Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Jerry Sandusky Retirement Package Revoked By Penn State University, Pension Remains, Sandusky fallout: NCAA 'death penalty' possible for Penn State

Jerry Sandusky Retirement Package Revoked By Penn State University, Pension Remains The Huffington Post  By Tyler Kingkade 7/18/12

Jerry Sandusky has been downgraded.

Penn State University has officially revoked the retirement package of Sandusky, a convicted pedophile, according to the Daily Collegian. Sandusky, a one time assistant football coach at PSU, retired in 1999 and received a lump sum payment of $168,000. The Freeh report, released last week, noted this was a highly unusual amount.

Another bizarre condition of Sandusky's retirement included giving him "emeritus" status, which allowed him generous privileges. At the time of his retirement, Sandusky was an assistant physical education professor and assistant football coach positions, which wouldn't qualify him eligible for the emeritus rank. He was given wide access to use facilities on campus, including the locker rooms and showers where he was found to repeatedly molest and rape young boys.

University spokesman Dave La Torre gave further details to the Collegian:

He said the following portions of Sandusky’s retirement package have been revoked: four free football season tickets for the rest of his life and the opportunity to purchase four more within the 35-yard lines; two men’s and women’s basketball season tickets for the rest of his life; lifetime use of a locker, weight rooms, fitness facilities and training room in the East Area locker room; a five-year agreement, subject to renewal, between Sandusky and Penn State to work collaboratively in community outreach programs such as The Second Mile that “provide positive visibility to the University’s Intercollegiate Athletics Program,” as well as a 10-year agreement, subject to renewal, giving him an office and telephone in the East Area locker room.

Sandusky was found guilty on June 22 of 45 criminal counts relating to the assault of 10 boys over a 15-year period. La Torre said he's unclear about when the university officially revoked the retirement package.

La Torre told The Huffington Post Sandusky's emeritus was officially removed....

The $168,000, in addition to 71 separate payments made between 2000 and 2008 by Penn State to Sandusky for items including travel, meals and speaking engagements, will not be revoked, the Collegian reports.

However, Sandusky will still be collecting nearly $5,000 a month through his pension from taxpayers. Some lawmakers have said they want to review any possible options to cut Sandusky off from his pension, but they acknowledge that would be unlikely.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/jerry-sandusky-retirement-package-revoked-psu_n_1679879.html


Sandusky fallout: NCAA 'death penalty' possible for Penn State

By Michael Muskal July 18, 2012

With Penn State University expected within days to respond to NCAA concerns about how the school handled reports involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and allegations of child sexual abuse, the real question for sports fans is whether, and how, the celebrated football program will be punished.

The NCAA, the governing body of collegiate sports, is not likely to act quickly enough for there to be any action before the football season opener scheduled for Sept. 1 against Ohio University. The Nittany Lions have the dubious pleasure of opening at home, at Beaver Stadium. That stadium has been the focus of protests about a statue of Joe Paterno, the late head football coach, who was portrayed in less-than-flattering terms in the recent university-sponsored report on the Sandusky scandal....

The NCAA, for its part, has taken nothing off the table, including the so-called death penalty, shutting down the program for at least a year, said its president Mark Emmert in a PBS interview Monday. Emmert said he’s “never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of just overall conduct and behavior inside a university.”....

The Freeh report blamed top university officials for failing -- not once, but twice -- to act on reports that Sandusky had sexually abused boys in the showers of the school’s football training facility. The officials acted to keep the reports in-house, despite legal requirements that they tell outside authorities, because they feared the impact of bad publicity on the school. The report also discussed a culture of fear that prevented anyone from acting against someone affiliated with the school’s powerful football program.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ncaa-penn-state-death-penalty-20120718,0,4725237.story

No comments: