Helped Police Investigation Into Alleged Sex Crimes | Pennlive.Com 1/8/12 7:54 AM

Jerry Sandusky's book, 'Touched,' helped police investigation into alleged sex crimes | PennLive.com 1/8/12 7:54 AM

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Home > Breaking Midstate News with The Patriot-News > Breaking News Jerry Sandusky's book, 'Touched,' helped police investigation into alleged sex crimes

Published: Sunday, January 08, 2012, 12:01 AM

By SARA GANIM, The Patriot-News

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The investigation of Jerry Sandusky took three years.

And it took Sandusky himself — through the pages of his autobiography, “Touched” — to help More Breaking Midstate News with police find Victims 3, 4, 5 and 7. The Patriot-News

Most Comments Most Recent At the end of 2009, police had spent almost a year trying to corroborate claims by a single boy — a 17-year-old Clinton County teen later known as Victim 1 — who had alleged years of sexual abuse Breaking Midstate News with The Patriot-News stories with the most by Penn State’s legendary defensive coach. Only one state police investigator had been tasked to comments in the last 2 days. handle the case. Bill O'Brien, new Penn State 67 football coach, says he's 'mentally tough,' can handle Finally, they discovered a campus police report from 1998, in which a boy had said he was forced to challenging situation take a naked shower with Sandusky in the Penn State locker room and was inappropriately touched. Harrisburg Mayor Linda With that, investigators learned the key 59 Thompson presses for an had been right in front of them. appeal of former staffer's claim for jobless benefits

The 1998 boy was called Victim 6 by Penn State alumni group wants 47 to replace trustees over Joe the grand jury. After police found him, Paterno's firing the man’s mother told them about Former Penn State quarterback Sandusky’s autobiography, which was 35 Kerry Collins calls on lettermen sitting on the shelves of the Penn State to support coach Bill O'Brien bookstore. Penn State interim coach Tom 30 Bradley calls report of his firing inaccurate, says he was only A Google search of the name “Jerry relieved of interim duties, Sandusky” would have revealed the source says Enlarge JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News book in seconds. Jerry Sandusky and with his wife Dottie are surrounded by police as they make their way to his preliminary hearing at the Centre County Victim 6’s mother and sister sat down courthouse. Sandusky was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of minors. JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News with police, flipped through the pages of Jerry Sandusky preliminary hearing gallery (60 Sandusky’s book, and quickly identified photos) http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/01/jerry_sanduskys_book_touched_h.html Page 1 of 8 Jerry Sandusky's book, 'Touched,' helped police investigation into alleged sex crimes | PennLive.com 1/8/12 7:54 AM boys who had often attended football games together. That led police to identify four more alleged victims, according to Victim 6’s mother.

Revelations like this only fuel the questions that persist about how Gov. Tom Corbett — who was attorney general at the time — handled the Sandusky case. Three years elapsed between the time the Clinton County boy came forward and the day that Sandusky was charged in November.

Corbett and current State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan have insisted it is flat-out wrong to suggest Corbett wanted the investigation to move slowly during his campaign for governor. Both have said investigators waited to find evidence to corroborate Victim 1’s claims.

But that evidence didn’t really come until early 2011 — after Corbett left the attorney general’s office — and Noonan bumped the number of investigators on the case from one to eight. Most Active Users What's this?

Users with the most Breaking Midstate News with The Patriot-News comments The mother of Victim 6 told her story to The Patriot-News because she said she wants to set the in the last 2 days record straight about a claim by Sandusky’s attorney, Joe Amendola. The Patriot-News is withholding her name to protect the identity of 23 PurplePeople... Victim 6.

After waiving Sandusky’s preliminary hearing in December, as he held a three-hour news conference 14 JollyHo on the courthouse steps, Amendola claimed that the boys who have alleged crimes against Sandusky in the 1990s all got together and concocted their stories because they envisioned big payouts from lawsuits against Penn 10 losekey State.

Victim 6’s mother is outraged at the willynelson Attorney Joe Amendola on new charges filed against 10 Jerry Sandusky charge. Amendola says Sandusky is "scratching his head" about new child sexual abuse charges filed by Attorney General Linda Kelly. “Amendola’s right; they all knew each 10 rothenbj Watch video other. They went to the football games together,” Victim 6’s mom said. “But to think they all got together? No. They went down [to the grand jury] kicking and screaming. They each thought they were the only ones. My son knew them, and he didn’t know it happened to them, and they didn’t know it happened to Connect with PennLive.com my son. It wasn’t something they spoke about.” What's this?

Instead of volunteering the information to police, she said most of the boys had to be subpoenaed by a grand jury and forced to testify. It was only when they realized they weren’t the only ones that they began to cooperate, she said. All Facebook & Twitter accounts »

“Not one of those boys came forward,” she said. “These kids tried not to talk to police. Several times Recommendations they didn’t call back. And in some cases [the police] had to go and knock on their doors. [Amendola’s] full of bologna when he says they colluded, because they never knew it happened to Memo tells Harrisburg police to kill, adopt or dump abandoned or lost dogs anyone else.” 2,609 people recommend this.

Rick Santorum says he's against welfare Unpursued case for 'blah' people, not 'black' people: report 566 people recommend this. Victim 6’s mom said police hadn’t yet gone through “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story,” when she All Vietnam Navy veterans deserve Agent was interviewed. Orange benefits 102 people recommend this.

Bill O'Brien reportedly agrees to become Looking at the book jogged the memory of Victim 6’s sister, who told police about one boy who had Penn State football coach been in her class in middle school. During lunch one day, she remembered kids talking about 90 people recommend this. Sandusky being a hero. The boy shouted that he “hated his guts,” and ran out, her mother said.

“Did you have to take showers with him, too?” she asked later. Facebook social plugin

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“How did you know?” the boy answered. From Our Advertisers

“It happened to my brother, too,” she • Sinbad at the Strand-Capitol in York on January 14. www.strandcapitol.org said. • Fantastic Dining in Central Pennsylvania - Click here • Pre-planning = peace of mind for your Police told Victim 6’s mother that they loved ones at Hoffman-Roth Funeral Home had been hearing rumors within law Advertise With Us » enforcement about the 1998 case that then-prosecutor Ray Gricar decided not to pursue. State police found the file about a year after the investigation started, got her number and called her up.

Gricar is the former Centre County View full size JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News/file district attorney who went missing in The Penn State Bookstore sold the autobiography of former coach and What's this? accused sex offender Jerry Sandusky, "Touched." Popular Tags 2005 and was declared dead in July. It isn’t known why Gricar decided not to barack obama budget carlisle prosecute. crash cumberland county ed rendell fire flooding Around the same time that police were contacting the mother of Victim 6, they also knocked on the harrisburg harrisburg debt door of assistant coach Mike McQueary and asked him if rumors were true that he’d interact jerry sandusky linda witnessed something in the locker room on campus. thompson lower paxton township news links pennsylvania budget What police determined over the next 12 months would eventually lead to more than 50 counts of philadelphia robbery shooting snow sex abuse involving 10 boys. Sandusky waived his preliminary hearing and is free on bail awaiting trial. He has maintained his innocence. state police susquehanna township tom corbett tropical storm lee Amendola, Sandusky’s attorney, did not respond to requests for interviews. weird news

Victim 6’s mother said police told her they believed prosecutors could have gone further.

“At one point police told me they’ve had less evidence in murder cases,” she said. “I kept being told, March, April, June, October. ... The AG kept asking for more evidence. The police told me they had enough for 400 counts, but the AG wanted only 40. This whole thing just stinks so much more than we all know.”

Maria Finn, state police press spokeswoman, said she could not comment on an ongoing investigation. However, she said in any case there are many consultations between prosecutors and investigators before charges are filed and “this case was no different.”

“The [AG’s office] and state police investigators, after many discussions, agreed upon the charges that were filed against Mr. Sandusky,” Finn said.

Why so long?

Critics have suggested that Corbett, who was the attorney general at the time, slowed down the investigation until his 2010 election was over.

The latest are two Democratic candidates for attorney general who said that, if elected, they will investigate how the attorney general’s office handled the Sandusky case. Former Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Dan McCaffery and former congressman Patrick J. Murphy claim the three-year investigation was unusually prolonged.

Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for Attorney General Linda Kelly, said the office would not comment on the Sandusky investigation. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/01/jerry_sanduskys_book_touched_h.html Page 3 of 8 Jerry Sandusky's book, 'Touched,' helped police investigation into alleged sex crimes | PennLive.com 1/8/12 7:54 AM

Victim 1’s mom has said she was shocked when police told her they couldn’t arrest Sandusky immediately. Her son, the Clinton County teen, had described graphic details of prolonged abuse to police, to Children and Youth Services, and then to a grand jury.

She wondered, why wasn’t Sandusky charged sooner.

The grand jury that investigated meets only for a few days each month and also was hearing evidence of other cases.

By comparison, in 2006, when the attorney general’s office began View full size investigating a Marysville police officer accused of sexually abusing girls, AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file the officer was charged 13 months after the grand jury convened. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett celebrates his election. In that case, 14 girls were eventually named alleged victims of Robert Pavlovich.

He is serving a minimum of 10 years in prison after being found guilty of some and not guilty of other counts at trial.

In October 2009, the attorney general’s office waited just a few weeks after interviewing two men who accused a Butler County man of providing medical services to teen boys at a delinquent academy.

The men said they were abused almost two decades prior, and after David Allen Evanko was charged, two more younger boys came forward with similar allegations. More charges were then filed, and Evanko is awaiting trial on three of those cases because the statute of limitations ran out on the fourth.

Last year, the same deputy prosecutor who led the Sandusky and Pavlovich grand jury investigations filed charges against Swatara Twp. man Michael Musser after three girls said they were abused by him over a period of nine years.

All three came forward within six months, but there was an unexplained 18-month lapse in filing one of the cases. Musser also is waiting for trial.

When Corbett left the attorney general’s office to head to the Governor’s Residence, his wife said his biggest accomplishment as the state’s top prosecutor had been the establishment of the child- predator unit, which targeted people soliciting sex from undercover agents posing as teens in online chat rooms.

The “To Catch a Predator”-style stings netted nearly 300 arrests across the state and as far as Florida. But the office doesn’t handle too many traditional child sex abuse investigations because most are prosecuted by district attorneys at the county level.

Only when there is a lack of resources or a conflict of interest, does the attorney general’s office step in.

That’s what happened with the Sandusky, Pavlovich and Musser cases.

More claims

Since Sandusky’s Nov. 5 arrest, several more men have come forward publicly saying they, too, were victims of the 67-year-old.

Police, so far, have only filed two additional sets of charges, and sources tell The Patriot-News that prosecutors are not filing charges that don’t fit into the pattern they’ve already established.

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Two lawsuits have been filed by men who are not part of the criminal case.

Victim 6’s mom says she’s been emotionally a wreck, especially when she learned that her son — who she believes was denied justice once in 1998 — was almost denied justice a second time.

Initially, the attorney general didn’t want to pursue criminal charges in the 1998 case, she said.

“The state cop fought for them,” she said. “I heard it got heated, but he stood his ground because he said my son was the cornerstone of the whole case and how they got the other football boys.”

The four alleged victims who were once friends as boys have now turned to one another for comfort and support, Victim 6’s mom said. As the case moves forward, and the attorney general takes over, she said her son was devastated to learn that the lead state police corporal, Joe Leiter, is retiring this month and won’t be there to help him through the case.

“My son is so upset,” she said. “These boys don’t want to talk about this, but my son developed a relationship with this investigator. He’s like a father figure.”

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rothenbj January 08, 2012 at 7:55AM

Corbett may have legally done things correctly in the LONG, LONG investigation of the rape of little innocent boys, but morally it was unconscionable that he would let the investigation drag on through his election campaign as he accepted Second Mile contributions. I suppose he had good reason to want to divert attention from himself and divert it to PSU officials before some of the underlying issues came out. Isn't that what the truly great politicians do?

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Sandusky could have been taken off the street years earlier, the investigation made public and an untold number of victims saved. Isn't that the story line?