Penn State Scandal: The Feds Must Take Over Now
I am not the first to blog this, but the shocking allegations surrounding the Penn State football program and the university must be fully investigated in a responsible and believable way.
We can not trust the same university who failed to acted (and whose officials have now been indicted for lying) to investigate itself. That's a joke. At a minimum, Penn State should outsource its entire investigation to credible person (see the MLB and the "Mitchell Report"). We also know there is enough smoke around this scandal that the Penn State locals can not be trusted to effectively prosecute the ALL the individuals, including Joe Paterno if appropriate, and the area police who may have discouraged criminal cases involving Jerry Sandusky.
Want more concerns? Exactly how did the prior prosecutor on the Penn State child abuse investigation, Ray Gricar, turn up dead? Wait, let me correct myself, the police never found his body, just his computer resting at the bottom of a Pennsylvania river. Back in 1998, Gricar chose not to prosecute Sandusky. Why? Was he going to change his mind before he died. How can an assistant district attorney just disappear?
It may seem off topic but our country's wise Founders established the federal court system for this type of situation. The federal courts and the US Attorney were designed to enter investigations where the locals had failed to act or could not be trusted to be fair. We are 2 for 2 here with Penn State.
I don't want to hear about the federal government's limited resources or anything like that in this case. We are dealing with a major child abuse case, with victims that still may be afraid to come forward. If the FBI and US Attorney's office doesn't take the lead in the investigation and prosecution of an outrageous case like this, then they have violated their collective duty to all of us.
My name is Christopher Fusco. I am the managing partner of Callahan & Fusco, LLC with offices in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.