Docs: NCAA, Freeh worked together
— -- Court documents filed in Pennsylvania show that the NCAA and investigators from a firm hired by Penn State University to conduct a wholly independent investigation of the university's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal worked closely in the investigation.
The firm, led by former FBI chief Louis B. Freeh, published damning conclusions about Penn State's "lack of institutional control" that the NCAA used as the basis for its sweeping sanctions against Penn State in July 2012.
The court documents filed Tuesday but released publicly Wednesday, obtained by "Outside the Lines," strongly suggest the NCAA provided an investigative blueprint to Freeh. Correspondence between Freeh and the NCAA began less than two weeks after Penn State hired Freeh's firm, with a Nov. 30, 2011, request from NCAA president Mark Emmert to speak by phone with Freeh.
From then on, correspondence and meetings between the groups continued, the documents show:
• On Dec. 7, 2011, Freeh and his top deputies met with Donald Remy, the NCAA's general counsel; Julie Roe Lach, then vice president of enforcement for the NCAA; Jonathan Barrett, outside counsel for the Big Ten; and other officials for three hours at the Nittany Lion Inn on the university's State College campus.
• On Dec. 19, 2011, Remy solicited input from a Freeh partner about the text of a letter the NCAA was intending to send to Penn State.
• The NCAA on Dec. 28, 2011, emailed Freeh's top deputy a list of 32 questions that sought information about the culture of Penn State's football program and university leaders' duty to report suspected criminal behavior.
• Less than two weeks later, on Jan. 7, 2012, NCAA lawyers and enforcement officials hosted a two-hour video-conference call for 15 to 17 of Freeh's investigators, described by one of them in email as an "education session." In all, there were 13 conference calls with the NCAA during the course of Freeh's investigation.
After the Freeh report was released on July 12, 2012, Emmert attempted to have a direct "principal to principal" discussion with Freeh, an email five days later shows.
The culture of Penn State's football program and university leaders' duty to report suspected criminal behavior were central findings of the Freeh report. The Penn State Board of Trustees accepted all of the report's findings, and the NCAA followed up on July 23, 2012, with severe sanctions: a $60 million fine, the vacating of football team wins from 1998 to 2011, a four-year postseason ban, a four-year scholarship reduction and athletic department probation for five years.
Although the NCAA ultimately loosened some sanctions, the fallout has continued. The documents filed in state court Wednesday are part of a lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania state Sen. Jake Corman and state treasurer Rob McCord that challenges the NCAA's $60 million fine against Penn State. A lawsuit filed by the estate of former football coach Joe Paterno against the NCAA over the sanctions and alleged defamation of Paterno continues in state court.
"Clearly the more we dig into this, the more troubling it gets," Corman told "Outside the Lines." "There clearly is a significant amount of communication between Freeh and the NCAA that goes way beyond merely providing information. I'd call it coordination. ... Clearly, Freeh went way past his mandate. He was the enforcement person for the NCAA. That's what it looks like. I don't know how you can look at it any other way. It's almost like the NCAA hired him to do their enforcement investigation on Penn State."
"At a minimum, it is inappropriate. At a maximum, these were two parties working together to get an outcome that was predetermined."
Officials from the Freeh group had no immediate response Wednesday. Remy said Corman's assertions are a "mischaracterization of the evidence" and "are inconsistent with the facts." "I think the communications between the Freeh group and the NCAA were consistent with the NCAA's commitment to cooperate with the Freeh group and our commitment to monitor the progress of that investigation," Remy said. "In no way do those documents demonstrate the NCAA was doing anything beyond that."
In a statement, Penn State said, "It has been public knowledge for almost three years that the University had agreed that the NCAA and the Big Ten Conference would monitor the progress of the Freeh investigation. While the NCAA may have made suggestions to the Freeh Group with respect to its investigation, the scope of the Freeh investigation was established by the Penn State Board of Trustees, as set forth in the Freeh engagement letter, not by the NCAA. The University's preliminary review of the NCAA's proposed questions suggests that there are many proposed questions that are not addressed in the final July 12, 2012 report."
