mr. paterno is at risk of any criminal prosecution. >> reporter: however, tonight there is this . nbc has contacted a defense lawyer here about the case. though according to cbs news, paterno's son tweeted no lawyer has been retained. not sure where that report originate the. this court has been about the court of public opinion. in the weeks ahead it is likely simply to be about court. anita. >> gary nurenberg, thank you. >>> defense secretary leon paneta says he'll consider harsher punishment for three responsible for the mishandling of soldier's remains. they acknowledge that on two occasions in 2009 the dover mortuary lost body parts of fallen soldiers. between '03 and '08 they cremated some body parts and dumped them in a virginia landfill without the permission of the soldier's families. scott smith's remains were dumped back in 2006 and today his widow expressed her outrage. >> no service member or no human being at all should be placed into a landfill, no matter whether it's a fingernail, a foot or an entire body. >> the commanding officer of the dover mortuary at the time

mr. paterno. have considers victims watch tv and are aware of the students' reaction and may not want to be associated with the downfall of mr. paterno. the school elected to do what was in its own best interest at the time. isn't that what put the school in this position in the first place? is it your sense that most of the victims while they want a thorough investigation did not immediately at least want coach paterno fired? >> i think what you're seeing here is a reaction to the way that people are reacting to this and basically the victims that i've talked to have said that he would rather this be a focus on them -- on the victims and what happened to them than on the scandal and kind of the circus that's surrounding it. i don't think that you know the sister that i talked to yesterday everybody and then the statement from the attorney believed to represent victim four, you know, that -- those statements kind of bring you to believe that maybe don't agree with coach paterno's sudden departure.

mr. paterno is at risk of any criminal prosecution. >> gary nurenberg, 9news now. >> paterno has reportedly contacted a criminal defense lawyer here in d.c. about the case. according to cbs news, paterno's son tweeted to be clear, no lawyer has been retained. not sure where that report originated. >>> defense secretary leon panetta says he will consider harsher punishments for the three people who are being held responsible for mishandling soldiers remains. >> the air force says on two occasions back in 2009, the dover mortuary lost body parts of fallen soldiers to air force also admitted between 2003 and 2008 some body parts of fallen soldiers were cremated then dumped them into a virginia landfill without the permission of the soldier's families. the commanding officer of the dover mortuary at the time of these incidents is now working at the pentagon. he was given a letter of reprimand. two of his top civilian deputies took pay cuts. >>> venezuela's justice minister says washington nationals catcher wilson ramos is alive and he's vowing to catch his abductor. 24-year-old ramos was visiti

mr. paterno's responsibility at that point legally. >> well, first, reporting it up the line or down the line doesn't make it. you report it to police. and they investigate it because that's what they're trained. joe paterno's responsibility once he received the report was to do the same thing. turn it over to law enforcement, let them investigate it. and joe paterno failed in his obligations both moral and legal. and that really leads to the larger question here. this is institutional failure as well as individual failure of trusted adults. and it is the institutions that failed the kids on multiple levels from the top to the bottom and so the resignation of joe ma tern know or the resignation of the president in itself doesn't address the culture and the institutional failure. what really has to be done here now is the institution has to acknowledge their failures and rigorously commit themselves to training and preventing this from happening again and rigorously reaching out and acknowledging the failures of the past. >> suarez: in this particular case, joe paterno said he turned it ov

mr. paterno face tremendous liability in this situation. >> civil lawyers can make a simple case on behalfbused children against the university and its employees. >> they all had a duty to protect those children. i believe that they will all be named as defendants in lawsuits and that they'll face civil liability. >> expect to see that in the court for years. but criminal liability

mr. paterno retire at age 84. joe paterno decides what joe paterno does.erno was informed back in 2002 coach sandusky was seen having sex with a young boy. but paterno said the minimum required by law. paterno cancelled a press conference on tuesday due to the ongoing legal case but we caught up with him. >> you guys got a lot of good questions and i would like to answer them but i can't now. i'm sorry. oil have another one soon. >> patterno is beloved. for 46 years of teaching his players about life as well as football. >> i think you've got a tremendous impact on a kid. you're not teaching them facts you're teaching them things about character, teaching them thing about success, teaching them what it takes to get along with other people. >> patterno is known for running a clean program. you don't hear about paying players or falsifying s.a.t. scores. but now his reputation may be harmed. s.a..com columnist writes. we don't know who is legally guilty but several prominent employees at the state university are morally guilty and one of them is joe paterno.

mr. sandusky's assertion that joe paterno said nothing. >> i don't know what to take from that man. as i listen to the interview just then, shivers go up one's back. i think of my child in a shower and excerpts of the interview, we talk about horse play with my child? like what you describe? unless it was something with a law enforcement saying don't talk, i think action should have been taken and mr. paterno on his own should have. >> i think all of us share your discomfort and the state community is a massive institution as you know. seems that everybody in the state has ties to penn state or jerry sandusky in way or another. the judge that let him out on bail is involved in his charity. it seems as if getting justice in this case through the state alone may be difficult or virtually impossible. isn't it time for the federal government to say look, let's forget about local individuals and agencies being involved. we will act and investigate independently at a federal level. >> in the u.s. navy which i served for 31 years, when there was an accident on the ship or something occurre

paterno. >> we will talk with mr. harris in just a few moments. there were other high-profile statements of support for joe paterno today. the nike corporation said it has no plans to change the name of the joe paterno center. a childcare facility at its oregon headquarters. but pennsylvania senators pat toomey and pat casey pulled their support for the nomination of the football coach to receive the presidential medal of freedom. attention is now being turned to assistant football coach mike mcquerrey. mcquerrey has kept his job despite allegation that's he witnessed a sexual assault by jerry sandusky on an 11-year-old boy in 2002 and did not intervene or report it to police. the new interim penn state head football coach, tom bradley, said today that mcqueary will remain part of the coaching staff at this saturday's game. but today they said mcqueary will be kept off the sideline for his own safety. pennsylvania governor tom corbett spoke about the firings today during a news conference. >> we must keep in mind that when it comes to the safety of

mr. paterno, the attorney general made a determination that he had not at this point in time done anything in a criminal nature, but in my opinion, when you don't follow through and don't continue on to make sure that actions are taken, then i lose confidence in your ability to lead. that would be the case here. >> chris: let me follow up on that. penitate and paternos were considered models of what is right in the college football. the team moto, success is honor and in this case the coach and school were concerned about protecting the program than eight boys jerry sandusky ah bused over 15 years. how do youks plain that in penn state? >> guest: i have to look at what happened. you all will make your determinations and conclusions based on what you see. i saw a failure to act. your actions speak louder than your words. that should not have been able to continue. i have to be careful what i say. i am under ethical in this investigation as to i can or can't say. the actions or failure to act maybe not caused me not to have confidence in the coach. >> chris: sir, how did the pep state progra

mr. paterno, the attorney general made a determination that he had not at this point in time done anything that would be a criminal nature. but in my opinion, when you don't follow through, when you don't continue on to make sure actions are taken, i lose confidence in your ability to lead. that would be the case here. >> chris: let me follow up on that because penn state and paterno, it's fair to say, were considered models of what is right in college football, the team motto for the football team is success with honor. and yet in this case, the coach and school seem to have been more concerned with protecting the program than the eight boys jerry sandusky allegedly abused. >> i have to sit back and look at what happened. you all will make your determinations and conclusions based upon what you see. what i saw was a failure to act. and i always have said your actions speak lauder -- louder than your words. that should not have been able to continue. i have to be careful what i say because i'm under an ethical obligation as to what i can and cannot say but the failure to act, while not cri

mr. paterno's responsibility at that point legally. >> well, first, reporting it up the line or down the line doesn't make it. you report it to police. and they investigate it because that's what they're trained. joe paterno's responsibility once he received the report was to do the same thing. turn it over to law enforcement, let them investigate it. and joe paterno failed in his obligations both moral and legal. and that really leads to the larger question here. this is institutional failure as well as individual failure of trusted adults. and it is the institutions that failed the kids on multiple levels from the top to the bottom and so the resignation of joe ma tern know or the resignation of the president in itself doesn't address the culture and the institutional failure. what really has to be done here now is the institution has to acknowledge their failures and rigorously commit themselves to training and preventing this from happening again and rigorously reaching out and acknowledging the failures of the past. >> suarez: in this particular case, joe paterno said he turned it ov

mr. paterno said today when he announced that he was going to retire, and he said every morning when i come to work the most important thing on my mind is what's best for penn state. and the question is, is what's best for penn state also what's best for children and other people? and i think when an organization begins to think of itself as excluding others and on its own rules, then it begins to think survival and preserving its own integrity is not as important as just survival. and i think that the first thing an organization has to do is say this is our code of ethics, this is what we believe, this is what a person believes we should do. should you see someone who's violating this, you must report it. i think the difference between a law that says you must and free will says whatever you want to do, but in between is a moral compass. and apparently this was something lacking on many people's part in this situation. >> cory, i mean, you cover, again, penn state. i mean, is it something about the culture of wanting to be associated with the university, wanting to be associated with that

mr. paterno was also... is also a devout catholic and to discover further that the diocese of altoona johnstown where he goes to church has been dealing with child sex abuse problems since 1987, one of the very first diocese in the united states to be sued a suit they lost in 1994 and didn't en wind up paying until 2007, i lked to the lawyer whobrought that suit. he says several of the victims were from state college where penn state i and one of the victims was a suicide, committed suicide. so the community of state college not only knewhe consequences of child abuse, the consequences of a coverup, but they had a... almost a preview that the rest of the nation only got later. so yes, i thought to myself, how could it possibly be that somebody who has seen this and then see it happen in their own institution could turn its back on it. how could it be. >> rose: your answer is? >> well, my answer goes to some of taylor's great reporting in the atlantic and in his book which is that the... the n.c.a.a.... the s

mr. paterno, about what had happened, the label of çwhistle-blower attacs to him, to mr. mcqueary.r up the chain. now you have a passage of time that takes place. if there was a quid pro quo tra transfer, say he took a coaching job and they asked him not to say anything, he loses the whistle-blower identification. but then, again, he went to grand jury and he provided the truth to grand jury. the whistle-blower identification attaches again. people may question, wait a second, he's coming out with different details than he did before. but they may not necessarily contradict one another. we don't know if he turned around, left the room and made noise outside, forcing sandusky and this poor child to interrupt and leave. we don't know what his whole story is. we don't know exactly who he told. >> jane, wouldn't the grand jury have asked him these very pivotal, important questions when one of the things that he is saying that he witnessed was the fact that this child was being sodomized by a grown man? >> correct. and you can see that in the grand jury report that came out. but that is

mr. paterno, i think the state attorney general has spoken to the issue of criminal charges.er yet. i'm sure vicki will speak to that. at this point in time they've stated the attorney general has, there is not enough to charge him criminally. the board of trustees, i think, took the appropriate action. why? he met the minimum standards of reporting, apparently according to the attorney general. once he got knowledge of the information concerning the abuse he gave the information up the hierarchy. as a result his reporting obligations were met. >> gregg: criminally. that doesn't satisfy penn state's standards. >> absolutely not. >> gregg: you've got a higher, ethical and moral obligation. >> you do the ethical and moral obligation here to do more, about what he really did know, is significantly more than just saying this happened. clearly, he could have gone to the authorities and done more. >> gregg: vicki, joe pa as he is fondly known as, criminal exposure isn't over yet which is likely why he has hired a criminal defense attorney. >> most people don't do that and hire a to

mr. paterno not seeing that his time at penn state should have ended many years ago. not for being a stumbling 84-year-old who can't get out of his own way, but a knowing party to what is one of the most disturbing and disgusting scandal in ncaa history. keep the comments coming. thanks, as always, for your comments. >> that's it for us. "cnn newsroom" starts right now with kyra phillips. >>> herman cain angry, defiant and leaving no wiggle room in denying that he sexually harassed anyone. >> with respect to the most recent accusation, i have never acted inappropriately with anyone. >> and today he faces his republican rivals in a presidential debate. but it's possible he could soon face an even tougher crowd. all of his accusers at a single news conference. that's the idea actually being pitched by karen kraushaar one woman who accused him of sexual harassment in the 1990s. she said she is ready to go before the camera with women with similar stories. joe johns, that is video from a number of years ago where we were seeing kraushaar. we have no new video of her at th

mr. paterno, the attorney general made a determination that he had not at this point in time done anythingt would be of a criminal nature, but, in my opinion, when you don't follow through, when you don't continue onto make sure actions are taken. i lose confidence in your ability to lead. >> jamie: wow. joining me now, the anchor of fox news sunday, chris wallace. no one illicits, answers like you, and, he's agreeing wither than perhaps at this point in time and leaving the question open of whether or not joe paterno will be charged. will the governor get involved in the process. >> no, he was the attorney general, interesting enough, tom corbet corbett, the attorney general a couple of years ago and led the initial vicious and began the investigation an con venaled the grand jury and he's been very involved and now as governor steps out of the role and he was directly involved this week because as governor is a member of the board of trustees and i gather was one of the people pushing the board for the unanimous vote they ended up making to fire paterno, not to let him -- as paterno want