My Heart and Prayers Go Out to Jim Calhoun, a Major Victim in the Sandusky Crime Spree
Posted: Monday, November 07, 2011
by Patricia Johnson
Articles and Answers.com
There has always been a special place in my heart for Veterans, partly due to being brought up to believe how extraordinary the men and woman who fight for our country are, and partly due to interactions through the years with Veterans.
When they talk about the atrocities of war, the twinkling in their eyes disappears, the smile is gone and the sadness in their hearts is reflected in detail, on their faces and in the distant, weary look in their eyes.
In the fall of 2000, our victim, Jim Calhoun, was working as a janitor at Penn State University. Jim, while performing his job duties, witnessed Gerald Arthur (Jerry) Sandusky, the defensive coordinator of Penn State’s Division I collegiate football program, performing oral sex on a young boy in the showers of the Lasch Building. Note: Any person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Jim immediately went to other members of the janitorial staff and explained what he had witnessed.
Employee Ronald Petrosky was also working that evening and it was his job to clean the showers which were empty due to the fact the football players were at an away game. Petrosky could not see who was in the assistant coaches’ shower room, but he heard the sound of running water and could see two pairs of feet. Coach Sandusky and a young boy, between the ages of 11-13, eventually exited the shower with their hair wet. Petrosky then observed the coach holding hands with the boy as they were walking down the long hall leading out of Lasch Building.
As he was cleaning the shower that Sandusky and the boy had used, Jim Calhoun came up to Petrosky and was noticeably upset and crying. Jim, visibly shaking, told Petrosky he “fought in the [Korean] war….seen people with their guts blowed out, arms dismembered…I just witnessed something in there I’ll never forget.” Jim went on to explain to Petrosky that he saw Sandusky (at the time, he did not know the coach’s name) holding the boy up against the wall and licking on him.
There was only one employee working that evening who had any length of service at the college and that was Jim Calhoun’s immediate supervisor, Jay Witherite. All other employees were relatively new. Jim’s peers were eventually able to talk Jim into reporting the incident to Jay Witherite, but were afraid to accompany him, in support, for fear they would lose their own jobs.
Witherite observed that Jim was “very emotionally upset” and “distraught” to the point Witherite “was afraid the man was going to have a heart attack or something the way he was acting.” while he was explaining how he had observed Jerry Sandusky performing oral sex on the young boy [that same evening Sandusky was parked in his vehicle in the parking lot and Calhoun was able to point him out to Witherite].
Witherite attempted to calm Jim and went on to explain to him who he should contact to report the incident – if he chose to report it.
“If he chose to report it”?? – how about dialing 911!
No report was ever made by Jim Calhoun – We’ll rephrase that statement and say there is no report on file made by Jim Calhoun. We can’t confirm or deny whether he made a report by talking to Jim Calhoun because this poor man is considered ‘incompetent to testify’. He is currently suffering from dementia and living in a nursing home.
The identity of the young boy has never been determined.
How much of Jim Calhoun’s dementia can be attributed to the atrocity he witnessed back in the year 2000? How long can a fragile mind cope with the knowledge that a wrong has been committed by a person in power and know that nothing will be done to protect others from the same thing happening to them? From the few comments he made about his tour in Korea, it’s obvious that Jim Calhoun suffered some degree of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He went to a foreign country to fight for freedom and 45 years later sees a child on U.S. soil being sexually abused by a powerful man. How many years of torment did Jim Calhoun go through before his mind finally snapped?
The attitude of Penn State towards the despicable acts performed on their campus is readily seen in their willingness to pay the legal fees of Athletic Director Timothy Mark Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, Gary Charles Schultz, who were both charged with perjury and failure to report. Schultz’s position includes oversight of Penn State University Police Department.
When this Veteran’s Day rolls around say a special prayer for Jim Calhoun, the one man that tried to come forward and fight for what’s right.
© 2011 Patricia L Johnson
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Patricia, thanks for writing this piece. I was searching for information about Jim after reading about him being a witness to the alleged crimes - it was sad to learn that he has dementia and is living in a nursing home. So many things are upsetting about the Penn State scandal it is almost unbelievable. What makes me angry is that Jim Calhoun, a Korean War veteran, was working part time as a janitor, witnessed a disgusting crime, and was unable to get any support he needed to fight on. Do we live in such a depraved society that janitors and cleaning staff earning minimum wage are too afraid of their employers to raise an alarm on child abuse?! It is beyond belief - but think about what it takes to erode the spirit of former fighting soldier - Penn State's Football Program is a joke...Hi Benjamin,
As I was writing the story I looked for additional information on Mr. Calhoun, to no avail. The information I did provide was obtained from the Grand Jury report.
You're right - it is 'beyond belief', but it happened and the whispers, I'm sure there were whispers, appear to have been covered up for years.
As far as people losing their jobs, I think people are terrified of losing their jobs in this country, whether they're earning minimum wage or a fair salary, because of the fact jobs are so few and far in between and the fact the attitude of the country has changed towards helping those in need.
We live in sad times.
Thank you for your comment.
Pat Johnson
I too was moved and saddened by the story of Jim Calhoun. In looking for information on his military service, I discovered that a James L. Calhoun from Clinton County, PA was wounded in the Korean War on 11/8/51 while serving in the 24th Infantry Division. I do not know if this is the same man, but it seems a likely possibility. If anyone knows more information about Mr. Calhoun, please share it - he is most certainly another victim in this horrible, disgusting scandal.
John,
Thank you so much for that bit of information. I spent quite a while attempting to locate additional information on Jim Calhoun because the story was so upsetting to me.
It gets more mysterious as time goes by - the New York Times ran an article, I believe it was yesterday, about how Sandusky was being investigated by the District Attorney of whatever county that is in PA, and before any charges had been filed, or the case closed, the DA's car was found abandoned, his laptop was found in the river - with the hard drive removed, but his body was never recovered. It seems like this was in 1998.
The Times story was in some off-the-wall section of the paper and the only reason I found it was because I was looking for something else.
It really makes you wonder what really happened over the past 15 years. By firing Paterno it appears Penn State is hoping to close the door on this story as rapidly as possible, but it seems to me it's a story that should be investigated over and over again until they finally dig deep enough to uncover the truth.
Thank you for your comment.
Pat Johnson
Add me to the list of people who feel for Jim Calhoun. He was obviously deeply affected by this, but for whatever reason chose to keep it to himself, and that's likely what led to the deterioration of his already-fragile mind.
Of course I'm not sure reporting it to the police would have been much help. From what I gather reading the PDF file the police were made aware of an incident and nothing ever came of it. Could they have been part of the same grand scheme to protect PSU's image at all costs?
I have a feeling stories like this are only the beginning, as this continues to develop and more rancid details become known, we may gain some more insight into why Mr. Calhoun, the police, and seemingly everyone else kept these secrets for all these years.Can we really state, as fact, that Jim Calhoun did not report the incident? There has been a major cover-up at PSU and I don't think we can say, without doubt, that the incident was not reported by him.
I'm not 'into' sports. I could write down everything I know about football on the head of a pin, but what I do know for fact is people seem to put sports figures on some sort of pedestal as if they were above reproach. Until such time as the general attitude changes, I think it's safe to assume atrocities will continue to take place and continue to be covered-up.
These are people that should to be role models for our kids and that is what is so very sad about the entire situation.
Thank you for your comment Roger,
Pat Johnson
Why didn't Jim Calhoun call 911 himself? Are you seriously saying that we should feel sorry for him instead of the 13-year-old boy who was being molested? This is a BS article. I respect his military service but there's no excuse for him not calling the cops...or Witherite, or Petrosky. How much torment do you think that kid is in? We should ignore that he saw a crime against a CHILD and didn't report it?Difficult for me to comprehend why a person would waste their time responding to an article they believe is BS.
Thank you for your comment.
Pat Johnson
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