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Ousted coach Paterno hires Washington lawyer amid scandal

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1 of 4. College football coach Joe Paterno (L) and his wife Sue greet supporters outside their home after it was announced that he had been fired by Penn State State University, in this still image taken from video in State College, Pennsylvania November 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Courtesy WCAU-TV NBC Channel 10/Handout

STATE COLLEGE, Pa | Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:12pm EST

STATE COLLEGE, Pa (Reuters) - Ousted Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has hired high profile Washington lawyer J. Sedgwick (Wick) Sollers to represent him in the sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant to Paterno, the coach's son Scott said in a statement.

"On behalf of my father, I have retained (J. Sedgwick) Wick Sollers at the law firm of King and Spalding. My father's desire is for the truth to be uncovered and he will work with his lawyers to that end," Scott Paterno said.

Sollers recently was involved in a disagreement with some Republican lawmakers after his firm pulled out of representing them in a dispute with the administration of President Barack Obama over the "Defense of Marriage Act" defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Scott Paterno, who has been sending a flurry of twitter messages over the last week as the scandal unfolded, said that Sollers advised the Paterno family not to comment further on the scandal, and they would comply.

There were media reports on Thursday that Sollers had been retained by Paterno but Scott Paterno said in a tweet then that: "No lawyer has been retained."

Paterno's longtime assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is alleged to have sexually abused eight young boys over more than a decade, both before and after his retirement from the team in 1999.

Two former university officials -- athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz -- have been charged with failing to alert police after they learned of the alleged abuse, as well as perjury in their statements to a grand jury.

Paterno, who is not a target of the investigation, said he was informed of an incident involving Sandusky in 2002 and passed the information up the chain of command to the university's athletic director.

But Paterno, 84, the winningest coach in big-time college football, was fired on Thursday. He has been criticized for not following up or doing more to address the allegations.

(Reporting and Writing by Greg McCune; Additional reporting by Ross Krasny and Joseph Ax; Editing by Peter Bohan)
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Comments (14)
wargent wrote:
The primary focus should be the victims. To pose death threats against the man for reporting the incident to his superior makes you no better than perpetrator. To put football over the victims is wrong. I agree that Joe Patterno is a legend but he is morally and ethically deficient for allowing this to happen along with the rest of the Penn State Hierarchy. I feel sorry for Mike McQuarry who did his due diligence as he too becomes a victim. With this mob mentality, its no wonder people don’t step forward when it comes to aiding victims of crime. The other victims of this event are the current players who have to go through the humility of the event that occurred when they were in grade school. I’m glad that the game hasn’t been cancelled for their sake. If time permitted, the game should have been played at a neutral site or Nebraska. Good luck Happy Valley and Penn State.

Nov 11, 2011 9:02am EST  --  Report as abuse
DrSmithNJ wrote:
The other great bastion of institutionalized pedophilia and child sex abuse is Sports. The first being the Catholic Church. Wake up, America. The Sacred Cow that has been Sports(professional and amateur) has been hiding this secret for a very long time. Are you really sure that the neighborhood coach that is coaching your son and daughter is really the person he or she says they are? Or is this the network that they have formed to feed their perversions?

Nov 11, 2011 9:19am EST  --  Report as abuse
graysailor7 wrote:
A sad commentary on Penn State and the community at large. Putting these football idiots on a pedestal above the right thing to do. Paterno should have notified authorities and fired the idiot at even a suggestion of wrong doing.

Nov 11, 2011 9:19am EST  --  Report as abuse
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