There is a saying among the criminal bar that the presumption of innocence begins with the payment of a lawyer?s retainer.
Even worse, I?ve heard an attorney tell a judge that he is waiting until a client?s cousin, Mr. Green (meaning money), arrives prior to officially appearing on behalf of the defendant.
Jim Clemente, one of the main authors of the just-released Paterno family report and a heretofore-respected retired FBI agent, suggested that
Louis Freeh, the former federal judge and director of the FBI, produced a flawed report on the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State child molestation tragedy. Specifically, Clemente and former U.S. attorney general Richard Thornburgh challenge every conclusion made by Freeh, whose July report concluded that
Joe Paterno assisted in covering up the horrific child sex abuse acts perpetrated by Sandusky over Sandusky?s many years as a Penn State assistant football coach and athletic department member, a man whose office was literally steps away from Paterno?s.
Indeed, Clemente was on national television Sunday repeating his mantra that Freeh?s report was incomplete, that Freeh failed to point out that Sandusky was a ?skillful manipulator? who was able to hide his crimes, and that Paterno cannot be held accountable for the way he handled the information about Sandusky abusing a young boy in the Penn State football locker room.
Clemente, however, failed to mention in ?The Rush To Injustice Regarding Joe Paterno,? or in his news interviews Sunday that as an FBI agent he worked closely with Stop It Now, an organization intent on preventing sexual abuse of children. Or that a month after the report was issued last summer he was helpful in passing along Stop It Now members? messages of thanks and appreciation to Freeh for his groundbreaking report on the Penn State scandal. The messages passed on to Freeh spoke of the Freeh report being a ?tipping point? in changing the way organizations and leaders deal with red flags involving possible child molestation. These folks wanted to commend Freeh for pointing out that too often adults are loyal to other adults and that it is important to put children?s safety above everything else.
Cont.
