If what he said in a Washington Post interview last week is true, he was used as a scapegoat. He claimed that all McQueery told him was that he caught Sandusky in the shower with a young boy. Paterno reported it to higher ups at Penn State, which is what he was supposed to do. In the meantime, he was pissed at Sandusky for spending too much time with the charity and not with coaching.
Paterno also said that at the time he wasn't even aware that boys could be raped. This rings true to me, because my dad, who is 11 years younger, asked me several years ago about male homosexual sex. He was shocked when I told him about anal sex. It never dawned on him that men would do that to each other.
Paterno ended the interview by saying that the children were the victims in this situation, not him. He also said that he was sorry for what had happened and would've done more if he would've understood what was really going on with Sandusky.
Look, I hate child molestation cover ups just as much as the next person, maybe even moreso since it happened to me. But from what I've read, Paterno was ignorant of the facts about Sandusky and about molestation of little boys in general.