Wednesday, January 10

No Coincidence, Part 2: The Non-Investigation of Sandusky & The Second Mile

The Washington Post story on the Sandusky scandal discounted the influence of The Second Mile on the Sandusky investigation, however Corbett's avoidance of the charity remains "inexplicable" and "doesn't pass the smell test."

By
Ray Blehar

January 10, 2018. 8:50 PM, EST

In Part 1, notpsu.blogspot.com laid out the circumstantial evidence supporting the scenario that Corbett used the Sandusky investigation for the purpose of eliminating his nemesis, former PSU President Graham Spanier.

Part 2 will show that Tom Corbett's statement that The "Second Mile had no influence on that investigation" is without merit and that the Washington Post shouldn't have dismissed the charity's influence without a full appraisal of the evidence.

From the Post:

"....McQueary unwittingly became part of a conspiracy engineered by former Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett (R). As Pennsylvania attorney general, Corbett oversaw the early stages of the Sandusky investigation, and as governor, Corbett was a member of the Penn State board that forced out Spanier, the school’s president. Blehar points out Corbett accepted campaign donations from Second Mile board members and had feuded with Spanier over state funding.
While outlandish, such theories gained currency in Pennsylvania. In 2013, newly elected Attorney General Kathleen Kane (D), who suggested on the campaign trail that Corbett slow-walked the Sandusky investigation and donations from Second Mile officials played a role, appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the state’s Sandusky investigation.
“The Second Mile had no influence on that investigation whatsoeverand there’s no evidence that they did,” Corbett said. “But [Penn State alumni] won’t accept that, will they?”

Penn State alumni have good reason not to accept that TSM didn't influence the investigation because they're among the few people who are familiar with the contents of the Moulton Report -- and aren't relying on media sound bites.

The Moulton Report clearly showed that the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) and the Office of Attorney General (OAG) avoided the charity like the plague in the first two years of the investigation.

Former AG Kathleen Kane called it an "inexcusable" delay. Moulton called it an "inexplicable" delay.

Both are correct.



However, the Moulton Report is not the only place to find the evidence of the PSP's and OAG's inexcusable delays.   Appeal documents filed by Sandusky's defense attorneys and the first hand accounts of the investigation provided by Aaron Fisher (Victim 1), his therapist, Mike Gillum, and his mother, Dawn Daniels Hennessy also confirm the avoidance of TSM and that Tom Corbett had a very direct role in the decision not to arrest Sandusky.

The PSP Failed It's "Moral Responsibility" To Do More

After the November 7, 2011 press conference announcing the Sandusky charges concluded, then PSP Commissioner Frank Noonan chastised legendary coach Joe Paterno for not calling the police

Noonan stated (my emphasis added):

“I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you’re a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us.”

If there was ever a case of blame shifting in this mess, Noonan was guilty of it.   He was getting heat over the length of the investigation and apparently decided he'd deflect attention away from the lousy performance of his state troopers during the investigation.

How lousy was it?

- On November 20, 2008, Aaron Fisher provided the very unusual first name (e.g., Sylvester) of the eventual Victim #9 to Jessica Dershem and others at Clinton County Children and Youth Services. Fisher stated he had once seen "Sylvester" at Sandusky's home.  (Source: Sandusky PCR Appeal)



- Dershem provided the information she had gathered to PSP state troopers Joseph Cavanaugh and Joseph Akers on December 12, 2008.  As such, the PSP had a lead on the eventual Victim #9 but made no such effort to contact TSM to find out "Sylvester's" last name.  (Later in the investigation, the OAG would get an even better lead on "Sylvester" and do nothing with it)

- From January 7 to January 21, 2009, troopers Cavanaugh and Akers interviewed then Central Mountain High School (CMHS) Vice-Principal Steven Turchetta, four CMHS students, who had significant contact with Sandusky, and a volunteer wrestling coach, Joseph Miller, who had witnessed Sandusky alone in a wrestling room with Fisher.   All of these individuals mentioned that TSM was the connection between Sandusky and the boys.

- On January 29, 2009, the troopers provided their report of investigation to Clinton County District Attorney, Michael Salisbury, naming Fisher as the only crime victim.

This case purportedly dragged on because there were no other victims to corroborate Fisher's allegations.  The evidence above shows that the PSP didn't make much effort to search for victims nor did they bother to interview the alleged perpetrator, Jerry Sandusky.

There is no chance of this being incompetence.  This has every appearance of a directive not to investigate the charity.


Corbett's Non-Investigation of Sandusky and TSM

In the case of Corbett's OAG investigation, the evidence of avoiding TSM is simply breathtaking.

Shortly after receiving the Sandusky case from former Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira, Corbett's OAG office wrote a justification to have the case assigned to a grand jury.  Paragraph 3 of the justification stated that Sandusky was likely meeting the victims through his charity.  (Source: Moulton, Appendix C)

























On September 3, 2009, Agent Anthony Sassano provided a list of potential steps for the investigation.  None of the steps included contacting TSM (Source: Moulton, Appendix D)























Apparently in response to Sassano's suggestion, then Chief Deputy AG Jonelle Eshbach prepared a justification for a subpoena for Sandusky's PSU employment records.  In that request, she mentioned Sandusky "being routinely surrounded by young men"... "through his creation and participation in the Second Mile charity."  (Source:  Moulton, Appendix E)

























It is unbelievable that Eshbach mentions not being able to find more victims while knowing that the OAG investigation had made no effort to speak directly to anyone at the charity.

From December 2009 until August 2010, the investigation was going absolutely nowhere as Eshbach submitted multiple drafts of the grand jury presentment for approval through her management chain -- Frank Fina, Glenn Parno, Richard Sheets, William Ryan, and Tom Corbett. (Source: Moulton Report, Appendix G)
















The evidence shows that no effort was made to contact TSM from time the case was approved for investigation by a grand jury on May 5, 2009 until  January 28, 2011.

As noted in No Coincidence, Part 1, nothing really happened on this investigation until after Corbett's feud with Spanier and his election as governor.

After the (formerly) anonymous email tip and McQueary's interview with the OAG, Trooper Scott Rossman interviewed Fisher again -- asking him if he had ever showered with Sandusky.   At the time Rossman interviewed Fisher, he told him that if he was not the shower victim, then it meant there was another victim out there.

It is likely that if Fisher had affirmed he showered with Sandusky in the PSU locker rooms, the OAG would have made the case without ever contacting TSM.

Kelly's Smokescreen

Former AG Linda Kelly put up a smokescreen about the non-investigation of Sandusky and TSM in the OAG's press release announcing the charges against Sandusky, Timothy Curley, and Gary Schultz.   Incredibly, Kelly told a bald-faced lie when she stated that the OAG investigators gradually uncovered a pattern of Sandusky meeting his potential victims through TSM.

Kelly said that despite the false testimony and "uncooperative atmosphere" encompassing some Penn State University and Second Mile officials, investigators from the Attorney General's Office and State Police gradually uncovered a pattern of other potential sexual assaults by Sandusky.
The grand jury eventually identified a total of eight young men who were the targets of similar sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky, starting in 1994 and continuing through 2009.  All of the victims first encountered Sandusky through Second Mile activities.
As shown in Moulton, Appendix C (above), the enpaneling of grand jury was justified on the basis that Sandusky was using his charity to meet his victims.   As such, Kelly's press release statement was just another lie about what happened during the investigation.

So, what caused the PSP, OAG, and others to avoid Sandusky's charity like the plague?


TSM Donations Did Not Play a Role

Separating fact from fiction, I told Washington Post reporter Will Hobson that the donation issue was overblown (by Deadspin) and went over the numbers.  Deadspin reported that current and former members of TSM gave a combined $201,783.64 to Corbett's 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Corbett's 2010 campaign war chest was over $29 million.   TSM's donations of around $200K were less than 1% -- a drop in the bucket.

I also informed Hobson that a closer look at the donations shows that former TSM Board Member Lance Shaner contributed a little over 3/4 ($155) of the nearly $200 thousand in donations provided by current and former Board members.  And that Shaner left the TSM Board in 2005 -- long before the Sandusky investigation was underway.  And that Shaner was among the top GOP donors in the state and that The GOP headquarters building in Harrisburg bears his name. 

Removing Shaner's donations makes TSM donations even more paltry -- and that means donations were not influencing the decision not to investigate Sandusky or his charity.

Inexplicable Decisions

If it wasn't campaign donations and it wasn't incompetence, then what caused the delay in contacting TSM?

Why was Corbett sitting on the Sandusky investigation?
Corbett was in no hurry to investigate Sandusky and The Second Mile

Special Deputy AG Moulton did not have the power to subpoena witnesses and compel testimony.  Frank Noonan's PSP refused to cooperate with his investigation also.

Moulton had no answer to why state troopers and investigators avoided contacting the charity and refused to speculate on it.


"It Doesn't Pass the Smell Test"

Based on the evidence, the only thing that explains the avoidance is that Corbett (and others) had a vested interest in keeping the charity prosperous and he wasn't about to implicate it in a child sex scandal.

TSM's Center of Excellence -- who was it really designed to benefit?
Earlier in 2011, as Governor, Corbett approved a $3 million grant for TSM to build its version of the Taj Mahal -- otherwise known as the Center For Excellence.  The Centre County commissioners also approved a $3 million grant for it in January 2011.

The Center would be build on a parcel of land next to University Park Airport and include dormitories, classrooms, and a gymnasium.  It would provide easy access for those who can afford to fly in and out of State College.  It was also going to be a $35 million endeavor spanning 25 years.

When questioned about the bad optics of approving the grant, Corbett gave two answers:

“Yes I knew this but I could not act public on this without saying certain things that would have possibly compromised the investigation.”

And...

“I already knew Mr. Sandusky had nothing to do with the Second Mile. “I believe that the purposes of the Second Mile were very good purposes in general.

Then-Pennsylvania Democratic Chairman Jim Burn responded:

“It doesn’t pass the smell test.”

No.  No it doesn't.

And it's clear that Pennsylvania government officials (e.g.., Josh Shapiro, Jake Corman, etc.) and the Pennsylvania media are willing to live with the stink.

Will the Washington Post?


Coming Soon: Part 3: Luck And The TSM Board

16 comments:

  1. Good job Ray, keep exposing those that are involved in covering up what The Second Mile actually was under the surface. I always thought the corrupt Pennsylvania media's use of "Corbett probably just played politics" with the Sandusky investigation, and "Corbett slow-walked the investigation" were very misleading terms designed to distract the public from the fact that Tom Corbett had a directive to avoid the Second Mile investigation. Saying that Corbett slow-walked an investigation for political reasons related to continuing donations to his campaign made the "inexplicable" just seem like political mischief.

    I personally believe that Tom Corbett also had a directive to ignore complaints about Sandusky and The Second Mile all during his long tenure as the PA Attorney General. But no one ever seems to explore that possibility.

    If Governor Wolf and Josh Shapiro won't tell the truth about the Second Mile, then they are no better than Terrible Tom Corbett. And as they continue to sweep the stink of The Second Mile under the carpet, it just grows more putrid by the day with their names attached to the filth.

    Ah but alas, Governor Wolf and Josh Shapiro are too busy being "superheros" declaring a "state of emergency" over opioid abuse. Maybe a state of emergency should be declared over dishonest public officials condoning institutional child abuse in Pennsylvania?

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    1. Truthseeker,
      Thanks for your comments.

      I agree that the directive to avoid TSM has been in place for quite some time and that it didn't originate with Corbett.

      The 1998 investigation of Sandusky certainly looks like it was "fixed" when Harrisburg got wind of it. The AG then was Mike Fisher.

      The AG's before Fisher also had less than sterling reputations.

      Read Lambs and Wolves, if you haven't already done so. It's on the sidebar of the blog and the link is below.

      http://notpsu7.blogspot.com/2012/10/lambs-wolves.html

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  2. I agree that so many basic investigative steps were not taken. Contacting Sandusky's boss at TSM and asking them for their records should have been one of the first steps. It would have led to the discovery of the 1998 and 2001 shower incidents.

    I can certainly see why Noonan refused to let his troopers talk to Moulton because their investigation was inept, apparently deliberately so. I think Moulton really let them off easy. He should have listed all the obvious steps they did not take, such as promptly interviewing Paterno and getting a search warrant for the crime scene for victim 1 (Sandusky's basement).

    I would think that just talking to long time employees at Centre County CYS would have uncovered the 1998 investigation. CYS may have destroyed their records but some of the staff would have remembered it.

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    1. Tim,
      Thanks for your comments.

      The PSP would have learned about 2001 if it had contacted TSM -- but not 1998. However, if it followed the trail from 2001, then it would have uncovered the 1998 incident by talking to Curley and Schultz.

      That would have led them to Centre CYS and potentially two more victims.

      But the evidence shows that the PSP did the absolute minimum when investigating the 2008 allegations. They only spoke with people who were mentioned by Fisher. Note that they didn't bother speaking with Karen Probst or the school guidance counselor at CMHS.

      Finally, CYS may or may not have destroyed the records from 1998. I spoke with an aggrieved parent who was allowed to see the complaint file related to his children's cases. The information dated back several years.

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  3. I just don't get it. When this shitstorm blew open and rained down on the place November 2011, I had no idea who Sandusky was. I thought he was the Athletic Director.

    Then I read that he had started a kids charity AND our state placed kids in his home as an adoptive & foster parent.

    Anyone who was paying attention at the time was able to deduce that Mike McQueary did not witness an "anal rape" in the shower - and we know a helluva a lot more about all of the players involved.

    It still begs the question as to why, if an offender is culling his victims ALL from the same source, why our OAG never went into those offices kicking over filing cabinets and knocking a few heads together in asking questions.

    Exasperated - Bruce Castor finally puts a team together while he is Solicitor General, made that news public, and was consequently pushed from office by the General Assembly. Bruce Beemer then shuts down the team and destroys files.

    Had Tom Corbett simply had his AG gunslingers go into Second Mile from the get-go, indict the charity leadership duo of Jack Raykovitz and Katherine Genovese for FTR, EWOC & Conspiracy - we all would have had our questions answered and everyone in public office would have won.

    Instead, we have a smoking HALF A BILLION dollar crater, with Laura Ditka doing a victory lap over 3 crummy misdemeanors, the remaining tires have been shot out at Child Protective Services, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is criss crossing the state putting out fires on the front lines of CPS in 67 counties. Sue Paterno is left holding the shit end of the stick, Penn Staters are labeled Child Rape Enablers if we dare ask any questions, the Board of Trustees are held in constant scorn and derision by Alumni, Mark Emmert is completely silent on the decades-long serial sexual abuse of female student/athletes on the campus of a Big Ten institution by an MSU athletic dept employee, McQueary is perfectly happy to unzip his pants and expose himself to the entire Internet - IT'S CRAZY!

    When Jack Raykovitz testified this past March in that Dauphin County courtroom that he knew the McQueary "shower kid" was a Second Mile teen, and that he recommended to Jerry to just wear swim trunks the next time he showers with a youth - I just about fell out of my seat.

    I explained to the handful of reporters there, including Hobson, how irresponsible that was for a kids charity CEO and a professional to recommend that as a best practice for any adult working with kids. The entire goal of the offender in getting a youth into a locker room, shower, bathroom or bedroom is to have the youth take their clothes off.

    It doesn't matter what the adult is wearing.

    Jack should have seen this massive red flag waving in front of him - and immediately put a stop to Jerry's flagrant out-of-program contact with Second Mile youth.

    I am just astounded that my state Attorney General has shown ZERO interest in holding Dr. Raykovtiz accountable! Katherine Genovese, as a certified public school teacher would know damned well what constitutes misconduct around youth. As charity VP she certainly could have AND SHOULD HAVE implemented strict controls for Jerry.

    This would have protected Second Mile youth from any misconduct, as well as protected any adult working with kids from false accusations.

    Many feel that Second Mile was funneling money to both parties here in the state, and of course the lead guy in the General Assembly would be none other than Centre County's own Jake Corman. Who also sat on the TSM Board.

    We all have so many questions about what the hell was really going on over at Second Mile and these all could have been answered by Lynne Abraham - who fell off the radar 6 short weeks later in January 2011.

    So here we are, 6 years later, still asking the same goddamned questions and being met with the Conspiracy of Silence by public officials - while Jack Raykovitz and Katherine Genovese simply gad about town.

    I don't get it.

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    1. I don't think that PSU had the legal authority to contact a child. Out here, only law enforcement and people with custodial care of the child can do that. It was Raykovitz responsibility to contact the child. If he did, he would find out that they were slapping towels and having a fun time. I have no doubt that Raykovitz knew that Jerry and Alan were an item at that time. Did anyone ever ask Raykovitz what Alan did to earn the automobile that Jack gifted him?
      Raykovitz testified that the PSU people did the right thing by reporting the incident to him. Spanier's attorney totally WHIFFED on that. Did the right thing???Then why the hell are we here!!

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    2. TSM brought in about 3 megabucks/yr into Centre County from donors. That money would be used to purchase goods and services from vendors, and since TSM was a private nonprofit, could pick any vendor they wanted. Businesses also used their affiliation with TSM to promote their image.

      Disagree that Raykovitz, et al. could have been charged with anything. They neither witnessed any abuse nor had any abuse reported to them. They failed miserably in not having a risk reduction protocol and best practice standard operating proceedures. I put that on their executive board. It is their responsibility to ensure that business is being conducted properly.

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    3. I think prosecutors could have made a stronger case against Raykovitz than against CSS because, unlike CSS, Raykovitz was

      1. A mandated reporter of child abuse and very well paid to safeguard fatherless boys under his care.
      2. A PhD child psychologist.
      3. Told by Sandusky that it was a Second Mile boy in 2001.
      4. Condoning Sandusky showering with boys and just advised him to wear a swimsuit. In contrast, CSS disproved of Sandusky showering with a boy and banned him from bringing boys on campus.
      5. Talked out of bringing the 2001 incident to his full board by two board members (conspiracy?).
      6. Working for CYS.

      Number 4 especially would not have gone over well with a jury. Why not just tell Sandusky not to shower with Second Mile boys? Why tell him to wear a swimsuit if you don't suspect something improper?

      As Wendy mentioned, anyone knows that a pedophile's goal is to get the boy naked in the shower so the pedophile wearing a swimsuit is not a deterrent.

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    4. Gregory,
      Second Mile's books showed that its biggest expense was salaries and compensation. In 1998, salaries and compensation were at about $0.5M and grew to $1.2M from 2006 forward. After salaries, the biggest expense was Summer Challenge camp, which came in around $.5M per year.

      The "problem" with TSM's expenses was that they continued to escalate while they were servicing the same number of children-- well beyond annual inflation rates.

      In any event, TSM had excess funds every year and, IIRC, had about $9M and investments in cash when the scandal hit.

      Had the AG acted promptly, TSM could have been charged with endangerment for its decision to allow Sandusky to continue to be a fund raiser after he lost his ChildLine clearance. As such, TSM leadership kept parents (and the public) in the dark about Sandusky and he was able to continue to access children.

      Agree that Raykovitz had to know about AM's relationship with Jerry....and I'm sure he knew a lot more than he let on when he testified.

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  4. Wendy - Well said. I think a lot of the blame falls on the news media. They simply did not report objectively but just spewed the Attorney General's lies.

    Raykovitz should have made headlines for his testimony that Sandusky told him it was a Second Mile boy in 2001, and he condoned Sandusky showering with Second Mile boys if Sandusky wore a swimsuit.

    Both the Attorney General and Freeh made a huge deal that Curley, Schultz and Spanier never identified the boy in the shower in 2001. Yet not a peep was raised that Raykovitz never identified the boy either, even after he knew it was a Second Mile boy.

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    1. Tim,
      I couldn't agree more regarding how badly the OAG bashed PSU officials over not finding out who the boy was but had absolutely nothing to say about Raykovitz.

      BTW, blaming PSU for not identifying the kid was another deflection. The OAG and PSU had the power of subpoenas and search warrants and didn't ID the kid after 3 years of investigating.

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    2. Wendy,
      I believe you are absolutely correct that if the AG charged TSM officials with FTR then this saga wouldn't have dragged out for six years.

      It defied logic that one group of individuals, who had no supervisory capacity over Sandusky or children for that matter, would be charged while the other, who had supervisory responsibilities for both, didn't.

      And why didn't anyone in the media ask this question of Kelly, Fina, et al?

      When this crap broke, I would literally sit there and yell at the legal experts on TV as the kept calling PSU a "school" and that the administrators (Athletic Director and VP of Finance) were somehow "head of the school" who had a duty to report. It was simply incredible that none of them bothered to check the law and apparently just read the passage of the law that the OAG quoted in the presentment.

      And six years later, the FTR charge gets dismissed because it was (always) outside the statute of limitations. Of course, once the judge dismissed it, he didn't rule on whether it applied to the administrators. Wouldn't want to put it on the record that they were incorrectly charged twice.

      In the end, the OAG gets 3 rather weak convictions for EWOC and declares victory -- meanwhile, the people at TSM who ADMITTED to endangering the kids (in 2009) get a pass.

      The bottom line is Shapiro is protecting his friends. If there ever was a real investigation of this mess and all the culprits got arrested, it would be the biggest public corruption case in U.S. history.

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    3. I don't know if Shapiro is protecting his friends. I think he doesn't want to step in it.

      He saw what happened to Kane & Castor. For some reason - no one in the AG's office wants to go there. It would have been a no-brainer from the get go.

      When I sat down with Josh over coffee here in Center City Phila (before he was AG) I offered up an anecdote over animal abuse, the executive director at the local SPCA and a local university that partnered with the SPCA. I compared the parallels with child sex abuse, Sandusky, the Second Mile and PSU.

      Josh agreed with me that it should have been about the Second Mile.

      I've personally met with the guy THREE times over these issues - he patted my arm, shook my hand and told me he'd take care of it. That hasn't happened. I really thought he'd be different.

      I just don't get it.

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    4. Wendy,

      If you did "get it" and expressed it openly and honestly, you would be labeled a conspiracy theorist. The term "conspiracy theorist" was coined a long time ago by the CIA to effectively discredit anyone in the media that dared try and expose their wrong-doing here in our country and all over the world.

      We are unwittingly bombarded daily with propaganda from controlled opposition media types. For instance, Alex Jones and Donald Trump both behave as buffoons that no one would dare want to agree with if they are to be accepted as "sane" by society. Controlled opposition is as old as war itself. And it amazes me that most Americans today still take these media characters like Alex Jones, Trump, and his whole cabinet of thespian politicians at face value. They serve a purpose. And their purpose is to put the paranoid insanity label on certain beliefs that are actually rooted in the truth.

      In order to really "get it" we have to first understand just how out of control and criminal our government and their media have become. They are both, for the most part, under hostile foreign control.

      Josh Shapiro knows very well what is going on and he is a big player in it all. The same goes for Ken Frazier, he is part of this staged crisis where the bad guys get to publicly denounce the big, bad intolerant nationalist, Trump. Don't you find it odd and beyond coincidence that both Shapiro and Frazier involved in the PA cesspool of corporate/government corruption have already been handed national media exposure denouncing Trump?

      Trump is playing the part of the paranoid, intolerant white male leader with a big mouth. And Alex Jones is almost a carbon copy of this same Trump persona. Our television news is basically just a scripted drama with an agenda. It's all presented as factual, and we're all on the edge of our seats believing the whole thing.

      You are a good person Wendy, you're not supposed to get it. But if you decide that you really do want to get it, you will lose a little bit of innocence that comes with the realization that we are all being played for fools.

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  5. Ray - Corbett even defended Second Mile on "Meet the Press" back on Nov. 13, 2011. The host asked "You, no doubt, have some serious questions about that charity and who's on the board of the charity and those who knew what was going on."

    Corbett didn't fault TSM for not reporting Sandusky in 2001 as he had Penn State. Instead, he said,

    "The Second Mile has done a lot of great work with students. Unfortunately, though, Mr. Sandusky has done a lot of bad work with these students."

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  6. Bottom line on the whole OAG & PSP investigation is that if it was the storyline for the initial Law and Order SUV tv series it would never have been produced. Three reasons Politics, politics, and politics.

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