is going to be a complicated and time consuming exercise. It took the Freeh Group roughly seven months to conduct more than 400 interviews and review three million documents. We do not expect or intend to duplicate this effort but we are going to be as thorough as reasonably possible. In the meantime, our attorneys have asked that we not make any further comment on this matter until they are ready to provide an update on their progress. [pennlive]