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A post on a Penn State fan forum was the key break in the Jerry Sandusky case, because it led investigators to Mike McQueary, who finally "unburdened himself" about what he knew about the ex-coach's sexual abuse of children.
According to an in-depth look at the legal side of the Sandsuky case, pulled together by The New York Times, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office had long suspected Sandusky of being a serial molester, but had been unable to find anyone close to the coach who could speak to the allegations — other than the victims who were mostly unwilling to talk.
Then they stumbled upon a random post on a PSU football message board that suggested there might be a Nittany Lion coach who saw something and wasn't talking. Investigators narrowed the options down to McQueary, then set up a secret meeting away from the prying eyes of Penn State fans. Once he was approached, they say, McQueary needed little prompting to tell them what he knew.
From there the case snowballed, but also led to suggestions that other Penn State officials were not only aware of the charges, but actively sought to cover them up. For example, even though McQueary, head coach Joe Paterno, the athletic director and the school president all knew about the 2002 incident that McQueary saw, none of them ever mentioned it the university's general counsel, the one person whose job it is to protect the school from any legal troubles. Was that because the lawyer would have been required to report what he knew to law enforcement?