Court Testimony Proves Penn State Trustees Scapegoated Paterno, then Lied About It

It is now easy to see why the controlling majority of Penn State's Trustees fought tooth and nail against the Corman and Paterno lawsuits against the NCAA, despite the benefits of those suits to Penn State. Trustees Kenneth Frazier and Keith Masser were forced to admit in sworn depositions that the Board, as of March 2012, not only scapegoated Coach Joe Paterno; they lied about it to the organization to which they owe a fiduciary duty.

This means every single member of the Board as of March 2012 not only scapegoated a subordinate--by itself cause to disqualify somebody for any position of supervisory responsibility--but then lied about it. Somebody who crosses this line--lying to the organization to which one owes a fiduciary duty--is ethically capable of lying to stockholders, clients, employees, customers, suppliers, and other organizational stakeholders.

Proof that the Board Scapegoated Joe Paterno

Here is what Kenneth Frazier, CEO of the Merck Corporation, had to say in his deposition in the Corman lawsuit against the NCAA. http://av.pasenategop.com/ncaa/discovery/depositions/ken-frazier/transcripts/frazier.pdf

Q. Were you in favor of the decision not to allow Coach Paterno to coach out the rest of the season.

 A. Ultimately, I was in favor of that.

Q. Initially, did you have some reservations?

A. I did.

Q. Just explain your thought process and how you became in favor of that decision.

A. Just as I said in the case of Mr. Curly, my initial feeling was, when I first heard about this, that the facts had not been established and we needed to be careful to make sure we understood the facts. As I was in -- in that 48-hour time period read the grand jury presentment, I reached the conclusion that given what had become public about the issues leading up to the presentment and given what was said in the presentment itself about Coach Paterno's testimony and about what the graduate student said to Coach Paterno, I felt that it would not send the right message if Coach Paterno was able to lead the football team out onto the field of play under those circumstances. So I didn't change my mind on the question of whether we had established all the key facts that related to Coach Paterno's involvement and/or responsibility. But I had reached the conclusion that, from the standpoint of what the University's values would be interpreted to be by the broader public, that what was known was sufficiently serious as it relates to child sexual abuse that it would send the wrong message about our values as a University if Coach Paterno were allowed to coach as though none of this had ever happened.

This is an open admission that the 11/9/2011 Board fired Joe Paterno not for anything he had done or hadn't done, but to appease public opinion. Keith Masser's deposition makes this even more explicit.

 http://onwardstate.com/2015/01/19/board-chairman-still-thinks-paterno-wasnt-fired/

“When pressed for a reason why Paterno was let go, Masser said: “The decision to remove Coach Paterno had nothing to do with what he had known, what he hadn’t done. It was based upon the distraction of having him on the sidelines would have caused the university and the current football team harm. It had nothing to do with what Coach Paterno had done, or hadn’t done.”

 These depositions establish as a fact that the 11/9/2011 Board of Trustees fired Coach Paterno solely to appease public opinion, and then the Board lied about this in subsequent statement in March 2012. The Board not only lied, it defamed Coach Paterno (had he still been alive) with the false statement that he had been fired for cause.

The Entire Board Lied to the Public and to Penn State

http://progress.psu.edu/resource-library/story/report-of-the-board-of-trustees-concerning-nov.-9-decisions

"While Coach Paterno did his legal duty by reporting that information the next day, Sunday, March 3, to his immediate superior, the then Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley, the Board reasonably inferred that he did not call police. We determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership by Coach Paterno. …At about 9 pm, we unanimously made the difficult decision that Coach Paterno’s failure of leadership required his removal as football coach."

That's very interesting because Mr. Frazier and Mr. Masser both testified that Paterno was not fired for any cause whatsoever, but to appease public opinion. The clarity we have from this evidence is that Penn State's Board of Trustees issued a dishonest public statement in March 2012, and that the service of the following individuals is now marred. And we have to step back and ask, what does that mean?

• Kenneth "people that look like you who think the O.J. Simpson verdict was correct" Frazier, the CEO of the Merck Corporation, lied (in March 2012) to the public and to the organization to which he owed a fiduciary duty. We have had our fill of this individual telling the Nittany Lion to shut up and take his Vioxx.
• Karen Peetz, President of BNY Mellon, is a liar. This is the individual who said Paterno's service was marred, and whose unauthorized affirmation of the Freeh Report's findings on Penn State's behalf gave the NCAA the fig leaf it needed to impose its illegitimate sanctions.
• John Surma, former CEO of U.S. Steel, is a liar.
• Tom Corbett, former Governor of Pennsylvania, is a liar.
• Keith Eckel is a liar.
• Keith Masser (current Board Chairman) is a liar.
• Every single other member of the Board who was a party to the statement above is a liar.

 These people and their colleagues were given every possible opportunity to make right the harm they caused the University, but they chose instead to put personal agendas ahead of a Penn State agenda (State Senator John Yudichak's assessment). As a result, evidence has now come out that shows they not only scapegoated an employee, but also lied about it. So, here we are.