Friday, June 29, 2012

Bob Ford: In Sandusky case, Penn State tries to get ahead of civil actions

The purpose of the program is very simple. That much is true. The university wants to get ahead of the tide of civil complaints that will be brought by the victims and buy short against a market that could turn against Penn State quite severely.

It's the smart thing to do - settle quietly, extract no-public-comment promises as part of the bargain - and move on. The school knows that a jury might reasonably find some of its top administrators liable for allowing Sandusky to remain on campus and for not taking allegations made against him to the proper legal authorities.

Penn State could risk waiting for those judgments to go in its favor after former vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz; on-leave athletic director Tim Curley; and, quite possibly, former president Graham B. Spanier are tried on various perjury and failure-to-report charges. That would be a huge bet with possibly devastating consequences, however, and not a risk the school appears willing to take.

The school might be calculating that the victims, many of whom came from troubled or disadvantaged backgrounds, will take the quick settlement rather than slog through a civil process in which they will once again have to recount the most painful memories of their lives. It's a pricey game of Let's Make A Deal, and some of the victims will probably take the money on the table rather than wait to find out what's behind door number three.

Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bob_ford/20120623_In_Sandusky_case__Penn_State_tries_to_get_ahead_of_civil_actions.html

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