Tony Farina is a long time NY journalist, TV reporter and inductee to the Broadcasters Hall of Fame Western New York. Like many others he had no idea that there was anything more to the Sandusky story until he read Frank Report stories. Now he is not so sure. Here is his view on the subject.
By Tony Farina
Penn State’s Joe Paterno, who won two national championships and more college football games than any other coach in college history, 409, died on Jan. 22, 2012, 74 days after he was fired by Penn State as a result of the child sex abuse scandal that saw his legacy and many of his victories taken away in what investigative reporter Frank Parlato is now reporting may have been a railroad job concocted by several parties to save the school’s football revenue and make their own pot of gold.
A young Jerry Sandusky with Joe Paterno
In Parlato’s highly respected Frank Report, the alleged perpetrator of the sex abuse at the school, Jerry Sandusky, a longtime assistant to Paterno, is portrayed as more of a victim than any of his alleged victims, a cash cow for many, including the “victims,” who received millions for going along with the fast-moving Sandusky investigation after their memories of long-ago events were brought back to life by repressed memory therapy. Their therapists and their lawyers were richly rewarded for “remembering” their abuse by Sandusky.
Aaron Fisher, victim #1, provided a photograph as an answer to his detractors, that speaks a million words.
A key piece of that investigation was conducted by former FBI director’s Louis Freeh who was paid more than $8 million to investigate and pin the abuse rap on Sandusky who has spent the last 11 years in prison, proclaiming his innocence. He was interviewed by Frank Parlato by zoom.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh
One of the alumni-elected trustees, Anthony Lubrano, who won a court battle to Freeh’s source materials, said at one point, “Louis Freeh is a fraud. Period. End of story. I hope he hasn’t spent the $8.3 million we gave him (in fees for the board-commissioned report) because I want it back.”
Penn State trustee Anthony Lubrano
Many, including the likes of sportscaster Bob Costas and football analyst Todd Blackledge, who played for Paterno, have questioned the Freeh investigation. Blackledge said “It felt like the media felt at liberty to connect all those dots, whether they had facts. Based on whatever information they had, they were going to connect the dots and tell the story. And it had tremendous momentum. Because of the serious and horrendous nature of the allegations against Jerry, that narrative went pretty much unopposed.”
Todd Blackledge
It has also been reported that NCAA emails revealed in 2014 that the NCAA worked closely with Louis Freeh in his investigation of Sandusky, another sign of investigative dots being connected.
In all, it is believed the scandal has cost Penn State a quarter of a billion dollars including all the money paid to many involved in the investigation and the witnesses who remembered enough when pushed by prosecutors to say they had been molested by Sandusky.
Dustin Struble drives his new sports car.
This and much more is now being probed by Frank Parlato, a tireless advocate for fairness who believes that what he has found so far indicates Sandusky was railroaded and Paterno’s legacy destroyed for the pot of gold at the end of the Penn State sex scandal rainbow.
Read the Frank Report to catch up on all of what Frank’s work has found so far.
