Please, stop, Franco

Franco Harris, please stop your embarrassing “Immaculate Deception” campaign. Attending the Penn State-Ohio University game with a cardboard cutout of Joe Paterno prominently by your side, as you did, pleading for “due process” on his behalf, doesn’t help him or anyone else. The gesture was misguided and galvanizing.

What seems to be lost on you is that Paterno is a villain in this matter, not a victim. Tim Curley’s emails make two things clear: One, Paterno, despite his denials, knew about the May 1998 incident in which Jerry Sandusky showered alone with an 11-year old boy; and, two, that Paterno was the Penn State official who effectively prevented Penn State from referring the incident witnessed by Mike McQueary in 2001 to an outside governmental investigative agency. Making matters worse, Paterno denied any involvement in the 2001 incident after he passed on McQueary’s report to Tim Curley, which is untrue. Penn State president Graham Spanier, Mr. Curley and Gary Schultz had agreed to report Sandusky to the Department of Public Welfare. It was only after Mr. Curley took that plan to Paterno that the plan was revised: gone was any mention of reporting the matter to the Department of Public Welfare. A report to DPW almost surely would have resulted in the arrest of Jerry Sandusky.

Consider this, Mr. Harris, as you continue to defend Paterno: Your “date” to the Penn State-Ohio game, your cardboard JoePa, did as much to help Jerry Sandusky’s victims as the real Joe Paterno did. VINCENT CICCONE West View