By Mark Pendergrast
for BigTrial.net
The Jerry Sandusky case continues to make news and ruin lives and careers. It is so toxic that even the most blatantly fraudulent hearsay becomes national headline news. Now Greg Schiano, Ohio State's defense coordinator, has been vilified without any justification whatsoever and has become a pariah.
Schiano had
been selected as the next head football coach at the University of
Tennessee. His hiring was to be
announced on Sunday night, Nov. 26, 2017. Instead, after a series of
rumor-mongering tweets and political grandstanding, and a graffiti-covered rock
on campus proclaiming “SCHIANO
COVERED UP CHILD RAPE AT PENN STATE,” he was abruptly dropped
like a hot potato.
Why? Because of Mike McQueary, who changed
his memory from hearing slapping sounds in a shower (of
Sandusky snapping towels with a 13-year-old boy) to witnessing sexual abuse,
ten years after the event. And because
McQueary then massaged his memory yet again two years ago in a deposition for a
civil case, and recalled someone else (assistant coach Tom Bradley) allegedly telling
him that Schiano, who was an assistant coach at Penn State from 1990 to 1995, had
supposedly said that he saw Sandusky doing something bad to a boy in a shower.
That’s
because Schiano never said such a thing to Bradley, and Bradley said no such
thing to McQueary.
And Sandusky
did no such thing. The real story
here is too much for the mass media to acknowledge. The media are invested in the narrative of Jerry Sandusky the serial
pedophile, the Monster. But guess what? The imprisoned former Penn State
football coach may be an innocent man, a victim of a moral panic fed by the
sensationalistic media, police trawling, memory-warping psychotherapy, and
greed, as I document in my book, The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to
Judgment.
It is a
fascinating, complex case that richly deserves this book-length treatment. Thus, I am unlikely to convince anyone in an
article. (But see this
link to a good summary article already available on
this website.) Nonetheless, I can’t keep silent when yet another career is
being ruined through slanderous triple-hearsay about crimes that never occurred
in the first place.
In the
hothouse atmosphere of college football, politics, money, and moral panics, the
mere mention of the named Sandusky is enough to tarnish anyone. Tennessee bigwigs fell all over themselves
condemning Schiano with zero evidence but plenty of mealy-mouthed hypocrisy. One
state representative said, “We don’t need a man who has that type of
potential reproach in their life as the football coach. It’s egregious to the
people.” On the contrary, his statement
is what is egregious. Three gubernatorial candidates hastened to condemn
Schiano as well, while another politico tweeted that “a
Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and
our community stand for.”
And
what does the University stand
for? Freedom of expression? Innocent until proven guilty? Or avoiding any controversy like the
plague? The latter seems to be the
current academic approach. Penn State University threw in excess of $100
million at virtually anyone who claimed to be a Sandusky victim, without any
investigation, in the same sort of mad rush to keep up appearances.
We
could all be accused via triple-hearsay of a non-existent crime, especially if
we ever had anything to do with Jerry Sandusky – or Mike McQueary, it appears.
--Mark Pendergrast is the author of The Most Hated Man in America and many
other books. You can write to him via
his website, www.markpendergrast.com.
Well said. So much evil in this case
ReplyDeleteWhat the media fails to acknowledge is that Mike McQueary essentially has a license to lie under oath in PA. No PA prosecutor is going to charge McQueary with perjury because that could undo the Sandusky convictions.
ReplyDeleteMcQueary has made several self-serving statements under oath that could easily be lies. They include the Schiano hearsay, that Paterno told him Old Main screwed up and his testimony about the locker door slam and third glance in the shower to see Sandusky and the boy standing apart.
The latter he failed to remember until over a year after his first statement to police and after he was criticized for leaving the boy in Sandusky's grasp.
JZ has triangulated the shower incident to about December 29,2000, a day or two after Jerry, Jim Caldwell, and Alan Myers made a trip to the University of Virginia. This would mean that MM sat on it for 5 weeks before the Paterno meeting.
DeleteAt the time of Schiano's tenure, the Sandusky's had been vetted multiple times by child protection professionals for the adoption of 4 children and placement of 7 foster children. They even were babysitters for Paterno's kids. The DPW people saw nothing, the caseworkers saw nothing, the pastor of St. Michael's church saw nothing.
It should be pretty obvious by now that MM is a pathological liar, and evidently has a psychosexual disease as well, as evidenced by his penis sexting and associating slapping sounds with sex. A normal jock would think of towels snapping and wet balls flying through the air.
I have long suspected that Feb. 9, 2001 was not the actual date of the shower incident given so many inconsistencies in McQueary's story. Feb. 8, 2001 was the day newspapers reported that wide receiver's coach, Kenny Jackson, was leaving to coach for the Steelers. There was a major concert on campus on Feb. 9, 2001 so the campus was not deserted as McQueary maintained.
DeleteWhen McQueary phoned Paterno on the morning of Feb. 10, 2001, the first thing Paterno said was that he had no job for McQueary. That was because Paterno had a wide receiver's job open, a job McQueary wanted and got in 2004. McQueary may have decided to report a trivial incident from weeks earlier to get a private meeting with Paterno with hopes of getting an inside track to the wide receiver's job. Paterno blew that up right away. That would explain why McQueary was so upset. Paterno saw through his ruse.
It's too bad some credible investigative reporter doesn't report on all this.
I am under the impression that the "if you're calling about a job, don't bother" line from Joe is yet another urban legend, made up by Mike. Allegedly Sue Paterno denies that Joe ever said that. I wonder if Mike said that to distract that he actually WAS there angling for a job with Joe and he wants people to think that WASN'T the reason.
DeleteI am also of the opinion that Mike made up this bullshit line about Schiano (a coach years gone from the program) purely to help Mike. I don't think Mike ever dreamed this lie of his would boomerang back on him like it did. Mike and Mike alone is responsible for that one - he can't blame Tim and Gary. And he can't blame the "Paterno Truthers".
I am curious how he can now put his head down on his pillow at night and not feel any pangs of regret for just went down with Schiano. If I was Schiano - I'd insist Mike sits with me on some national sports radio show and have him publicly recant and apologize.
Lastly, aside from the Kenny Jackson job opening, there was another memory marker for the fateful weekend in February 2001. I understand Al Golden left Joe's staff to become the DC for UVA with Al Groh a few weeks earlier - he was the recruiting coordinator, Mike worked in recruiting. I also understand this recruiting cycle was memorable for that fact, and that PSU lost a highly rated LB recruit, Leon Williams - who was from Brooklyn.
How do you think that went over with Brooklyn born Paterno?
That wouldn't stick in your mind if you lived, ate & slept football like Mike purports?
Instead you rummage through your memory and only come up with "campus was deserted" so it must've been Spring Break.
Such bullshit - and the blast radius from that bullshit has hit yet another coach, another institution, another program and embroiled them in an expensive PR nightmare.
I have lost whatever shred of empathy I had for Mike at this point. He was used by the AG as their stooge - his testifying 4 times UNDER OATH about the bullshit "Rudy" story is evidence of that. He has had every opportunity to speak up since the shitstorm hit in 2011 and is an abject failure for not doing so.
@Gregory Vernon - Did JZ check to see if the Rudy movie was on TV on Dec. 29, 2000?
Delete@Wendy Silverwood - I agree that Mike McQueary could have simply made up the Schiano claim to make himself look better because then he would have not been the only assistant coach who didn't call the police on Sandusky.
PennLive ran an article claiming an anonymous source from the Sandusky investigation told them that McQueary made claims about Schiano and Bradley before the Sandusky trial. So maybe the Schiano allegation was not just made up for McQueary's lawsuit.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/07/why_didnt_prosecutors_call_tom.html
The Rudy movie was aired Feb. 9. This was a Sassano ruse and MM played along. There was also a hockey game Feb. 9 in the Lasch building. Evidently only JZ caught onto this by researching Collegian archives. Evidently, a couple coaches observed JS with kids in a public shower, but that would not have registered as anything remarkable. Anyone who has gone to the YMCA, public swimming pools and gyms, scout camp, etc. has seen it hundreds of times.
DeleteThe Rudy movie may have aired numerous times on cable so may have also aired Dec. 29, 2000.
DeleteI agree with you that remembering a movie seems a very weak association given that McQueary forgot the following:
1. A big Barenaked Ladies concert on campus the evening of Feb. 9 nearby the football building.
2. The PSU wide receiver's coaching position becoming vacant on Feb 8, a position he wanted and got in 2004.
3. PSU football national signing day on Feb 7.
December 29 had bowl games on all day. Forget about Rudy...MM was watching real football. Rudy was a Sassano hoax.
DeleteCan Schiano sue MCQueary for slander ?
ReplyDeleteI think it is very doubtful that Schiano could successfully sue McQueary for slander because it was such a vague statement. The statute of limitations may have expired already as it was first made public over a year ago. Schiano might have a better case suing news outlets but even that would be very difficult because he would likely be considered a public figure.
DeleteI think what the media fails to do is question authority, if the prosecution makes a statement, regardless of the fact that it is just an accusation, the media presents it to the public as true accurate fact.
ReplyDeleteWhy does the msm assume that the prosecution is truthful, how are they not able to separate truth from fiction. My suggestions are that they do not really care about someones innocence or guilt, its a story and they run with it or they are too frightened to investigate and ask questions for themselves. Their editors may not allow them to question the prosecution, as the policy of the paper is to always go with the prosecutions facts, accurate or not.
This type of reporting shows that the media can and are used as pawns for the prosecution. Journalist seem to dissect every other profession , their words and actions but never the prosecution.
What is most disturbing is even when faced with information that shows evidence of someone's innocence, even when it's handed to them, they refuse to make it known, it must have to do with a liability issue, much like the prosecution can never admit an error.
If msm would not align itself so closely with the prosecution we have less shameful,wasteful cases aimed at taking the dignity from individuals or organizations. The free press in American comes with a painful price for defendants.
Interesting, the policy of the media is to always side with the prosecution.
DeleteThe Schiano critics and media have exaggerated McQueary's testimony on the Schiano double hearsay. McQueary's actual testimony was Schiano saw Sandusky “doing something to a boy in the shower.”
ReplyDeleteThat "something" was never specified.
If we can't remedy recent history this case will never be solved as time goes on, we need McQueary to say the prosecution had him lie or embellish his story, in order for anyone to believe this was a concocted effort by the prosecution. We need a whistleblower.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 2:23 P.M.,
DeleteIf the truth of the Sandusky scandal hinges on Mike McQeary suddenly finding his conscience, and relinquishing his ill-gotten wealth, then I think we'll see Hell freeze over first.
Judicial and media corruption is rampant in America. And potential whistleblowers are either being threatened or bought off throughout this entire nation. Zionism is the foreign, delusional doctrine that reveres lies above truth. And like a python, it is squeezing the life out of this once-great country. By definition, Zionists are the antithesis to our Constitutional rights and our American values derived thereof.
Zionists control and own our news media and our entertainment media. Therefore, they create our truth, and they create our lies. What serves globalist corporate corruption is their agenda. Creating false events and telling lies presented as truth to us is their specialty. And until we ALL start realizing this fact and actively reject the lies and their false figures of authority (Obama and Trump), then we will continue to suffer and fight among ourselves. The mainstream media lies, working in tandem with Zionist Trump's lies, serve to goad us into fighting among ourselves. While we are blind to the hidden hand doing the goading, we will continue to blame "the left", "the right", " the blacks", "the whites", "the immigrants", etc. etc.
For now, there seems to be a limitless supply of money behind the Zionist agenda to destroy America's Constitutional law. Paying off judges, district attorneys, attorney generals, local law enforcement and intelligence agencies is the power behind Zionism. People are selling their souls and their country to do the opposite of what we would expect under our Constitution.
Mike McQeary is only one fool bought off by Zionist wealth. He could come clean and say he was basically bribed to tell a child rape lie. But the Zionist media would destroy him with fake drug addiction and insanity stories---- "look what wealth has done to Mike McQeary, he's now a delusional meth head that has lost touch with reality".
Mike McQeary is not intelligent enough to know, or even care that this whole judicial and media mess in our country has a wealthy foreign power behind it.
Zionists? Here I thought it was the French Huguenots who controlled everything.
DeleteAnonymous - I doubt Mike McQueary will turn whistleblower because he would lose his millions from Penn State. Where would McQueary even go to blow the whistle on the PA Attorney General's Office - the Governor, the FBI?
ReplyDeleteI think the better way to unravel McQueary's story would be to find physical evidence.
For example, if the shower incident was actually Dec. 29, 2000, then there could be evidence that McQueary, Sandusky, his father or Dranov were not in town Feb. 9. McQueary already let slip that his father was not in town that night. A search of business records, credit card records, phone records or family photos might reveal where his father was.
McQueary claimed he phoned his father right after the shower incident. Phone records might exist to confirm whether there was a call made that evening from Mike McQueary to his father. There would have also have been a call from McQueary's father to Dr. Dranov to summon him to the house.
McQueary claimed he only went to the locker room to put new sneakers in his locker. Maybe there is a credit card record for purchase of sneakers. If that record showed McQueary purchased sneakers near the end of December, that would undermine his claim that he bought them in Feb. The Dec. date makes more sense for new sneakers because McQueary might have gotten sneakers as a Xmas present or at an after Xmas sale. Did anyone look at the McQueary family Xmas photos for 2000?
Maybe there are photos of McQueary in sneakers around those two times that would be evidence. Was McQueary wearing well worn sneakers for the final football game of the season on Nov. 18?
Did Mike McQueary have college classes on Feb. 9. 2001? Maybe his classmates or professors would remember something.
Maybe weather records could jog the memory of McQueary, his father, his mother or Dranov as to what they were wearing when Mike and Dranov came to the McQueary home? Feb. 9 had a high temp. of 55 degrees. Dec. 29 had a high of 17 degrees.
No one is going to put the effort into the details, besides he could have had new sneakers for months and just put them in his locker at that point but really who can believe anything he would have to say at this point.
DeleteWith any case it seems if the government gets you to lie or embellish, it must not be lying or embellishing, it must fall into another category, if an authority figure, such as a prosecutor, convinces a witness that it's not lying, just a necessity to prove their cases. Lying gets easier when your government condones it.
As for mainstream media, they remind me a large schools of fish that swim in synchronized patterns, if the all stick together in great numbers they can't be singled out by predators, like prosecutors, its protection and security to just run with the prosecution's accusations. No one in the pressroom gets eaten this way, only the defendants are sacrificed.
I neglected to say you are correct about who would he tell, as we have no one in authority to believe in, no one in the judicial sector is interested in another version of their" facts", especially not the FBI. No one in mainstream media and no one in the legislative branch either.
DeleteHow frightening to think there is no where to turn, no one who cares enough to right wrongs for us. We must be more like Russia than we think.
Anon at 1:08 P.M.
DeleteRussia is the scapegoat for Zionists that own and control our media, lock, stock and barrel. Russians do not own and control Americas's media. Therefore, Russia has no power over the U.S. at all.
Zionist Banksters that own and control America's money have a weak propaganda campaign going on through their media to deceive the gullible into believing "Russia controls the highest levels of our government through social media"-----total and utter nonsense.
Zionists would love nothing better than to have two Christian nations destroy each other in the name of The Greater Israel Project.
Truthseeker - The Schiano fiasco at TN proves how easy it is to manipulate the media so it is clearly false that "Russia has no power over the U.S. at all." It has already been proven that Russia spent substantial sums to plant false, negative internet reports on Clinton to influence the election.
ReplyDeleteA small group can have a great effect on the media. Angry TN fans egged on by social media ringleader, Clay Travis, nixed a done deal for Schiano, which today resulted in the firing of the TN Athletic Director.
Tim,
DeleteThe mainstream media is 'easy to manipulate' because they are willful participants in misdirecting the public. You say, 'It's been proven that Russia spent substantial sums to plant false, negative internet reports on Clinton to influence the election'. Really? 'Proof' from our mainstream media?
Because our MSM puppets that sold us Giuliani as "America's Mayor" say so, it's proof? Giuliani is insane and wrapped up in the whole 9/11 insurance fraud. He's also Trump's best friend and he likes to cross-dress and French kiss Trump on national TV. I use these two examples here only to show that these intelligence agents that are our "newscasters" are not to be believed. And their lying counterparts in the disgraced Washington Post are also not giving us the truth.
The 2016 "elections" are nothing but a big show put on by our Zionist government. It's all scripted, and the intent of the script as it plays out with all the lies, is to reign in freedom of speech on the internet. A corrupt government does not like social media that includes the freedom to expose their crimes.
We're all supposed to sit back and bite our nails as Trump uses Twitter with reckless abandon. We are to believe that our President may start nuclear extinction of mankind because he tweets irresponsibly.
So my guess is, Trump will cause some kind of calamity due to his use of social media. Sadly, the calamity is pre-planned and doesn't have to happen. But in order to severely limit our freedom of speech on the internet, the Zionists will have this plan play out. And if we buy into this setup, then we'll all be convinced that we're just sooooo lucky we avoided a missile strike sent over from North Korea. And it will all be leading man Trump's fault for using Twitter. "We're just so lucky to be alive". "I'll do my part as an American and stop using social media to question our government....blah, blah, blah".
Anyone that believes what MSM is passing off as truth right now is allowing themselves to be mocked as an American. Remember, the corrupt entanglement of corporations and government do not like a medium of free speech that they can't control.
I used Russia as an example of an oppressed society, much like ours. There is no one to tell if the prosecution/media condemns you, your life is ruined.
ReplyDeleteNo amount of facts to the contrary can persuade the mainstream media to change their stance on a defendant.
The days of reckoning are upon us when every new day brings a sexual scandal revelation, we need a new awakening in the media of the part they play in the persecution of defendants who have been accused of non-existent crimes.
Individual prosecutors need to be singled out along with the news agencies that carried their false narratives, much like sexual predators are being forced out, their victims have suffered at their hands much much to long.
I have noticed many news agencies even disappointingly NPR, who condemn a defendant on accusations, no one has the license to judge based on the prosecutions evidence.
Prosecutors benefit from winning, they are untouchable when it comes to being prosecuted themselves. If any other profession had that perk the media would be up in arms, but prosecutors are afforded that luxury everyday.
We need a more critical eye when it comes to what the prosecution alleges, how is it possible that every prosecutor is correct and every defendant is wrong.
Using the media is a strong arm tactic of prosecutors, who need to own their part in these scandals of dehumanizing defendants.
Unlike sexual complaints which are viewed as heinous to most, accusing a innocent person a crime they did not commit is overlooked by most in the media and dismissed by most of the public if the accusations come from the government.