Morgan: Was 2001 incident really uncovered by an anonymous e-mail tip?

The relationships between The Second Mile and then-AG Tom Corbett raise serious doubts about Chris Houser's e-mail being the "big break" that uncovered the 2001 incident.

By
Eileen Morgan

The most recent investigation of Jerry Sandusky’s alleged child abuse began in November 2008 which led to his arrest 3 years later in November 2011 and eventually ended with a conviction in June 2012.

Former AG Tom Corbett

Many have questioned why it took then-Attorney General Tom Corbett so long to make an arrest and take Sandusky off the streets.  It has been speculated that Corbett was dragging his feet and delaying the arrest for political reasons and because many affluent people connected to Sandusky’s non-profit foundation, the Second Mile, were financially supporting Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign in 2010. Corbett did not want the bad publicity that Sandusky’s arrest would bring to the Second Mile and possibly taint his run for governor.

After two years of going nowhere, Corbett’s team allegedly received the break they needed that blew this case wide open and resulted in Sandusky’s arrest in 2011.

The Big Break
We have been told that this ‘big break’ in the 2 year old probe just happened to come on November 3, 2010, one day after Corbett won the gubernatorial election.  

An anonymous e-mailer apparently claimed he learned about the Mike McQueary 2001 shower incident in an online chatroom and passed this information on to District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller.  Discovering this 2001 incident led the investigators to McQueary and eventually to Sandusky’s arrest.

As we recently learned, the anonymous tipster was a man named Chris Houser.  But was this Houser's email really the ‘big break’ Corbett and the OAG needed to make the case?  

Or, had the OAG known about the 2001 incident since early in the investigation? 

The Second Mile (TSM) Knew About Sandusky Investigation in 2008
When you review the timeline of information learned in this investigation, it is more likely that the 2001 incident was already known and the OAG simply sat on this information. 

Dr. Jack Raykovitz.
Second Mile Executive Director

According to this  PennLive, August 2012 article, ¹

"On Nov. 25, 2008, Jerry Sandusky told Second Mile Director Jack Raykovitz that he had been accused of something inappropriate by a Clinton County boy.  

Raykovitz, a well-known and respected child psychologist in central Pennsylvania, immediately removed Sandusky from all events involving children, and strongly urged him to stay away from children outside of charity functions, too.’"

A November 15, 2011, PennLive article² stated: 

"Second Mile executive Katherine Genovese (wife of Jack Raykovitz) told a person in authority that the charity already had concerns about Sandusky and certain boys.  That conversation is said to have occurred in late 2008 around the same time that a Clinton County boy came forward with detailed allegations of sexual abuse. He became Victim One in the grand jury investigation."

And finally, this Huffington Post article³ claims that Gerald Rosamilia, the Director of Clinton County's child welfare agency (CYS) where the 2008 investigation began, said Raykovitz's wife told him in November 2008 that Sandusky had been spoken to about getting "too close" to children involved with the charity. Gerald Rosamilia said Raykovitz's wife, Katherine Genovese, who helped run The Second Mile, did not define what was meant by "too close" or give a timeframe.  Raykovitz defended himself in a telephone interview, saying he acted appropriately at all times. "There have always been steps in place to protect kids," he said.’