(Image Source: Tailgating Ideas )

By: Scott Malone

Anchor: Neville Miller

A report expected to reveal if former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and other university officials failed to investigate, and attempted to hide, allegations against Jerry Sandusky will be released Thursday. Yahoo! Sports’s Dan Wetzel reports, the report isn’t pulling any punches.

“‘Everyone’ is going to be under a harsh microscope, leaving multiple parties across the athletic department and university as a whole open to blame for a series of missteps and failures regarding the university’s handling of allegations of sexual assault made against Sandusky.”

Sandusky was convicted last month on 45 counts of sexual abuse that occurred over a 15-year period dating back to the 1990’s. The university hired Louis Freeh to conduct an investigation into how allegations against Sandusky were handled by officials. According to StateCollege.com , former Penn State president Graham Spanier says he didn’t know about any allegations during his tenure.

“... a central figure in the Penn State scandal, made a voluntary decision to interview ... Spanier … told the Freeh Group he was not aware of any child sex abuse by Sandusky during his presidency.”  

But NBC News reported last month that law authorities uncovered emails between Spanier, Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Tim Curley that discussed whether they needed to tell authorities about an alleged 2001 incident against Sandusky.

“In one email exchange, two legal sources say, Spanier and former Vice President Gary Schultz agreed it would be, quote, ‘humane’ to Sandusky not to inform social services.”

Spanier is not the only official who could be hit hard by Freeh’s report. ESPN reports the university’s Board of Trustees started planning for a response to Freeh’s findings. The board also discussed several ways they...

“...might protect the confidentiality of sensitive documents that the university turned over to the Freeh Group. Copies of thousands of memos, e-mails and other documents were given by Penn State to Freeh Group investigators. The report is expected to quote from those documents, and civil litigants and criminal defendants will likely seek their disclosure.”

The board is not the only party concerned with the confidentiality of the investigative process.
According to the New York Times , the Paterno family released a statement saying they are not happy with the investigation’s latest developments.

“‘Joe supported this decision with the hope that it would result in a thorough, balanced and thoughtful assessment of the Sandusky tragedy. Unfortunately, recent events have raised questions about the fairness and confidentiality of the investigative process.’”

The ‘recent events’ refer to reports of leaked e-mails that showed Paterno played a bigger role than previously thought in Penn State’s handling of the 2001 allegations against Sandusky. The report is scheduled to be released at 9 a.m. eastern time, and Freeh will host a press conference at 10 in Philadelphia.