JoePa hires high paid Criminal Defense Attorney

[UConnSportsGuy]

Breaking News that JoePa has just hired an elite criminal defense attorney.

This is the guy who defended Bush1 in the Iran-Contra affair...so no joke (and I can just imagine his laywer fees!!!). You do not hire an elite criminal defense attorney like this if you are only facing NCAA infractions or civil liability cases......looks like this is about to get even more insane!!!!

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_n...criminal-defense-lawyer-source-tells-nbc-news

 

[huskysupporter]

Should he hire a bad attorney? Why wouldn't he hire a very good attorney? You can be sure that in addition to lawsuits filed against Penn State, victims will be attempting to sue Joe Paterno individually. He would be an absolute fool not to hire the best attorney he could afford.

I doubt he gets charged with a crime, but there is no doubt a ton of civil lawsuits will be filed.

 

[mets1090]

Hiring an elite lawyer is probably a good way to discourage people from pressing criminal charges as well

 

[huskysupporter]

Hiring an elite lawyer is probably a good way to discourage people from pressing criminal charges as well

That would in no way impact whether criminal charges would be filed. It is a wise move to have counsel in times like this.

 

[UCHuskies08]

Not exactly the indications of an innocent man with a clean conscience

 

[huskysupporter]

Not exactly the indications of an innocent man with a clean conscience

Its the intelligent move. He is going to be flooded with civil lawsuits, he needs a good attorney.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

You can be sure that in addition to lawsuits filed against Penn State, victims will be attempting to sue Joe Paterno individually. He would be an absolute fool not to hire the best attorney he could afford.

That is exactly the point! He should hire the best civil liabilities attorney there is, that would be a great idea. But the point is he hired an elite CRIMINAL defense attorney. He is clearly expecting to have to defend himself against serious CRIMINAL charges...not just being sued for damages!

 

[DieHardHusky]

And let it begin

 

[FDNY99]

His son Scott posted on twitter around 6:30 that the reports of his father hiring a lawyer are false. Joe Pa has NOT hired a lawyer as of this time.

 

[sportsart]

Rumor has it Bizlaw got the call first but Joe Pa wouldn't wait for Bizlaw to attend the UL game and then fly to Happy Valley so Joe moved on to the next on his list.

Trying to confirm.

 

[huskysupporter]

That is exactly the point! He should hire the best civil liabilities attorney there is, that would be a great idea. But the point is he hired an elite CRIMINAL defense attorney. He is clearly expecting to have to defend himself against serious CRIMINAL charges...not just being sued for damages!

He hired a great attorney. An attorney doesn't have one area of expertise.

I said in an earlier thread, I doubt Paterno gets charged with a crime. What he did was morally reprehensible, but not a crime.

 

[huskysupporter]

His son Scott posted on twitter around 6:30 that the reports of his father hiring a lawyer are false. Joe Pa has NOT hired a lawyer as of this time.

Not sure why he wouldn't. He has the cash, and it is a smart move.

 

[cryjeremiah]

Not exactly the indications of an innocent man with a clean conscience

No offense, UC, but I have to call utter Bull** on this. Even a completely innocent man needs proper legal representation whenever there are legal issues like this. The idea that "only a guilty man asks for a lawyer" is complete nonsense and is evidence that this is no longer a "innocent until proven guilty" legal system or society. I'm sure BusinessLawyer would agree with me on this.

That being said, JoePa hiring this lawyer may actually be preparation for a well-deserved storm.

 

[businesslawyer]

Innocent men (and I am not saying that Joe Pa is) get indicted and convicted. With your liberty at stake, and being rich, why in the world would you not hire the best lawyer you could to defend you?

Reading more into it than this is not fair. (And I understand that Paterno wasn't fair to the local kids who he didn't protect by outing Sandusky earlier, but that is still not directly related to this decision)

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Innocent men (and I am not saying that Joe Pa is) get indicted and convicted. With your liberty at stake, and being rich, why in the world would you not hire the best lawyer you could to defend you?

Reading more into it than this is not fair. (And I understand that Paterno wasn't fair to the local kids who he didn't protect by outing Sandusky earlier, but that is still not directly related to this decision)

You are right BL...but why should I use rational thought and real world judgement on a message board?! I learned all of my legal knowledge from watching 'Murder She Wrote' when I was 8 years old...so I will default to you on this one!

 

[upstater]

One major piece of information is being left out: we don't know who victim #2 is (2002 in the showers).

The GJ report shows that only 5 people knew about it : PSU Pres., PSU Head of Police, PSU AD, Paterno, McQueary.

One of these 5 people revealed the information to the AG after the investigation perked up in 2009 following the high school football incident.

2 of these people are under indictment for perjury.

I'm going to assume it wasn't Spanier who alerted the AG.

This tells me that it's possible that either Paterno or McQueary went to the AG in 2009 to tell them about what they knew of the 2002 incident. Unless, of course, the incident was widely known by others.

And this would also explain why the AG yesterday--after the governor's and BOT's actions--stated that there should not be a rush to judgement of what people knew and when.

I'm not saying that anyone has whistleblower or immunity status, but someone revealed the 2002 incident.

 

[UConnCat]

One major piece of information is being left out: we don't know who victim #2 is (2002 in the showers).

The GJ report shows that only 5 people knew about it : PSU Pres., PSU Head of Police, PSU AD, Paterno, McQueary.

One of these 5 people revealed the information to the AG after the investigation perked up in 2009 following the high school football incident.

2 of these people are under indictment for perjury.

I'm going to assume it wasn't Spanier who alerted the AG.

This tells me that it's possible that either Paterno or McQueary went to the AG in 2009 to tell them about what they knew of the 2002 incident. Unless, of course, the incident was widely known by others.

And this would also explain why the AG yesterday--after the governor's and BOT's actions--stated that there should not be a rush to judgement of what people knew and when.

I'm not saying that anyone has whistleblower or immunity status, but someone revealed the 2002 incident.

True. We don't know yet the timing of or the context in which the information about Victim 2 was revealed. It's likely that the information about Victim 2 was revealed after the state/local investigators went to PSU while investigating Victim 1's allegations. It's Victim 1's allegations that initiated the investigation that ultimately produced the GJ report. There's also the information about the incident the janitor witnessed in 2000. That incident was never reported and the janitor reportedly has dementia and couldn't testify before the GJ. Yet, someone knew about it and the information was revealed to investigators. There's much to be learned about this case.

 

[Stinger92860]

Innocent men (and I am not saying that Joe Pa is) get indicted and convicted. With your liberty at stake, and being rich, why in the world would you not hire the best lawyer you could to defend you?

Reading more into it than this is not fair. (And I understand that Paterno wasn't fair to the local kids who he didn't protect by outing Sandusky earlier, but that is still not directly related to this decision)

I agree with everything you said. I just find it odd that this is the same man who but 48 hours ago led students in a We are Penn State chant on his front lawn.

 

[Stinger92860]

True. We don't know yet the timing of or the context in which the information about Victim 2 was revealed. It's likely that the information about Victim 2 was revealed after the state/local investigators went to PSU while investigating Victim 1's allegations. It's Victim 1's allegations that initiated the investigation that ultimately produced the GJ report. There's also the information about the incident the janitor witnessed in 2000. That incident was never reported and the janitor reportedly has dementia and couldn't testify before the GJ. Yet, someone knew about it and the information was revealed to investigators. There's much to be learned about this case.

You know that at this point Victim 2 is probably victim 32, right?

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

You know that at this point Victim 2 is probably victim 32, right?

Has any media source reported Sandusky's attacks began sometime around 1989? Or, earlier than 1995?

 

[Northbound]

I think Joe's has responsibility for this mess as an enabler based on his inaction and I think he should have hired an attorney. If he didn't it would cement my opinion of him as a dottering old man that is so far removed from reality that it's actually frightening.

It's sad that I get the sense that I'm not sure that Joe gets the seriousness of this.....forget the cheers in front of your house Joe, stay inside and figure out how you can help the kids that this has happened to and figure out how to prevent this type of thing from ever happening again to another kid.