Mike McQueary, whose Grand Jury testimony brought down Joe Paterno and got several other Penn State officials indicted (and whose story of the anal rape and constantly shifting statements convince me that he is not credible), has changed his story yet again.
Mike McQueary, the Penn State assistant football coach under fire for his reported lack of action in an alleged 2002 rape of a boy by Jerry Sandusky, said in an email to a former classmate that he stopped the assault in an athletic facility shower and discussed it with police.In the email obtained by The Morning Call, McQueary wrote that he “did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police” following the alleged incident involving Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant coach, and a boy. McQueary also wrote that he “is getting hammered for handling this the right way or what I thought at the time was right.”
So he now says he went to the police. But here’s what the Grand Jury Findings of Fact state:
Department of Public Welfare and Children Youth Services local and state records were subpoenaed by the Grand Jury; University Police records were also subpoenaed. The records reveal that the 2002 incident was never reported to any officials, in contravention of Pennsylvania law.
McQueary’s latest statement simply cannot be squared with the Grand Jury’s findings.
To put it mildly, I think the man is completely unreliable. Should the word of this one man — contradicted by those he accuses, and by the Grand Jury, and by himself — have been allowed to destroy so many careers without a formal trial in which his claims could be examined thoroughly?
That the Grand Jury chose to believe McQueary over everyone else is not surprising if we consider that in practice, Grand Juries function as rubber stamps for prosecutors, but the fact that that he is now contradicting the Grand Jury may raise questions about whether the prosecutor(s) exercised due diligence.
I mean, imagine what a determined Mike Nifong could have done with such a flexible witness.
Comments
4 responses to “What kind of star witness do they have?”
McQueary is hanging himself. There are just too many suspicions that can be read into the reason for his “actions”.
“To put it mildly, I think the man is completely unreliable. Should the word of this one man — contradicted by those he accuses, and by the Grand Jury, and by himself — have been allowed to destroy so many careers without a formal trial in which his claims could be examined thoroughly?”
Sure! There are more important people and institutions than Paterno and the others who’ve been fired that have to be protected. McQueary is just a convenient means to an end.
It reminds me of the Cain sexual harassment charges; certain people are just guilty until proven innocent.
I haven’t paid close attention. Has McQueary changed his story or has the media changed theirs?
There are two, maybe more, options here: McQueary lied to the grand jury, or he was lied to back 2002 about there being an official investigation. After all, once you’ve made the report of a crime to the police, what do you have to show that they actually did something official about it? In my experience, not a damn thing. Reported a neighbor some years ago for driving intoxicated numerous times. Called the local small-town PD when I observed him drinking and then getting into his truck to go somewhere (in an obvious state of intoxication). Came the day that he actually got into an accident, I talked to the lady he hit and told her about the number of times I’d reported this guy. Not a single official report was in the city files, or in the log of the PD on the dates I’d made the report.
Something similar could have been done with McQueary, particularly in the half-ass way he reported it. Had it been called in to 911, that’d be hard to cover up. The way it was done, tho? Someone could have called a cooperative contact on the police force, who showed up, interviewed McQueary “off the books”, convinced him that action was being taken, and then round-filed the paperwork instead of making it part of the official record.
A lot would depend on the integrity of the people McQueary talked to. I hope he remembers names and dates, to go along with everything…