Monday, October 15, 2012

PSU starts talks with 20 Sandusky accusers

I found this article this morning on twitter http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-14/news/34449795_1_sandusky-victim-sandusky-accusers-jerry-sandusky
I bet there will be even more victims to come forward. A pedophile (aka child sexual predator) has many victims. There will be those (especially in the movement to abolish the sexual offender registry) who will claim that most will be in it for the money. I am sure that is possible, but I am just as sure that each and every story will be investigated. The article addresses this.
We need to continue to get the word out that by the time a pedophile (aka child sexual predator) gets caught he or she has offended many, many times. I have read up to 100 to 600. This means not only that they molested or sexually abused a child. It means they looked at child sexual abuse media (aka child pornography) each view is considered an offense, groomed children each child groomed is considered an offense, purposely put themselves in a position to be near children, etc. This is why we have to pay attention to those who wish to abolish the SOR. Their biggest claim is that the registry doesn't work because most people who get arrested for child sexual abuse are not on the registry. They claim that those on the registry have a low rate of re-offending (I am sure without considering that looking at child sexual abuse media and grooming children are re-offending). They don't ever say that the registry is working because once someone is on it for sexually abusing a child they don't re-offend. This would mean that the SOR is a deterrent from future offenses and therefore is working.

I have said before on this blog that there are problems with the registry. Especially consensual teenage sex (known as Romeo and Juliette offense) and public urination. I do not think there are problems when it comes to an adult sexually abusing a child needing to be on the registry. Their needs to be a way to protect children and the SOR is one way. I also think that more adults on the registry who blame the fact they are on it because the "girl" said she was older. I agree that lying isn't good and that this shouldn't happen but if the person had gotten to know the "girl" prior to the sexual relationship he may have been able to determine she was underage. I think if the movement to abolish the SOR would just focus on the areas that need to be reformed they would have a better shot of fixing the SOR. The problem is that the very people most actively involved in this movement have sexually abused a child and they think that once they serve their time they shouldn't have to be on the registry. To me this is mixing apples and oranges. Rosie



October 14, 2012|By Jeremy Roebuck, Inquirer Staff Writer

Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky is placed in a police car after he was sentenced last week to 30 to 60 years in prison for serial child sexual abuse.
Pennsylvania State University has entered into preliminary settlement talks with at least 20 men accusing Jerry Sandusky of sexual abuse, the college's appointed mediators said.
That figure - more than double the number of victims who testified against the former assistant football coach at trial - offers the first glimpse of Penn State's potential liability in the largest scandal in its history.
Their ranks include the eight accusers named in state prosecutors' case against Sandusky, four more who have either filed lawsuits or come forward to claim molestation in the news media,
and at least eight more who have not publicly aired their allegations of abuse.
The university's appointed mediators have yet to begin the process of vetting any of the 20 claims, negotiator Michael K. Rozen said in an interview last week.
"All of these claims will be very different from one another factually and potentially legally," he said. "We're having lots of discussions so far about how to go about evaluating them."
Penn State hired Rozen and law partner Kenneth R. Feinberg to handle settlement negotiations last month. Their firm previously managed the Sept. 11 victims-compensation fund and settlements with those affected by the 2010 BP Gulf oil spill.
So far, the mediators have reached out to attorneys representing the accusers but described their discussions Friday as preliminary. Rozen said he and Feinberg had yet to come up with criteria to evaluate the claims.
"Right now, we're trying to think through how we transparently - both to the claimants and the university - put the claims into some sort of hierarchy," he said. "Because there's so much attention being paid to this, we don't think we can have 20 separate negotiations and 20 separate resolutions."
Since Sandusky's conviction in June, Penn State president Rodney Erickson has expressed his desire to quickly settle with the victims in hopes of avoiding drawn-out and costly legal proceedings. He hopes most claims can be resolved by the end of the year, Rozen said.
And while lawyers for several of the accusers had previously criticized the pace of the negotiations, they said in interviews last week that they found the current direction of talks encouraging.
"There appears to be an overwhelming appetite on the Penn State side for these claims to be settled," said Tom Kline, a Philadelphia attorney who represents the 26-year-old Sandusky victim identified in court documents as Victim 5.

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