When a Judge Demands Accountability
When a Judge Demands Accountability
Former Penn State president is going to jail because he refused to speak up about Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse
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On Wednesday, Graham B. Spanier, the 72-year-old former president of Penn State University, learned that he will spend two months in jail, followed by two months under house arrest with electric monitoring, and then serve two years of probation and complete 200 hours of community service. This comes four years after he was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child in the case of Jerry Sandusky, the unrepentant assistant coach of the Penn State football team who was found guilty of 45 counts of child sex abuse and is now serving anywhere from 30 to 60 years in prison.
By various accounts, Spanier, who led Penn State for 16 years until he was forced out in 2011, had chosen to remain silent to protect the reputation of the university rather than contact the police after learning that Sandusky had been seen sexually abusing a boy in a locker room shower on campus.
At the time of his initial sentencing in 2017, before the case headed to appeals court, Spanier apologized for his failure to act on behalf of the children. “The single most important thing I can say is that I’m sorry,” said Spanier, who also talked publicly about his own experience suffering severe physical beatings by his father. “I deeply regret that I did not intervene far more carefully.”
The subsequent response of the sentencing judge, John Boccabella, deserves our reflection, for his sympathy toward both the victims and the defendants—and his duty to hold the guilty accountable, no matter what his station in life. The defendants are “good people who made a terrible mistake,” Bocabella said. “Why no one made a phone call to police is beyond me.” And then this: “This is a Shakespearean tragedy; this is a fall from grace that is both unfortunate and well-deserved.”
Since 2017, Spanier has had open heart surgery and been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. But despite his attorney’s protestations, Judge Boccabella was not letting him off the hook: “He made a mistake and he’s going to pay for his mistake,” he said this week. Before the judge announced his decision, Senior Deputy Attorney General Patrick Schulte worried that “victims of the defendant’s crime do not believe that he’s ever going to be held accountable for the crime he’s been convicted of.”
At a time when many of us are wondering whether we can believe there are not two systems of justice—one for those with money and power, and another for everyone else—the commitment of Boccabella offers sustenance. While elected officials continue to roam free in the nation’s Capitol, despite their participation in the January 6 insurrection, this judge’s refusal to go easy on the former university president who ignored reports of child abuse is a reason to be optimistic that justice can be served.
And then there’s the despicable Sandusky, who we can only hope will never escape a prison cell. Anyone who followed the Sandusky trial in 2012 recalls his horrendous crimes and the utter refusal to acknowledge what he had done. Angling in 2019 to get an early release from prison, the handcuffed and smiling pedophile told appeals court judge Maureen Skerda, “I apologize that I’m unable to admit remorse for something I didn’t do.” Judge Skerda rejected his plea.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Buck noted at that time: “There’s a common theme that runs through all of this. Blaming others, failing to accept responsibility.”
Sound familiar?
I leave you with the comment of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro:
“Today marks the end of a long road towards justice for the children endangered by Mr. Spanier’s inaction—choosing to cover up the abuse at the hands of Jerry Sandusky rather than reporting it to law enforcement. No one is above the law, and my office will continue to pursue anyone who looks the other way in the face of child sexual abuse. There are consequences for failing to protect children in Pennsylvania.”
“No one is above the law.” I, too, hold fast to this principle. I’m counting the days until it’s proven in the wake of the deadly insurrection and the myriad crimes of the former White House occupant.
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The refusal to take responsibility for what one has done is a hallmark of narcissism.
I, unfortunately for me, have extensive experience with narcissists, although I didn’t know there was a name for it most
of my life. Narcissists use others as scapegoats. In other words, when confronted negatively about something they did, their immediate response will be that they didn’t do it, so & so did it.
Another hallmark is taking credit for someone else’s excellent work and they will even take that person’s name off of their work and put their own name on it. If the narcissist senses a co-worker or even a family member is smarter than they are, or better at their job, the narcissist will relentlessly make that person’s life a misery until they leave. My advice to anyone who encounters this behavior is: Never rely on anyone who acts this way for anything, avoid them if you can & know that they will lie extensively to others about you whether you are a family member, a co-worker or friend.
Narcissists are who they are. They will never change, they will never seek psychological counseling and if they are forced to get counseling pursuant to a court order they will not benefit from it, they will double down on their bad behavior. You see, every narcissist truly believes they are perfect just the way they are. It’s not their problem if others can’t see the the narcissist’s perfection. They manipulate everyone around them 24/7. They are prolific liars. They will lie even if there’s nothing to be gained by lying and they assume others lie as much as they do, so they tend to be suspicious and paranoid. If narcissists can’t get their way, most of them will indulge in a rage.
Narcissistic rages are truly frightening. I’ve witnessed many of them. During one rage that was directed at me, the narcissist was actually foaming at the mouth. An example of a narcissistic rage was when now Justice Brett Kavanaugh lost his temper during questioning at his confirmation hearing. Rages are an out of control manifestation of a last ditch effort to control people and situations. Kavanaugh’s rage was relatively mild but wildly inappropriate. He should have been rejected as a Supreme Court candidate the instant he indulged in that behavior.
Narcissists are delusional. But, they’re delusional in a way that isn’t particularly noticeable unless you know what what to look for. First you have to understand that all information or input perceived by the narcissist is perceived abnormally. As I said before, they assume they are being lied to and manipulated because they continually lie to and manipulate others. At some point narcissists change factual information in their minds to what they want the facts to be. I honestly don’t think it’s purposefully done. I think it’s done unconsciously and compulsively, in order to preserve the narcissist’s beliefs about him/her self and the world. In fact I believe narcissists are born with a brain that’s “wired” differently than the brains of most people. I also think it’s an inherited condition, much like schizophrenia. However, I also believe a narcissist’s behavior can be made better or worse depending on how they are raised.
So, there you have it; more than you ever wanted to know about narcissists & narcissism. I’m afraid many of our elected representatives have this condition. Some narcissists “groom” the people around them to turn them into extensions of the narcissist. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not Trump successfully groomed republican senators & representatives to be extensions of himself and his mental pathology.
Thank you! I am in PA, and I appreciate Judge Bocabella’s sensibility. This was horrific, and so is what we face now in terms of the Trump crew and the assault on our Capitol and all who labor there.