Ex-Penn State president’s lawyer blasts Freeh Report on scandal

Just when you thought the Penn State scandal was finally going away, it’s back. On Wednesday, Timothy Lewis, the lawyer for former Penn State President Graham Spanier, called the Freeh Report on the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal a “blundering and indefensible indictment” of Spanier.

Lewis alleged that former FBI director Louis Freeh had reached many of his conclusions before starting the investigation and that he used speculation to support what he wanted the outcome to be.

Spanier, who has not been charged in the case, was not at the news conference.

Lewis says the report assumes that former football assistant Mike McQueary told Coach Joe Paterno in 2001 that he saw something sexual between Sandusky and a young boy in a locker-room shower, and that Paterno relayed that information to Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz, who Freeh then presumes told Spanier about it.

“Curley and Schultz have denied that they ever told Dr. Spanier anything of the sort,” Lewis said. “Horseplay was referred to over and over again, but never with any sexual connotation. … But Judge Freeh paid no attention to that.”

“The Freeh Report, as it pertains to Dr. Spanier, is a myth. And that myth … ends today,” Lewis said.

The Freeh Report alleges that Spanier and Paterno participated in a coverup to spare the school bad publicity. Spanier and Paterno were fired in November, a few days after Sandusky was charged.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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