Penn State Scandal: Mike McQueary Changing Story Wishful Thinking, Not Reality

Mike McQueary is probably the single person after Jerry Sandusky who deserves the most ire and blame after the child rape he witnessed in the showers. According to the Grand Jury report, he witnessed the event and then left. 

Now he wants to rewrite history, but there needs to be a little caution exercised in looking at what happened here. According to The Morning Call, he wrote on November 8 in a personal email to a friend, 

"

I did stop it, not physically...but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room...I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police ...no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds... trust me.

"

There are two things to take into account here.

One is the audience he made the statement to, and the other is the date it was written. This wasn't a press release made to the statement yesterday. This was something disclosed to a friend a week and a day ago. 

The date is significant in that it was the same day Paterno was fired. The audience is significant in that it was personal. This wasn't something he disclosed during the "sham" interview or in reaction to defending himself. 

Now, it's not only possible, it's likely that not everything happened was disclosed in the Grand Jury report. It's believable that he "made sure it was stopped," but it's hard to know what is meant by that, or why it's not clarified. 

I think that the other pertinent part of this is that he said, "I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police." I believe the emphasis is on the second part of that sentiment. 

Gary Schultz, who was the Senior Vice President for finance and business, also oversaw the Campus Police. There is nothing in his background to suggest, though, that Schultz was an actual police officer.

His degree is in industrial engineering. He had no past in law enforcement and had nothing to do with it until taking over the Vice President's job in 1995.

Since there was no police report filed and since there's no indication anywhere that Schultz had more than an administrative oversight of the Campus Police, I just find it hard to believe that anyone would genuinely believe that talking to him meant notifying the police. 

McQueary's email has the flavor of a person who is trying to convince himself he did the right thing when his conscience has haunted him. It doesn't seem to me that he's trying to convince the general public—he didn't tell us.

He seems like someone who is trying to convince himself he did right when he knows he didn't.