I believe the Attorney General has played the public and the media like a cheap fiddle. When Sara Ganim first broke the story of the Sandusky investigation in March, damned if it got no public traction whatsoever. The Penn State administration and the trustees had to be well aware of it and expected little fall out since, grand jury testimony is usually sealed from the public. This was and always has been a criminal investigation against one individual or so they believed. That explains why they appeared to be caught so unprepared by the recent media firestorm. How convenient was it that a very graphic, scandalous and I'd add "X-rated" grand jury prestatement was "leaked" on the internet and only removed after it was too late. If it was okay to be "out there", why was it subsequently removed?

The problem is that with the exception of the grad assistant eye witness testimony regarding victim number 2, none of the other allegations have been reported to have supporting, corroborating testimony. Every other victim abuse incident appears to be one person's word against another. Could that be why the 1998 investigation sputtered to a halt at the District Attorney's desk? That incident even supposedly had a witness, a janitor. And even then there was not enough evidence to bring charges, apparently.

Well now, the Attorney General appears to have the whole world in her corner but a "preponderance of evidence" or in this case "accusations", may get a civil settlement in a lawsuit, but a criminal conviction requires proof "beyond a reasonable doubt." The prosecution is counting on public outcry to prime the judicial pump so to speak and prospective jurors into removing such reasonable doubt. I cannot count the number of comments posted by well meaning people believing Sandusky to be guilty and that any trial at this time would just constitute a mere formality.

How is it that this late in the investigation, the prosecution discovers more and more accusers, who never before surfaced until now, none of whom can prove their allegations? We don't know if any two of them can corroborate their stories, so it just adds more to the weight of slung mud to try and overwhelm the accused. I believe that what the prosecutors are really gunning for is a confession. And I believe they will do anything to get it, including taking down Paterno, the football program, the athletic department, even the institution itself. I think the real strategy behind all the publicity is that the prosecution doesn't have enough proof, something more than just the circumstantial coincidence of numerous people saying, "So and so molested me ten or fifteen years ago."

This investigation was begun many years ago when the now Governor Corbett was Attorney General, and it has literally taken how many years? Why has it taken so long? Why was there no sting operation to try and catch Sandusky red handed? For all his apparent guilt, which is so "slam dunk" as the media and public indignation would have us all believe, why was the investigation "botched" by taking so damned long and allowing the accused to roam free for the last thirteen years?

Now I don't mean to diminish the gravity of harming children, but I believe a crime has also been perpetrated against a noble institution, a fine university and some very good people. The mob media and a lot of well meaning folk have been duped and used as pawns by a crafty and cunning and may be even desperate government investigation. No matter how the criminal or civil proceedings end up, the good name of Penn State and the legacy of Joe Paterno will be forever stained by the political ambitions, piss poor judgement and lack of scruples of people within the government. So what else is new?