Tuesday, June 26, 2012

"WE HAD A SHORTAGE OF INVESTIGATORS"

"During the Bonusgate investigation, we had a shortage of investigators in Harrisburg." -- Randy Feathers, Regional Director, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, 6/24/12.

While Attorney General and candidate for Governor, Tom Corbett first received a sexual abuse complaint against Jerry Sandusky in March of 2009, agents from the Attorney General's Office were not assigned to the case until just before the election in November 2010.

Sandusky was not arrested until a year after that.

Ever since Patriot-News reporter Sara Ganim revealed these unfortunate details, Corbett's feeble propaganda machine has desperately sought to persuade an increasingly skeptical public that a three-year investigation of child rape is perfectly normal.

In a moment of uncharacteristic candor, Randy Feathers - a narcotics investigator, not a child abuse or sex crimes expert, by the way - blows Corbett's reassurances out of the water.

Feathers confirms what most Pennsylvanians already knew: When Corbett should have been trying to take a serial child rapist off the street, he was scrambling to fix his botched "Bonusgate" investigation in time for the election.

No one would argue that John Perzel and Bill DeWeese should not have been prosecuted for their crimes (DeWeese never was prosecuted for his most serious crimes). But by the time Corbett received the Sandusky complaint, he'd been "investigating" the legislature for more than two years.

The only reason he was chasing after Perzel and DeWeese in 2009 is because he'd deliberately left them out of the original investigation - just as he deliberately left out the state Senate. Politics, not justice, forced him to revisit the legislature.

If Corbett were conducting a real investigation of House Republicans in 2007 and most of 2008, would he have allowed them to replace their computers? Would he and his campaign manager have been meeting with Perzel? Would he have allowed the House Republican Chief of Staff to organize a campaign fund raiser for him? Would he have waited more than a year to enforce subpoenas for documents?

Fact: Corbett was not investigating House Republicans throughout 2007 and most of 2008. He was lying about that.

If Corbett were conducting a real investigation of Bill DeWeese in 2007 and most of 2008, would he have allowed DeWeese himself to select what evidence to turn over to investigators? Would Corbett have disregarded a mountain of evidence linking DeWeese to the activities at the core of the "bonusgate" case?

Fact: Corbett may have been investigating DeWeese in the first half of 2007, while DeWeese was desperately fighting to quash Corbett's subpoenas and shield evidence. But he most definitely was not after Deweese agreed to turn over hand-selected evidence and drop his legal challenges to the probe.

Months before receiving the Sandusky complaint, Corbett was feeling the heat for his failure to investigate Republicans. He convened hearings to force House Republicans to respond to subpoenas he'd let languish for a year. Just as he realized that he'd need to indict a token Republican or two to appear impartial, it was becoming clear that House Republicans hadn't sat on their hands for most of the previous two years. Missing evidence made the investigation more difficult, sucking up more manpower and resources.

As investigators were struggling with missing documents and well-prepared witnesses to make a case against Perzel, a bombshell hit: The Tribune-Review revealed that Corbett was in possession of a smoking-gun email in which Bill DeWeese acknowledged that bonuses were awarded for campaign work.

Three weeks later, the Inquirer laid out a comprehensive case linking DeWeese to bonuses and other illegal campaign activities.

Facing accusations of partisanship, it would have been unseemly to charge another Democrat without first indicting a Republican or two. But remember: missing documents and well-prepped witnesses were hindering the investigation of Republicans.

Is it any wonder there was a shortage of investigators in Harrisburg?

Who's to say how Corbett would have handled the Sandusky investigation even if he hadn't tied up all of his agents playing catch-up on "bonusgate?" Even after Perzel and DeWeese were safely indicted, at least 10 agents from the OAG were spotted in the courtroom during each day of Mike Veon's trial, while others were busily trying to unmask Corbett's anonymous critics.

When Corbett and his cronies talk about how long the Sandusky investigation took, they're talking about the year between the time OAG agents first were assigned to the case and Sandusky's November 2011 arrest. They've studiously avoided a thorough accounting of the investigation's progress between March 2009 and Election Day 2010.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well reasoned. Stetler has now argued that DeWeese and Veon, and a few staffers like Brett Cott and Eric Webb, were the real culprits and Stetler was just being prosecuted because he was there (in other words, they could have done this to most anyone in the legislature). The point is, if they had really followed the evidence wherever it led the stream of legislative corruption cases would have taken over the entire AG investigative staff.

Anonymous said...

Yet, no Republican Senator Investigation has been established and another Corbett outright lie to the public.

I can see Corbett in big trouble sooner than many think, based on his public statemnets now on a Timeline he cannot erase.

Anonymous said...

speaking of histrionic personality disorder, ms. ferrari

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
speaking of histrionic personality disorder, ms. ferrari
June 26, 2012 9:05 PM

Looks like Corbett may have it since he cannot answer the key question after being asked it several time........here it comes again:

Corbett's inactions and actions are at issue as an AG running for Governor, just tell the people, why did Corbett not turn over this investigation to a 10 Person Child Predator Unit bragged about on the AG Website instead of a sole State Trooper?

But Corbett found the time to accept Campaign Contributions from Second Mile and giving them a Grant and not investigating them either when he knew Sandusky created and was running Second Mile and the AG had that power to check on it at any time, but could not find the time to do it, but found the time to dine with them for campaign cash?

Anonymous said...

Pennsylvania lawmaker seeks federal review of attorney general's Jerry Sandusky investigation:

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania state representative wants a House vote on a resolution seeking a federal review of the attorney general's investigation into Jerry Sandusky.

Rep. Brandon Neuman, a Washington County Democrat, said Wednesday he would use a parliamentary maneuver known as a discharge resolution to get a vote on the proposal first introduced in December.

He says people should be told why it took years to produce charges against the former Penn State assistant football coach, and he wants the U.S. attorney's office to look into it.

A spokesman for Attorney General Linda Kelly says there was a need to conduct a thorough investigation, and the 45-count guilty verdict was the result.

There is no reason not to have such an investigation, a few of these OAG Employees under oath may find it a relief to tell the whole truth how politics played a role with justice.

What do they fear?

Anonymous said...

"Corbett created the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit to identify and capture Internet predators before they can harm children, as well as to educate kids and parents about online threats."

EXACT QUOTE LINK:
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/theoffice.aspx?id=170

QUESTION:
If Corbett created the Child Predator Unit for the specific purpose of stopping them before they harm children how did he refuse to use this Unit instead of ONE State Trooper?

We need a Independent Outside Federal Prosecutor NOW to investigate Corbett's Time at the OAG!

Once under oath, the PAOAG will have to tell the truth and the truth will set all free!

Anonymous said...

Absolute possible worst case scenario is true

Is what it is. My children, twins, and their graduation party today. a friend was one of the investigators on this case.

There will be from 11 - 30 more victims coming forward. Sandusky had little asterisks behind the names of the victims.

Spanier, Baldwin, Curley, Schultz ,and Joe Paterno were all complicit in a cover up. Joe was mentioned in emails.

Sandusky was forced out and they all knew why.

Bradley and Ganter perjured themselves on the stand.

Thank God they hired outside.

And my friend mentioned if he was not dead Paterno would be arrested.

The BOT is right. Joyner is right, and Corbett is right.

It was as bad as the worst accusations.

I know this fellow for fifteen years and trust him implicitly.

I will answer questions from moderators in pms, but no one else.

This stuff might or might not come out, but this person is privy to all the emails, evidence and such.

He was actually on television last night when Sandusky came out of the courthouse.

I was at a function today where I had this conversation.

I willl not respond more to this thread, only to moderators in pms with the promise of privacy.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=157&f=1395&t=9095337

Anonymous said...

Doubt any US Attorneys are going to do anything since the current Attorney General is under Contempt of Congress!

The contempt vote Thursday against Attorney General Eric Holder could spell trouble for President Obama -- not just for his administration's efforts to lock down Fast and Furious documents, but also for his re-election campaign.

The contempt vote, for his critics, is one more notch against Holder. And it could fuel his becoming a divisive figure during the presidential campaign as opponents try to cast him as an albatross around Obama's neck.

"I think that it's the biggest non-economic story (in 2012)," GOP pollster Adam Geller said of Fast and Furious. "You can bet that it's going to certainly get some mention, as it should, as a political issue."


Some congressional Democrats, indicating an early concern about being tied to Holder in a tough election year, broke with their party Thursday. Seventeen House Democrats voted for contempt.

There will not be an investigation into the Corbett invetsigation of not stopping a Child Predator.

Anonymous said...

Two Prosecutors in Stevens Case Appeal Disciplinary Action

The two prosecutors cited for alleged misconduct in the botched case against Ted Stevens are appealing the disciplinary sanctions brought against them.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Bottini and James Goeke have asked the U.S. Merit System Protection Board to review a dispute with the Justice Department rooted in a lengthy attorney misconduct report.

The DOJ internal review concluded Bottini should be suspended without pay for 40 days and that Goeke be suspended for 15 days for their alleged failure to turn over beneficial information to the defense lawyers representing Stevens, the late U.S. senator from Alaska.

Lawyers for Bottini and Goeke dispute the findings in the department's Office of Professional Responsibility report, which said the two prosecutors committed "reckless professional misconduct" during the Stevens public corruption case in Washington.

An official with the MSPB today confirmed the appeals, filed last week, are pending in a San Francisco field office. Neither prosecutor has filed a substantive pleading outlining the basis of the appeal. Goeke is an AUSA in Washington state; Bottini works in Alaska as a federal prosecutor there.

A lawyer who has represented Goeke declined to comment today. Bottini's counsel, Kenneth Wainstein of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, said Bottini didn't deserve to be singled out for the collapse of the high-profile case.

Wainstein and other critics of the OPR report blame a collective failure of the prosecution team, led by William Welch II and Brenda Morris, former senior attorneys in the DOJ Public Integrity Section. Welch has since retired from government service.

Wainstein says he wants the merit systems protection board to "look at the highly irregular process" in which one Justice Department official took over the disciplinary analysis from the lawyer who had been assigned it.

Kevin Ohlson, the chief of DOJ's Professional Misconduct Review Unit, initially determined the evidence and the law supported the professional responsibility office conclusion that Bottini and Goeke engaged in misconduct.

A longtime assistant U.S. attorney, Terrence Berg, was tasked with assessing any discipline against the two prosecutors.

Berg disagreed with the misconduct finding. Ohlson, however, determined it was "inappropriate" to allow Berg to reject OPR's findings. An associate deputy attorney general, Scott Schools, upheld the disciplinary action against Bottini and Goeke.

Wainstein said the disciplinary process was "designed to rely on Berg's opinion" and that it was "basically dropped from the process."

The MSPB appeal process is expected to take at least several months to resolve.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you've fallen for the AG's selective leak of Emails.

Have you seen the full body yet? If you have, give me a link.

This is Corbett's M.O. Destroy Penn State forever and into eternity.

Form the public's opinion before all the facts are known so that even if Heaven opened up and proclaimed that Penn State did nothing wrong, no one would believe you.

Signor Ferrari said...

Anonymous 1:30, how should one contact you?

Anonymous said...

How is it Louie Freeh is able to uncover evidence the one sole State Trooper misssed, and the OAG is taking credit for these cases they delayed?

Now it looks like Paterno should have been indicted too!

Report:

In the same e-mail, according to CNN, Mr. Curley also suggested that if Mr. Sandusky "is cooperative," Penn State "would work with him" to tell Second Mile. If not, Mr. Curley wrote, the university would inform both Second Mile and outside authorities.

The purported e-mails were discovered during an investigation by Louis J. Freeh, the former FBI director whose consulting company was hired last November by Penn State's Board of Trustees to examine the university's role in the scandal. Mr. Freeh's company is scheduled to release a report sometime in the coming weeks detailing who knew what about the former coach and why no one acted sooner to stop him.

Defending the Program

Those e-mails and other records suggest a disturbing pattern of how the university dealt with high-profile problems in football.

Mr. Paterno was often at the center of conversations related to disciplinary issues in the program, even when it wasn't his place to handle such problems. And according to documents obtained by The Chronicle, administrators at the highest levels made sure he got his way.

Letters and e-mails that one former top Penn State administrator provided to Mr. Freeh's investigators show that Mr. Spanier and Wendell V. Courtney, the university's general counsel, repeatedly intervened on Coach Paterno's behalf in an apparent attempt to quash problems.

link:
http://chronicle.com/article/Records-Raise-More-Questions/132725/

Anonymous said...

I believe many questions need to be asked in regard to his involvement.

His ties to the case when he was AG?

Campaine contributions funneled through 2nd mile tailgates.

Rumors regarding his zeal to fire Joe?

His relationship to Spanier?

I'm sure there are far more questions, but it sure looks like he has escaped the flames.

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about those same questions.

Will there be a connect the dots back to Corbett?

What could potentially happen to him?

One thing I find incredibly odd related to Corbett is he enjoys a very cordial relationship with Scott Paterno.

Scott relies on conncetions with Republican elected officials for his livlihood so on some level that helps to explain it.

But given the family's contempt for how this process has unfolded with respect to Joe, I still find the relationship between Scott and the Governor to be very strange.

Wasn't Scott once running for office, Probably needed Corbett's support.

Anonymous said...

Everybody outside of PSU has been given a free pass by Corbett AG and Republican Power Brokers.

The high school principal that dismissed the victim's / mother's claims.

Raykovitz at The Second Mile
People responsible for child welfare at The Second Mile.

The State AG for not digging deeper in 1998 and acting slowly in 2001 McQueary's dad & Dr. Dranov

But these people/organizations do not live in the national spotlight like Joe Paterno and The Pennsylvania State University.

Tearing them down or seeking the full truth doesn't sell newspapers or TV time.

Anonymous said...

You know I never even thought of that angle until posted here.

We know Corbett was upset Joe Paterno didn't endorse him for governor last election (because any governor becomes a PSU BOT member).

If Corbett feels that the Paterno clan may actively push their weight against him next election (no more BOT conflict of interest) then he needs to 'destroy' the Paterno name now and decrease any influence next election.

Now who knows if any of that is true but (not being a politician) I hadn't even considered that little angle.

And Corbett also has to justify his "Remember the children" comment.

I don't know the exact truth about this, but (as is implicit in your comment) one can consider the email leaks from this perspective.

I suppose one's imagination wouldn't be too far off.

Yes, we should all thank God for Corbett. As long as our taxes don't go up, that is the most important thing.

(sarcasm off)

Anonymous said...

Why hasn't Raykovitz/Genovese/Courtney been charged with conspiracy?

Not only should Second Mile (Raykovitz and Genovese) have been charged with failure to report but also charged with criminal conspiracy in that they promoted or facilitated commissions of crimes by Sandusky?

Here are the facts:

1. Second Mile was notified of Sandusky's actions. Penn State reported Jerry Sandusky's actions to the Second Mile.

The CEO of Second Mile, Dr. Jack Raykovitz, is a licensed, practicing psychologist specializing in child development.

Under Pennsylvania law, Second Mile was a mandated reporter of suspected child abuse.

Dr. Raykovitz, upon receiving a report from Penn State that Mr. Sandusky had showered with a child, did not report the incident to the PA Department of Child Welfare (as required by law).

Nor did Dr. Raykovitz share this information with the Second Mile Board of Directors.


http://m.si.com/news/archive/archive/detail/4582342/full;jsessionid=0A2D73C559E12B2903EEE8F830C89EAA.cnnsi1b


2. Second Mile's attorney was aware of the allegations of abuse against Sandusky in 1998.

Wendell Courtney was retained by Penn State to review the police reports of the 1998 Sandusky incident before turning them over to the District Attorney for further investigation.

Courtney provided pro bono legal services for the Second Mile at the time of the 1998 and 2001 incidents.

There can be no dispute that Second Mile should not have taken the 2001 report more seriously, considering it had previous knowledge of the 1998 incident. Again, these facts point to a cover up and possibly a conspiracy at Second Mile.

http://deadspin.com/wendell-courtney/


3. Second Mile's CEO and No. 2 Executive salary growth coincides with report in 1998.

Dr. Jack Raykovitz, the CEO, and Kitty Genovese, the second in charge, salaries increased by 75% since 1997 for Raykovitz and 92% since 1998 for Genovese.

In comparison, the third-highest executive at The Second Mile, who was making the same as Genovese in 1998, now has a salary 44 percent higher.

Are the salary escalations of Raykovitz and his wife, Genovese, merely coincidental or are they reflective of two executives who knew they were overseeing a house of cards on the verge of collapse? Raykovitz and Genovese were benefitting financially by covering up Sandusky's transgressions.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/second_mile_ceo_made_more_than.html

4. Without Jerry Sandusky, there is would be no Second Mile.

Jerry Sandusky founded the Second Mile in 1977 and by him lending his persona to the charity, Penn State fans and Penn State corporate sponsors opened their wallets.

As the news of the Sandusky scandal broke, a number of corporate donors pulled their support.

Raykovitz and Genovese knew that Jerry Sandusky was Second Mile's "cash cow" and sought to preserve his image as long as possible.

Even after receiving reports of Sandusky's alleged abuse in 2008 and him stepping away from activities involving children, the charity continued to use his name in their fund raising efforts (I know this first hand, as I donated to the charity last year).

In summary, Second Mile continued to ignore crimes by Sandusky to further the organizations fund raising.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/second_mile_executive_katherin.html

Anonymous said...

Why hasn't Raykovitz/Genovese/Courtney been charged with conspiracy?

Weren't they contributing to Corbett's campaign for GOV??

Anonymous said...

Happy Valley is a badly flawed place. The area's theme song for the Sandusky scandal should be “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” Life goes on.

It’s not having the scarring effect it should.

Shame seems outnumbered by defiance.

Few, even now, seem to see Paterno as the failed individual he is.

The questions in my original column have mostly been answered.

Here’s some new questions:

Does the Freeh report go beyond the university?

Has The Second Mile been thoroughly dissected?

Many of Central Pennsylvania’s best and brightest were involved with The Second Mile.

What did they know?

When did they know it?

Why did the Governor accept Campaign Money from them?

Why did the Governor give them a Grant whne he knew they were under investigation?

Why is the current AG not looking into Second Mile?

What is AG Office hiding about their so-called complete invetsigations?

The Second Mile was a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation founded by Sandusky for the purpose of procurement.

Was he a one-man gang?

How far did Sandusky’s tentacles reach?

Is there a story beyond the one we know?