THE PEDOPHILE INVESTIGATION AT PENN STATE
HOW FAR WILL IT GO?
NOVEMBER 11, 2011. The Jerry Sandusky pedophile scandal, which has resulted in key firings at Penn State University, including revered football coach Joe Paterno—for not doing enough to report what he had been told about Sandusky—has many miles to go.
Sandusky, former assistant football coach at Penn State, has been charged with 40 criminal counts. Sandusky had a charity for “at-risk kids,” The Second Mile. Deadspin has uncovered a chart mapping out, county by Pennsylvania county, the foundation’s reach. Nearly 400,000 kids have been involved.
That’s enormous. I’m not sure I believe those figures. They may have been inflated by Second Mile. I don’t know. But anything resembling 400,000 means investigators and reporters have to consider an obvious question:
If Sandusky is guilty as charged, was he the only one preying on children? Was he using his connections to bring other pedophiles into the scene?
As I reported earlier, Pittsburgh radio host Mark Madden, basing his opinion on conversations with other reporters, believes it is quite possible that Sandusky was “pimping out” kids to rich donors (presumably donors to Second Mile).
If Sandusky is a pedophile, as charged, who else was he possibly involved with? Will he be pressured by law enforcement to reveal other names of predators? Will someone with influence try to limit the investigation?
If, as is likely, many people at Penn State knew, for years, that Sandusky was up to something strange, even though they didn’t know the details, what are chances that other pedophiles, knowing that Sandusky was potentially connected to huge numbers of children through Second Mile, approached him wanting favors?
Or that he approached them?
These other pedophiles could have included cautious careful men, men with resources and connections. If so, then we could easily be talking about a network. For years, Sandusky occupied a prestigious position at Penn State, itself a famous university.
Sport reporters, whistling in the dark, enamored of football programs, fancying themselves amateur psychologists and sociologists, are spouting the familiar line about “healing wounds.” They’re rushing to judgment, wanting Penn State to recover and move forward. If this investigation is not compromised, that isn’t about to happen. This isn’t a case of one football player shooting somebody or running his car into a tree. The stale progression of “mistake,” apology, rehab, and restoration is from another universe.
It’s been public knowledge that the grand jury on Sandusky, which released its findings last week, has been sitting for some time. During that period, there has been ample opportunity for criminals to destroy records and correspondence, make payoffs, issue threats, and close down connections.
Here is a fragment about a key year, 1998, based (by the Huffington Post) on the grand jury findings:
1998 – Victim 6 is taken into the locker rooms and showers when he is 11 years old. When Victim 6 is dropped off at home, his hair is wet from showering with Sandusky. His mother reports the incident to the [Penn State] university police, who investigate.
Detective Ronald Schreffler testifies that he and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston, with the consent of the mother of Victim 6, eavesdrop on two conversations the mother of Victim 6 has with Sandusky. Sandusky says he has showered with other boys and Victim 6’s mother tries to make Sandusky promise never to shower with a boy again but he will not. At the end of the second conversation, after Sandusky is told he cannot see Victim 6 anymore, Schreffler testifies Sandusky says, “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.”
Jerry Lauro, an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, testifies he and Schreffler interviewed Sandusky, and that Sandusky admits showering naked with Victim 6, admits to hugging Victim 6 while in the shower and admits that it was wrong.
The case is closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charge.
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This is the same Ray Gricar who, in 2005, disappeared and has never been found. Police discovered, in his home, that he (or someone) had been searching on his computer for ways to wipe hard drives.
In 1999, a year after charges against Sandusky were not pursued, Sandusky resigned from coaching. This was unexpected. He had a very successful career in Penn State football. This leads to the speculation that someone at Penn State knew about Sandusky (knew something about his pedophile activities), and wanted the coach out of there. Yet, until last week, when grand jury findings were released, Sandusky still had informal access to University athletic facilities. Why? Was it just a case of turning a blind eye and hoping “everything would be all right?” Or were there people at Penn State who were afraid Sandusky might blow the whistle on their own criminal activities?
It was there, in 2002, in the Penn State locker room showers, that (according to a witness, now assistant coach Mike McQueary) Sandusky raped a young boy. This was the incident that was reported to several Penn State employees, including coach Joe Paterno, but was apparently never reported to local police.
Aside from Sandusky, there is at least one other connection between Penn State and Second Mile. In 1998, Wendell V Courtney was an attorney for Second Mile and was also the chief counsel for Penn State. In fact, in 1998, he reviewed the police report on Jerry Sandusky and, as Deadspin reports, Courtney continued to represent Second Mile for another 13 years. Courtney has, according to Deadspin, tried to say his association with Second Mile began in 2009, but this has been denied by Pennsylvania Attorney General spokesman Nils Fredericksen. Courtney was the attorney for Second Mile until this past Monday. He served as counsel for Penn State until last year.
State College is a city in Pennsylvania’s Centre County, home to the University Park campus of Penn State University. State College is also where, in 1977, Jerry Sandusky founded his youth charity, Second Mile. We will see what other connections have existed between Penn State and Second Mile.
Jon Rappoport