Tuesday, August 30

PA: State of Deflection (Part 1: Kane)

The Kathleen Kane and the Conspiracy of Silence cases show that the PA Corruption Network uses a deflection strategy to get rid of its opposition

By
Ray Blehar

The recent conviction of former Pennsylvania (PA) Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane will go down in history as another instance of the PA Corruption Network (PACORN) using a prosecution to deflect attention away from its own wrong-doing.

Kane was alleged to have leaked grand jury information regarding the case of J. Whyatt Mondesire.  

Unlike the previous cases in PA where the media was "all in" for writing stories from leaked information --  her alleged grand jury leaks were treated as the crime of the century.  


There were numerous leaks (to the Philadelphia Inquirer) from the Montgomery County grand jury that investigated the Kane case, but neither the PACORN's media arm nor prosecutor Kevin Steele nor former  prosecutor Lisa Vetri Ferman seem the least bit concerned over the Montco leaks/leakers. 


The Patriot News won journalism awards for its coverage of Bonusgate and the Sandusky cases -- both of which were plagued by grand jury leaks.   Interestingly, both cases were prosecuted by Frank Fina -- but he is never mentioned in association with leaks.

How about that?

Fina grand jury cases leak -- no problem.  
Montco grand jury leaks - no problem.   
Kane's alleged leaks -- crime of the century.




The Kane leak case was treated differently by the media because one of her campaign promises was to clean up the "old boy's network" in Harrisburg.  In other words, she was about to get rid of the leakers and those who allowed leaks to happen.  

For example, James Barker was removed from his position because of his failure to investigate and plug grand jury leaks.  While Barker claims it was retaliation, there is evidence indicating he was asleep at the wheel or otherwise ignoring leads about the leaks.  

Of course, PACORN's media arm didn't have any interest in learning the facts about Barker's failures to plug the leaks.  

Some of the Sandusky leaks are rather obvious, but have yet to be identified or discussed by the media.

How about that?

Bloggers can identify leaks using Google.
The media can't find them with LexisNexis.
Barker couldn't find them with subpoena power.

As it turns out, the blogosphere is the only place that the real facts and the truth can be found out about PA's corrupt criminal justice system.

Kane's  conviction for perjury, false swearing, and orchestrating a leak of grand jury and CHRIA information is evidence of how the corrupt system works (as I wrote here).   

The media insiders understood that Kane's Sandusky investigation had the potential of exposing PACORN's dark, sordid secrets -- and it was their job to protect -- and deflect.

Brad Bumsted, his corrupt media cohorts and other hacks, like Terry Madonna, ignored the facts of this case and continued their assistance in the cover-up.  They painted it as Kane singling out and having an obsession with Frank Fina.

Yet another false narrative.


Frank Fina:  Not a target of Kane's investigation -- but taken down by it.




A review of news articles from Kane's AG campaign clearly show her focus was on AG Tom Corbett -- not his underling Frank Fina. 

Kane's probe of the Sandusky investgation, conducted by Special Deputy AG Geoffrey Moulton, was chartered to investigate if politics, specifically former Governor Tom Corbett's gubernatorial campaign, was behind the slow pace of the investigation.  

Bumsted and Madonna twisting it into an obsession with Frank Fina was no accident.

Corbett, Fina, Others Feared Sandusky Probe

Those who feared the Sandusky probe made their pre-emptive strike on on March 5, 2013 -- and not surprisingly, you won't find that data point anywhere on Brad Bumsted's timeline of the Kane case. 

Cowardly anonymous sources informed the Legal Intelligencer that they were angered over Kane's Sandusky probe and would retaliate if the investigation was critical of their work.  

"Attorneys and agents from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office who were involved in the investigation and prosecution of Jerry Sandusky are "outraged" that Attorney General Kathleen Kane is keeping her promise to investigate the office's handling of the case, and some are prepared to go public if the review's findings are overly critical of their work or inaccurate."

On March 16th, 2013 anonymous sources again struck at Kane via the Philadelphia Inquirer about her shut down of the Ali bribery case.  

Those two shots  at Kane were because she made good on a promise to review a case that let a child predator unnecessarily roam the streets and victimize children for two years -- and maybe more.   

This was long before anyone knew about reconstructed emails.

The bottom line is that when Kane promised a "no stone unturned" investigation, it scared the living crap out of PACORN.  

Had Geoffrey Moulton gone back and turned over the rocks around the failed 1998 Sandusky investigation -- that PACORN conveniently blamed on (assumed) deceased former Centre County DA, Ray Gricar -- it may have found that Sandusky wasn't the only molester being protected by the system. 

Moulton's investigation had the potential to expose how the PA government turns a blind eye to child sexual victimization.

Had that happened the false narrative of a PSU cover-up would have been destroyed -- and Pennsylvania would have been a subject of nationwide if not international scorn and shame. 

No one involved PACORN (e.g., judges, prosecutors, politcos, and businessmen) wants that cat ever getting out of the bag.

Fast forward to August 2016.

The Old Main/Second Mile Protection Scheme
The PA legislature, led by Senators Joe Scarnati and former TSM board member, Senator Jake Corman, moved for, then held a special session to confirm newly appointed AG Bruce Beemer.

According to The Legal Intelligencer, Beemer was confirmed without a single question asked of him.   That fact confirms that corruption is on both sides of the aisle.

Corman also wasn't the least bit inquisitive when TSM terminated  Lynne Abraham's investigation of Sandusky's charity in 2012 and certainly wasn't raising any objections.

“Maybe because the organization is clearly not going to continue, maybe that sort of review isn’t necessary. I’m not on the board anymore, so I guess I don’t have a lot of standing.” 

He also took in foot off the neck of the NCAA, who would have to provide discovery materials regarding the lawsuit over the $60 million in fines.  

While Corman released many documents damaging to the NCAA and Old Main, rest assured that he kept the public from seeing the most damaging evidence of Old Main's role in railroading Joe Paterno and the PSU 3.  

Paterno, of course, was used as the ultimate means of deflection in the Sandusky scandal.

It seems obvious that whatever is being hidden by Corman and his cohorts has sweeping ramifications across the state of Pennsylvania.   Something truly horrifying has to exist beneath the surface in order for politicos, top officials in Old Main and PSU trustees, officials from The Second Mile, and others to go along with scapegoating a legendary football coach and national sports icon.

Beemer's appointment almost assures that Sandusky's former charity and those connected to it will not face scrutiny by an investigation from Keystone state officials.  

Meanwhile, the PACORN media arm and other political hacks continue to deflect on this situation, blaming Kane for the problems in the AG's office and that Beemer's job is to clean up after her.  


But the fact of the matter is that Kane inherited a lot of unfinished business when she was sworn in.  Outgoing temporary AG Bruce Castor referred to these things as "ticking time bombs."


AG Bruce Beemer: Saddled with ticking time bombs left behind by Frank Fina


The "ticking time bombs" are not personnel matters, the porngate report, or the office's penny ante spats with PA law enforcement.   

Time bombs?

Look no further than the Conspiracy of Silence case -- should Beemer decide to play poker with that deflection.   His hand has already been eviscerated by the Superior Court.

What's left of it consists of three things:

Unreliable witnesses.
Manufactured evidence.
Tortured interpretations of laws.

That was part of the mess left behind by Frank Fina.  Evidence confirmed that Fina believed he could get Curley and Schultz to flip on Spanier and put an end to their charges - while taking down the ultimate target of Corbett's Sandusky investigation.  





According a discussion at the Sandusky trial, former prosecutor Joe McGettigan told Judge Cleland the case wasn't going to be tried.




Fina's bluff/flip strategy failed. No one cut a deal.

Beemer now has that time bomb in his hands.

Tick. Tick. Tick.


Up next:  Part 2: FTR

17 comments:

  1. Bruce Beemer, the CENTRE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY May Have Her Own PORNGATE PROBLEM. Did DA Stacy Parks Miller use her Google+ account for official district attorney business from 7/19/15 to 9/30/15? Was this her PUBLICLY SHARED PROFILE image? Is that why the image skyrocketed in Google image search last summer? stacyparksmiller.com

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  2. Kane just wasn't tough enough and smart enough. She should have cleaned house when she took office and fired anyone who sent porn emails.

    She should have dismissed the charges against Curley, Schultz and Spanier and blamed it on Fina and Feudale's misconduct. Instead she continued the "tortured interpretation of laws" to keep the case alive.

    She should have apologized for the lies about Paterno in the Sandusky grand jury presentment.

    She should have talked more about the "inexplicable delays" in the Sandusky investigation and how the bumbled investigation allowed Sandusky to continue to abuse two boys.

    Kane should have better explained why she she dropped the Phila. bribery sting case. In hindsight, the bribes in that case now seem trivial compared to the $160,000 in "gifts" Phila. DA Seth Williams failed to report. Williams took far more in unreported "gifts" than all the elected officials combined took in bribes.

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  3. I love the acronym Ray--PACORN. PACORN has been getting away with murder literally and figuratively. In my opinion, Professor Bettig was most likely a PACORN hit because he had written the book, "Big Money, Big Media", an expose of dirty corporate money controlling our courts and our media. His book effectively showed how this corrupt entanglement is hidden from us. And Centre County PACORN papers really played up the two patsy killers as druggies as a way to deflect and cause harm to Dr. Bettig's reputation. The papers went on to portray Dr. Bettig as a drugged out hippie and not the intellectual genius professor/author that he was. "His personal demons led him to his death" they say. Hmmm, sounds familiar, "Ray Gricar, a strange bird, probably depressed", "Joe Paterno, not a good man after all", "turned a blind eye" etc, etc. All of them dead men besmirched by PA mafia newspapers. Also, Ronald Bettig co-authored "Big Media, Big Money with his former wife, Jeanne Lynn Hall. She died in the hospital soon after publishing the book. Her death was completely unexpected and ambiguously explained. No wonder Kane surrounded herself with a beefed up security team once she figured out just what she was up against--organized crime. Yet the PACORN newspapers spun that as "Kane is wasting taxpayers money with increased security". Seems like it didn't take very long at all for PACORN to assemble an "unbiased" jury to convict her.

    And the Governor seems to be coddling Beemer, appointing him Inspector General in July and now handing him the Attorney General position. Wolf is making decisions and behaving like a man with a gun hidden from view that's pointed at his head. Come on people, it's one of two things here: Governor Wolf has succumbed to terroristic threats made by PACORN against the state of PA and himself, or he is a "Wolf" in sheep's clothing and is with PACORN all the way. Did PACORN threaten to stage a violent false flag event that would be blamed on "Muslims"? Is this why Governor Wolf was quoted as saying, "I'm calling on Kathleen Kane to do what's right for PA and resign immediately"? Wow, "Immediately"! That sounds like imminent danger was at hand if she didn't get out that day! Not two to four weeks as most people are afforded when asked to resign, but immediately! She's convicted by a hastily assembled tainted jury quietly hand-picked by PACORN members and Wolf doesn't publicly question that process? What's up here? Is this the truly horrifying something that exists beneath the surface? Are these legislative and judicial farces are able to continue because there are actual threats of death and violence being made against the people of PA and its leaders? Maybe another Eric Frein type false flag has been threatened? But this time with actual damage to civilians and property? If Frank Noonan and Tom Corbett can pull off that 7-week Frein "manhunt" to divert attention away from Noonan's involvement in Porngate, then another such event can be used to silence all opposition to PACORN'S fake courts and convictions. I believe that Frein B.S. was psychological and fiscal terrorism directed at Att. Gen. Kane.

    I really hope I'm wrong with what I've just stated. But diversion seems to be PACORN'S favorite play. And if I'm wrong about the threats, then the only other possibility is Governor Wolf has appealed to Bruce Beemer's ego to entrap him with this "time bomb" you speak of Ray. And this would be a most blessed day to see PACORN and their media partners in crime arrested by the remaining honest feds. It's a lot to hope for. But Pennsylvania and America needs this hope to restore faith in our broken government.

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  4. I'm not crying for Kane. She was incompetent and more than willing to fall into a Fina boobytrap. She did not produce what she promised....a proper investigation of everything, not just what Corbett was up to. Molton did not have ESP and could not garner any evidence to show motive. No Second Mile investigation, no explanation of the fraudulent presentation or the janitor hoax. She just went gaga over PORNOCO-PA and engaged in a little chicanery of her own. Hasta La Vista Baby! Don't slam the door on the way out.

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    1. Regardless of your opinions on Kane's actions and/or inactions, the point of this post is that PACORN removes threats to their livlihood by targeting innocent people and accusing them of crimes that were the doing of others.

      The leaker of grand jury and CHRIA information was Adrian King. He cut an immunity deal and blamed Kane.

      Kane was convicted on perjury charges through the use of a fabricated document.

      Cynthia Baldwin obstructed justice in the Sandusky and Conspiracy of Silence cases, cut a deal for immunity, then blamed Spanier.

      McQueary failed to report suspected abuse and it is almost certain that Tom Harmon did the same. Both were mandated reporters (Harmon b/c he was a cop and McQ b/c he was a teen league baseball coach). Both became prosecution witnesses against PSU officials.

      The key evidence that Beemer intends to use is an altered email.

      The pattern is obvious.

      Don't let your attention be deflected away from the real culprits.

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    2. Ray - Why did Kane not put on any defense? If there was a fabricated document, why didn't she hire a document expert to testify to that?

      Had she put on a defense, she could have gone after Adrian King as a scorned lover since they once dated.

      It seemed unwise of Kane to employ a former boyfriend as a first deputy anyway.

      I agree with you on the rest. Mike McQueary is by far the worst one at Penn State behind Sandusky.

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    3. Tim,
      There are occasions when counsel will decide not to argue because they believe their opponent did not provide sufficient evidence to convict and that they sufficiently impeached witnesses under cross.

      It is a tactical decision. As we have observed in the Sandusky case, tactical decisions can be used in appeals to argue that the defendant was not competently represented.

      Shargel's primary means of argument (i.e., porngate, Sandusky) were excluded by the judge. He was arguing the case with two hands tied behind his back. This will be part of the appeal.

      As for document fraud -- I'll just say that from my experience, the investigators hired by attorneys are licensed Private Investigators with law enforcement backgrounds. Former policemen and detectives who have not been schooled in the art of recognizing deceptions and how to go about unraveling them.

      While I have not written about this yet, some of the deceptions used in the Conspiracy of Silence case really took a lot of balls, however the AG's office learned (over time) what to expect from the defense attorneys. In short, the defense teams trusted the AG was telling the truth about the evidence or lack thereof.

      In 2012 and 2013, they could get away with it. I'm relatively certain that they've now learned otherwise.

      Kane's case moved too fast for Shargel (and his investigators) to uncover all the deceptions.

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  5. Through all of my reading I missed that McQ was a mandated reporter. When did this come to light? And why didn't the media make a big deal of it when this whole thing started? I think I know the answer to the second question.

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    1. The mandated reporter law is vague enough that almost anyone could qualify because of the Attorney General's "tortured interpretations of laws."

      McQueary could claim that he reported to high ranking PSU officials, which would probably have satisfied any mandated reporting requirement at that time.

      The law originally only applied to licensed medical professionals who might see signs of abuse in children who were their patients. It has gradually been broadened to include others, such as teachers, coaches and others who supervised children. It even includes funeral directors, presumably if they notice signs of abuse on deceased children.

      It still is far from designating all adults as mandated reporters. In most cases, the adult has to have direct contact with children, whatever that is, or responsibility for the child. If you see a child a block away is that "direct contact?"

      Under the 2001 law, I don't believe that McQueary or anyone he talked to qualified as a mandated reporter.

      Here's a PA Mandated Reporter FAQ from July 2015.

      http://keepkidssafe.pa.gov/cs/groups/webcontent/documents/document/c_137646.pdf

      Under "When must mandated reporters make a report?" it gives 4 conditions. Three of them would not have applied to Curley, Schultz and Spanier.

      The last one is "A person makes a specific disclosure to
      the mandated reporter that an identifiable child is the
      victim of child abuse."

      Even that doesn't sound like it would have applied in McQueary's case because it required an "identifiable child" and McQueary never got a name. It comes down to the definition of "identifiable child," which probably isn't specified in the law.

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    2. The reporting law in effect in 2001 was amended in 1998.

      This provision applied to Mike McQueary in his role as a youth league baseball coach (defined in section 6311).

      (7) An individual paid or unpaid, who, on the basis of the individual's role as an integral part of a regularly scheduled program, activity or service, is a person responsible for the child's welfare or has direct contact with children.

      Conversely, this provision clearly excluded Spanier, Curley, and Schultz as mandated reporters (under section 6303).

      "School employee." An individual who is employed by a school or who provides a program, activity or service sponsored by a school. The term does not apply to administrative or other support personnel unless the administrative or other support personnel have direct contact with children.

      The Commonwealth fallaciously argued that Curley had direct contact with children through PSU sports camps. However, Sports Camps up until 2010 were administered by PSU's Outreach program -- not through the Athletic Department.

      It also argued that Spanier had direct contact with children because of his licensing as a therapist.

      Obviously, these arguments are without merit.

      Finally, the reason that no one has ever heard that McQ was a mandated reporter was because the media went to great lengths to avoid discussions of the legal requirements -- instead focusing on the "moral obligations" of individuals to report the alleged (and now proven false) report of a rape in 2001.

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  6. Ray - I doubt it was the intent of the law to require "a youth league baseball coach" to be a mandated reporter when he wasn't acting in that capacity. The law frequently specifies that mandated reporter status applies only in the course of employment.

    Under cross-examination, was Mike McQueary ever asked if he got immunity, or immunity for his father and Dranov, in exchange for his testimony?

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  7. It seems to me that the whole idea of a 'mandated reporter' is the problem. It appears to just be a way for our legal system to just 'widen the net' whenever someone commits a crime. We pull in as many loosely connected accomplices as we can while we conjecture about their motivations (like 'to avoid a scandal') all to serve a media hungry for news fodder and an ever-increasingly greedy legal system churning the waters for lawsuits. If a person really does witness a crime and does nothing, we usually never find that out. It is only when deep-pockets lie in the offing (ie: PSU, the Catholic Church, etc...) that it becomes a media sensation and this 'motivational speculation' that we see rears its ugly head.

    From what I've read here, it looks like Ms. Kane had been compromised by the corrupt PA system and succumbed to whatever pressures she was facing (one can only imagine). Given the fates of the PSU bunch, that is quite understandable. It appears that Mr. Corbett & Governor Wolf fell in line a little more easily and ultimately 'played ball' with the big boys.

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    1. Philip Carey - I think the mandated reporter law has a sound basis when it applies to people who have custody of the child or supervise children or regularly deal with children as part of their job. It makes sense to apply to parents, guardians, foster parents, teachers, coaches, child care workers, doctors, police, etc.

      One big problem is what Ray mentioned as the "tortured interpretation of laws" by the Attorney General and the media.

      The main problem in the Sandusky scandal is that the worst offender (eyewitness Mike McQueary) has immunity from prosecution and is using that status not only to pin his failures on others but also to try and enrich himself. If anyone should be on trial for failure to report and a "conspiracy of silence," it's Mike McQueary.

      The Attorney General gave McQueary a pass, Freeh gave McQueary a pass and the media has largely given McQueary a pass.

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    2. Tim: The mandated reporter law is being used to excess. That is my main point. It is now a tool of retribution to bury anyone you want. You merely have to speculate that someone 'knew' of an unreported crime to push them into a corner. The media does the rest. Yes, there are positions in society where mandatory reporting is necessary: A policeman, anyone working in child protection, etc... But a junior league football coach? Such an individual has usually not been trained to recognize a perceived child abuse situation. He would be very susceptible to the 'he had to have known' attack. You can't just declare a mandatory reporting requirement without ensuring that those affected by it understand its implications. Writing it down in a statute does not accomplish that.

      I am no defender of Mike McQueary but he was played by the prosecution for a chump. Lead to believe he was 'helping convict a child predator', he trusted them to take his testimony 'with proper care'. He could not see that whatever immunity he was offered would not protect him in other ways, such as implicating his PSU associates and ruining his career.

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    3. I agree with you to a large extent. The law is poorly written and is being selectively abused by prosecutors in the Sandusky case. It was a knee jerk reaction to greatly increase the number of people who were mandated reporters after the Sandusky case.

      A smarter and far more effective remedy would have been to require children's charities to use the same rules that Boy Scouts employ of never having a boy alone with an adult scout leader. They require a minimum of one scout and two adults or two scouts and one adult.

      Sandusky would never have been able to shower with one boy had Second Mile told all parents that they should never let their son alone with one Second Mile adult.

      Prosecutors would have a better case of failure to report against the two teacher/coaches at victim 1's high school. They both admitted under oath that they were suspicious of Sandusky, and they were clearly mandated reporters unlike everyone at Penn State.

      In reality, the criminal penalties in the mandated reporting law are mainly a scare tactic. I read an article that said there were only 3 prosecutions of mandated reporters in PA prior to the Curley-Schultz-Spanier case.

      Ray quoted the prosecutor in this article that Curley and Schultz were not going to be prosecuted. They were unethically charged to remove them as defense witnesses for Sandusky to give the prosecution an advantage.

      I believe you are correct that McQueary was played for a chump by police but he's now trying to exploit the situation by suing PSU for $4 million. I'm hoping that he will be caught in a lie at his lawsuit. All that is needed is one photograph of him at a Second Mile event after 2001.

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  8. So the first task that Bruce Beemer performs in his capacity as the new Attorney General is to begin wiping the records of The Second Mile off the state computers. Number one priority, hide the truth about The Second Mile. And Governor Wolf gave this man carte blanche to begin doing this? These actions speak for themselves--Pennsylvania is participating in a new Holocaust that rivals the Nazi Germany Holocaust of the 1930s and 40s. The Pennsylvania Holocaust is about the elimination of those that want to protect children from corporate and state government sponsored child abuse. It's also about the elimination of information and records that expose those that have participated in the child sex abuse hidden by PACORN for so long. And Governor Wolf has just given his personal approval for the new American Holocaust to begin. If any of Ray's blog readers think for one minute that what I'm saying is an exaggeration, then look at the patterns of elimination and connect the dots. Kane eliminated, Ray Gricar eliminated, Joe Paterno eliminated, Profesor Bettig eliminated, Dr. Spanier eliminated, Curley eliminated, Shultz eliminated, Gansler report eliminated, Second Mile Records eliminated and information eliminated by omission on a daily basis by PA Nazi Newspapers.

    Seth Williams is a farce, a court jester, a clown act created by the PA child abuse Nazis to wear the Democrat label and divert attention away from The Second Mile with his "Second Chance". The FBI is dirty because they're part of the ruse--"FBI investigates Seth's Second Chance". Oh really? And no interest by the FBI to investigate Sandusky the pedophile's proven child victim factory? Where are those headlines?

    Batten down the hatches good people because Wolf's Holocaust has begun! If you are an outspoken scholar, an intellectual, or just a person that wants to keeps kids safe from PACORN, then you must protect yourself. Be vigilant and carry a firearm with proper permits, which I know is not easy for some scholars to do. We tend to be used to defending ourselves with our intellect. So don't let your good nature be exploited by new people that have come into your life all of a sudden. Be aware they may not be who and what they say they are. As it was for the Jews in Nazi Germany, Pennsylvania has become a very dangerous place for good people to live.

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  9. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Bruce Beemer looks like a Jim Henson Muppet? I can't pinpoint which one, but the puppety way that Beemer curls up his mouth says Muppet. Kermit maybe? Well whoever Beemer's puppet master is, they apparently want Sandusky's Second Mile to escape punishment for the sexual abuse of children. "Get those Second Mile records off the Attorney General's computers, and do it NOW Beemer"! "If you don't, we'll create another Muppet to be the star of "Sandusky Street"!

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