One of the men once criticized for rushing to judgement is, ironically, hoping to rush to a judgement.
Former FBI director Louis Freeh is being sued by former Penn State University president Graham Spanier for defamation of character, a result of the investigative report Freeh was commissioned by the university to conduct that ultimately led to the football program being hit hard with NCAA sanctions. Spanier, a former high-ranking member of the BCS committee, was one of the top subjects of the report along with former head coach Joe Paterno and former athletics director Tim Curley. Freeh’s legal team has asked an appeals court not to delay the defamation case filed against him.
Spanier asked for the civil suit to be delayed until the criminal trial he is a part of concludes. Spanier was charged with assisting in covering up complaints related to former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was sentenced to between 30 and 60 years in jail for 45 counts of various sex abuse/rape crimes. Spanier is allegedly lied about his awareness of the Sandusky accusations at the time. Spanier’s reasoning for the desire to have the civil suit delayed is based on the idea that key witnesses could refuse to testify due to their link to the criminal trial involving Spanier, Curley and Gary Schultz.
Freeh’s pedigree has come under fire from multiple angles since the release of the Freeh Report, which the NCAA adopted as concrete evidence to support the sanctions against Penn State. The Paterno family has criticized the report’s findings, perhaps as expected, but others have criticized Freeh’s work as well. The NCAA slammed Penn State with a four-year postseason ban, a significant reduction in football scholarships (which has already been amended), and a $60 million fine to be used to help raise awareness over sexual abuse.
Freeh’s legal team wishes for the civil trial to be done as quickly as possible to hopefully clear the former FBI director’s name rather than let this linger.