Penn State is fighting to keep records regarding the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case out of the public eye.
The dispute centers over emails that were shared by top Penn State administrators dating back over the past two years.
Some of the emails went to former secretary of education Ron Tomalis. Tomalis was co-chair of the board of trustees’ committee that oversaw the Freeh investigation.
The records include emails discussing the establishment of the Special Investigative Task Force and the hiring of Louis Freeh, as well as communications about the NCAA and the Big Ten Conference’s role in the investigation.
A Commonwealth Court ruled in July that records sent to Tomalis are subject to Right to Know laws. The Department of Education released some records, but 155 emails have not been made public.
As a result, Penn State alumnus Ryan Bagwell filed a request with the Department of Education, asking to see those messages.
Bagwell’s request covers emails Tomalis sent to Louis Freeh, Ken Frazier and former trustees Steve Garban and John Surma.
Bagwell says he wants the information to become public because there are still a lot of questions about why Penn State officials acted the way they did in the wake of the Sandusky scandal.
“A lot of conclusions that Freeh reached are unsupported and I’m trying to find out why Freeh reached the conclusions he did when they were so unsupported,” Bagwell says. “So much was riding on those conclusions and somebody needs to dig much deeper to get answers for the Penn State community.”
Last month, Penn State filed a letter with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records asking to keep the records private.
Katherine Allen, Penn State’s associate general council, says the release of those records would cause “substantial harm to Penn State.” She also says Penn State wants time to file a legal argument in support of its position.
“The requests subject to this appeal include privileged communications between Penn State’s Board of Trustees and attorneys retained by the University,” the letter reads. “Disclosure of any such documents risks violation and waiver of the attorney/client privilege and/or the attorney work product privilege protecting Penn State.”
Penn State spokesman David La Torre declined to comment further.
