Spanier Fighting Heart Disease, Cancer, Depression On Way To Jail

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The three top former Penn State officials that Judge John Boccabella just sent to jail so he could be tough on crime in a high-profile media case are in bad shape.

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier is 69 years old, and has had five operations in the past year, in addition to 35 radiation treatments for advanced prostate cancer. According to a sentencing memorandum prepared by Spanier's lawyers, Spanier is being evaluated for imminent open-heart cardiac valve replacement surgery. He's also being treated for high blood pressure, depression and anxiety.

Former Penn State VP Gary Schultz, 67, is the primary caretaker for his wife, Karen, his high school sweetheart, who has MS. Schultz also cares for his 86-year-old mother-in-law, who moved into Schultz's house in November, 2015. Both Schultz's wife and mother-in-law depend on Schultz's assistance to get through their daily lives, Schultz's lawyers stated in a sentencing memorandum ignored by the judge.

Former Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley, 63, suffers from "incurable lung cancer," his lawyer wrote. "Any term of incarceration would negatively impact his health, his ongoing treatment and continuity of health care and cause extreme hardship to himself and his family." In addition, Curley's cancer treatment "has caused liver damage making him susceptible to infection and illness," his lawyer wrote.

But in the interests of "justice," the show must go on. The Penn State trio must do jail time for misdemeanors, after seeing their careers torched, and their reputations destroyed.

According to the judge's rulings, Spanier must do two months in jail, followed by up to ten months of house arrest.

Schultz got two months behind bars and up to 21 months of home confinement.

Curley will do three months in jail followed by up to 21 months of house arrest.

The charade of the Penn State trio going off to prison for supposedly turning a blind eye to the suffering of the sainted "victims" of Jerry Sandusky must play out. So in this morality play staged by the prosecutors and judges, the media and public must see someone pay for the sins of Jerry Sandusky.

Even though Jerry's already doing up to 60 years in solitary confinement.

The official Penn State storyline, as promulgated by the media and the justice system, is like King Nebuchadnezzar's 90-foot tall golden statue in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Everyone must bow and worship before it. Or be thrown into the fiery media furnace, as well as jail.

As stated by the prosecutors and the judge in this case, the Penn State trio must also may for the sins of the  deniers of the official version of the truth. Bloggers and blasphemers like former PSU trustee Al Lord, who famously said he was  "running out of sympathy for 35 so-called victims with 7-digit net worth."

But anyone with a sane mind would have to see some gaping holes in the Penn State storyline we've been fed for the past seven years. Such as:

-- The entire 2011 grand jury report is built upon a lie, that Mike McQueary supposedly saw Jerry Sandusky in the Penn State showers engaged in an "anal rape" of a 10-year-old boy. Even McQueary wrote in an email to the prosecutors that it never happened, he never saw penetration, and that the prosecutors "twisted" his words.

-- Of the 24 original charges filed by the attorney general's office against the Penn State trio, the only three that stuck were three misdemeanor charges for endangering the welfare of a child. Charges that I've already explained were filed under an original 1972 state law that didn't even apply to the Penn State trio.

-- Many in Penn State nation seem to think that Jerry Sandusky was a master pedophile, and that the AG's office should have spent their time investigating Sandusky's Second Mile charity, instead of Penn State. A vocal minority believe that Sandusky was innocent, and that the prosecutors manufactured evidence against him. As well as victims.

Both sides should agree that Sandusky deserves a new trial, after the earlier farce that he was railroaded at. BigTrial has covered the incompetence of Sandusky's lawyer in an excerpt from a soon-to-be published book by journalist Mark Pendergrast.

-- If Jerry Sandusky was a pedophile, where's the evidence? The only pornography discovered in this case was on the computers of the prosecutors. Knowledgable law enforcement sources say they have never heard of a case of pedophilia not accompanied by large caches of pornography.

Also, after three years of investigating, the prosecutors had found only one so-called victim, Aaron Fisher. And this was a guy who initially said nothing ever happened with Jerry. Until he underwent six months of psychotherapy and many more skull sessions with investigators. I'm talking about two state troopers who admitted on a tape-recorded interview with another suspected victim that it took months for the cops to coax to a sex abuse story line out of Fisher.

-- The identity of the victim of one of the most infamous sex abuse crimes in history, the 10-year-old boy in the showers whose alleged anal rape by Jerry Sandusky was supposedly witnessed by McQueary, is "known only to God," the prosecutor said. After seven years of a full-blast, highly publicized media scandal? It makes no sense. Especially to the guy doing 60 years in jail.

It was the marquee crime in the state attorney general's indictment of Sandusky, and the prosecutors were unable to produce a victim. That says a lot.

If Sandusky gets a new trial, maybe some of these issues will finally be investigated. But don't expect the mainstream media to show any interest in digging for the truth. They already have their official story line.

Meanwhile, those sentencing memorandums detail the pain and suffering that the official scapegoats of the Penn State scandal have already been subjected to.

"Dr. Spanier has become the subject of public debate, incessant and vitriolic media commentary [both traditional and 'social' media] and endless ridicule and scorn," wrote lawyers Samuel W. Silver and Bruce P. Merenstein.

"Dr. Spanier has already suffered severely through public shaming, loss of employment and significant repetitional harm," his lawyers wrote. "He is almost 70 years old and in worsening health."

In the sentencing memorandum, a doctor detailed those health problems, both mental and physical.

"Due to the chronic psychological stress from prolonged legal issues, as well as the chronic burden of severe medical problems, Dr. Spanier was diagnosed with major depression and anxiety," wrote Dr. Michael P. Flanagan,  the Professor and Vice-Chair of Family and Community Medicine at Penn State's College of Medicine.


 "In addition to his cardiac and prostate cancer medications, as well as extensive radiation therapy, Dr. Spanier has been prescribed three medications to treat underlying reactive depression and associated anxiety," Flanagan wrote.

In an unsuccessful effort to keep Spanier out of jail, his lawyers detailed Spanier's extraordinary accomplishments and many good deeds.

In 2005, Spanier was asked by FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director Porter Goss to take the "lead role in national security matters pertaining to higher education," his lawyers wrote.

In the sentencing memorandum, Tom Mahlik, former NCIS Deputy Assistant Director, told of Spanier's receipt of the Warren Medal.

"During the ceremony, it was said that 'No American has done more since 9/11 to bring the CIA and FBI closer together in a collaborative working relationship," Mahlik wrote. "Graham is courageous . . . Graham is transparent . . . Graham is trustworthy."

John R. Sipher, former member of the Clandestine Service of the CIA, described Spanier as "a man of integrity," a "patriot and a concerned citizen" who wasn't paid for his services to the intelligence community.

Steven L. Soboroff, a childhood friend of Spanier's, and the commissioner of the Los Angeles Police Department, described Spanier as a man of "truthfulness" and "unwavering integrity."

In the sentencing memorandum, Spanier's lawyers also documented their client's good deeds. Such as Spanier and his wife have donating almost $2 million to Penn State. The couple also has been honored for raising more than $700,000 for the Penn State Renaissance Fund scholarship endowment.

In Schultz's sentencing memorandum, Thomas J. Farrell and Emily C. McNally, Schultz's lawyers, included a handwritten note from Schultz's wife, Karen.

"My MS requires someone to be available in times of lack of strength and stability," she wrote. "I hope you understand how important Gary is to me and my well being."

In Tim Curley's sentencing memorandum, his lawyer, Caroline M. Roberto, tried to explain Curley's memory lapses on the witness stand, which drew the ire of prosecutors.

"The Commonwealth asserts that the astonishing forgetfulness that Curley demonstrated during his testimony . . . was simply not credible," the AG wrote. The AG states that Curley's forgetfulness "was designed to protect those who deserved to share blame with Curley for the decisions that led to the colossal failure to protect children from Sandusky."

His lawyer, however, stated that Curley "testified consistently with his proffered testimony and answered all questions to the best of his ability. Only once did he appear to misunderstand a question and immediately corrected his answer to conform with his prior statement."

Roberto, in her sentencing memorandum, included testimony from a witness who talked about a time before his cancer treatments, when Curley's memory was so good he knew all 26 members of the men's soccer team by name, as well as the names of every coach at Penn State.

"I had never seen anything like this," wrote Sandra Rogus. "He was doing this with every coach in every sport." Curley, Rugus wrote, "cared deeply about supporting every coach."

In Curley's sentencing memorandum, his lawyer wrote about the "pain" and "deep and substantial punishment" already inflicted upon Curley during a "media firestorm."

"Mr. Curley was subjected to epic international shaming and humiliation through relentless media frenzy that went on for years through the Sandusky trial and the publication of the dubious and frequently discredited Freeh Report," Roberto wrote.

"As well as the dubious and eventually vacated NCAA sanctions against Penn State," Roberto wrote. "Such public shaming of a man revered by so many who was at the peak of his job performance must be taken into account when determining a fair sentence to impose."

But Judge Boccabella ignored such pleas.

Sorry, Mr. Curley, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Spanier, the judge said.

We don't care about your health problems or the hell you've already been through.

Because in the Penn State scandal, the show must go on.