"You are disparaging the reputation of the men and women in that office who have worked very hard to get to the result - that justice was served and a monster was taken off the street." (Philadelphia Inquirer 7/14/2012)
The burning question has been why it took so long for Corbett to put investigators onto the monster's trail. But if Corbett wants to bring up the work these investigators eventually got around to doing, we're happy to take a look at the top-notch, professional, probing interrogation his key lieutenant put to Joe Paterno - who, it turns out, was Sandusky's chief enabler. Here's how tough and relentless Jonelle Eshbach was in getting to the truth:
"State investigator was a fan: If that was the culture that permeated Penn State, could it have affected the investigation by state attorney general’s office? Jonelle Eshbach, the senior deputy attorney general who interviewed Paterno, several of Sandusky’s victims and Penn State officials when they appeared before the grand jury, has not been shy about her loyalty to the late coach. After Paterno’s divisive firing, her Facebook page showed she took a survey about the board’s decision. Her page says she answered that she would have let Paterno finish the 2011 season, then retire as he planned. Freeh’s team concluded that Paterno’s firing was warranted. Eshbach didn’t return a message at her office. Attorney general spokesman Nils Frederiksen declined to comment on it...When she interviewed Paterno, Eshbach specifically told him to explain what he knew about the McQueary incident, 'without getting into any graphic detail.' She also never followed up when Paterno hinted that something about an earlier claim might have been discussed in his presence prior to that. 'You did mention — I think you said something about a rumor. It may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody,' Paterno said at the grand jury. 'I don’t know. I don’t remember. I could not honestly say I heard a rumor.'” (Patriot News 7/12/2012)
Wow. Specifically asking a witness before the grand jury to withhold details? No follow up to key parts of the witness' story? In fact, in December of 2010, Eshbach turned down interview requests from the York Daily Record, saying it would be inappropriate at that time, yet she conducted a Facebook survey about Paterno and made supportive comments about Paterno while the investigation presumably was still in progress?
There was nothing tough or professional in how gushing Paterno fan Eshbach handled her idol. For Corbett to use Eshbach and other members of his team as examples to excoriate journalists for doing their jobs in a tough, insistent, professional manner - tougher and more insistent than Corbett's team - is shameful.
114 comments:
Damn, She looks like an Orie sister. Could we post a link to the facebook page? I can't seem to find it.
Corbett Liar Detector Tests Results:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbWI9xIGba4
Kelly Next!
An Special Independent Prosecutor needs to examine Jonelle Eshbach first with questions she cannot change later.
She has serious compromised the AG Investigation findings and teh OAG has to be ashamed of her faulty conduct as a Prosecutor and terrible skills of being a Lawyer.
AG Kelly needs to fire her!
Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Harter Eshbach, Harrisburg Office
Eshbach began her career as a prosecutor in the York County District Attorney's Office where she rose to the position of First Deputy.
During her nearly 12 years in the York District Attorney's Office, from 1988 to 2000, she handled criminal trials and appeals and prosecuted many murder cases, including such capital murders as the Route 30 double homicide of two Harley-Davidson employees.
Eshbach joined the Attorney General's Capital Litigation Unit in July of 2000, specializing in capital appeals.
She has handled the capital appeal of Luzerne County mass murderer George Banks, and other capital murderers such as York County's Hubert Michael and Daniel Jacobs, Lancaster County's Robert Zook and Lebanon County's Freeman May, as well as many others throughout Pennsylvania state and federal courts.
Eshbach returned to trial work in September 2005 and is currently involved in a number of criminal and ethics prosecutions of public officials.
“Tom didn’t want to do it” but Narcotics Agent nabs Sandusky
Posted on January 9th, 2012 in Keisling on Pennsylvania Politics,
by Bill Keisling
In March 2009, Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira referred the Jerry Sandusky pedophile investigation to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. DA Madeira cited a personal conflict of interest involving a relative.
AG Corbett told key members of his staff that he did not want to actively pursue the Sandusky case. “Tom didn’t want to do it,” one Corbett associate explains. At the time AG Corbett had plans to run for governor.
Per standard procedure, the case was assigned to a state trooper and a prosecutor. Nevertheless, without Corbett’s approval and without the active shepherding of the AG, the investigation went nowhere.
By late 2010, AG Corbett had been elected governor of Pennsylvania. Corbett was engaged in his transition to the governor’s office, and so was no longer an obstacle to the Sandusky investigation
Also, in November 2010, a separate investigation involving AG office narcotics Agent Anthony Sassano finally broke the Corbett-imposed logjam in the Sandusky case. Sassano is an agent in the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control.
At the time the pedophile case was first received by the AG’s office in 2009, particulars of the case were routinely entered into the Office of Attorney General’s Police Automated Computer Entry (PACE) computer system database.
The PACE system is a computerized indexing and intelligence system. It allows law enforcement personnel to discover if a potential target is under investigation by other law enforcement officers or agencies.
Agent Sassano’s investigation involved, among other allegations, the use of steroids in the State College area, we have been told. Steroids are used by athletes to enhance performance
At the start of Agent Sassano’s investigation, the narcotics agent conducted a routine “toll search.” A toll search involves the search of phone calls made by criminal suspects.
In the standard course of such an investigation, a narcotics agent such as Sassano must file an ‘affidavit of probable cause’ with a court to receive the suspects’ phone records. The object is to discover the parties who are talking to an alleged drug distributor, the frequency and duration of the calls, who is talking to whom, and so forth.
Narcotics Agent Sassano routinely entered information about those involved in his investigation into the PACE cross-indexing and intelligence system. Sassano got a “hit” and discovered that Sandusky was also under investigation for a pedophile complaint by Corbett’s heretofore-inactive state trooper and prosecutor.
Pedophile cases for diverse social or political reasons can languish for years, experts say. Not so narcotics cases.
From the moment Sassano made this indexing hit, in November 2010, the case against Sandusky took on new life.
The grand jury presentment that netted Sandusky states, on page 5, without elaboration:
“Office of Attorney General Narcotics Agent Anthony Sassano testified concerning phone records that establish 61 phone calls from Sandusky’s home phone to Victim 1’s home phone between January 2008 and July 2009. In that same time, there were 57 calls from Sandusky’s cell phone to Victim 1’s home phone. There were four calls made from Victim 1’s home phone to Sandusky’s cell phone and one call from Victim 1’s mother’s cell phone to Sandusky’s cell phone. There were no calls made to Sandusky’s home phone by Victim 1 during that time period.”
Narcotics Agent Sassano personally testified at the preliminary hearing against Penn State officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz on December 16, 2011. Agent Sassano was asked only about when, and what, he learned of the 2002 shower room incident involving Sandusky.
“When did you learn about the incident?” A defense attorney asks agent Sassano.
“I believe it was November 2010,” Sassano answers.
Sassano nevertheless was not asked at the hearing the key questions of how, and why, he came to be involved in the Sandusky investigation.
A Police Criminal Complaint filed against Sandusky on December 7, 2011, lists the three individuals who ultimately brought the charges against the former football coach and founder of the Second Mile charity.
The first listed in the complaint is Jonelle H. Eshbach, a Deputy Attorney General in the state AG’s office. Eshbach is the prosecutor.
The second name listed in the criminal complaint is Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Robert Yakicic.
The third name listed on the criminal complaint is AG’s office Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control Agent Anthony Sassano. Sassano is a long-time narcotics agent in the AG’s office, and has also served as the Blair County (PA) Drug Task Force Coordinator.
The Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Control evolved from the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act of 1972, passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in that year.
Included in the act was a Schedule of Controlled Substances, including anabolic steroids.
Working under the attorney general to enforce these controlled substances are the agents, like Sassano, in the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control.
A narcotics agent such as Sassano is empowered by, and gets his law enforcement authority from, the Commonwealth Drug Device Safety and Cosmetic Act of 1972.
Diverse internal rules and labor agreements in the AG’s office prohibit a narcotics agent from participating in investigations unrelated to narcotics conducted by the AG office’s other bureaus, such as the criminal investigations conducted by the Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI), or the Child Predator Unit.
There is a firewall between these divisions and, usually, the twain never meets. “Years back there was a big blow up about using BCI guys to do drug work, and drug agents doing BCI work,” one observer explains.
The full story behind Agent Sassano’s investigation won’t be known until, and unless, Sassano’s affidavit of probable cause is unsealed at trial.
What is known is the narcotics division was investigating the distribution of controlled substances. The involvement of Sandusky, Second Mile, and Penn State’s football program in the investigation is as yet unknown
Corbett has “blood” on his hands here. Well done! Dont stop!
In November, two days after Sandusky was charged with sexually assaulting children, state Attorney General Linda Kelly said Paterno had done the right thing.
The Freeh report, on the other hand, laid blame for a culture of silence at the feet of the legendary coach, along with former President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President Gary Schultz.
Two days after Jerry Sandusky was charged with sexually assaulting children, state Attorney General Linda Kelly said Joe Paterno had done the right thing.
The narrative they reached is one of a coverup, and is much different than the one given by a state grand jury — that Paterno did what he should have, and Curley and Schultz simply didn’t act enough.
Unlike the grand jury, the Freeh team had no ability to compel evidence and witnesses, and no threat of charges for those who didn’t comply.
So how could they have come up with such different results about who was to blame for Jerry Sandusky’s rampant abuse of young boys on campus?
Before the report was made public, it was clear the Freeh investigators had been more successful in burrowing into the traditionally closed university.
Ag Kelly has to answer the questions from the media and if she refuses time to investigate her.
Questions swirl over what aided Freeh probe:
By Adam Smeltz
Tribune-Review
Joe Paterno was supposed to be in the clear. Graham Spanier walked free, too, and the university granted him emeritus status when trustees forced him out as Penn State’s president in November.
While state prosecutors stopped short of blaming the late football coach and former school president for the Jerry Sandusky child rape scandal, an independent report released last week found that both concealed information about the former assistant coach for 14 years.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who led the independent investigation, said Paterno, Spanier, former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and retired Vice President Gary Schultz all masked signs of Sandusky’s child abuse. Curley and Schultz are awaiting trial on charges of perjury and failure to report.
“Who knows the precise mechanism that caused (Freeh) to have more information than the Attorney General’s Office,” said Wes Oliver, director of the criminal justice program at Duquesne University. He said Penn State might earlier have held back “anything that wasn’t specifically asked for” by state prosecutors.
It’s also plausible that state investigators simply have a different scope, or that they have yet to reveal all their evidence, Oliver said.
A representative of Freeh Group International Solutions in Philadelphia declined to comment for this story.
Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for Attorney General Linda Kelly, said he could not comment on evidence bound for a grand jury. But he emphasized that Freeh’s civil work is different from the criminal process.
The state’s criminal investigation remains open and evolves as new information materializes, he said.
“There has been an ongoing effort by some to conceal information, and we’re working to overcome that,” Frederiksen said.
He said “nothing in the Freeh report contradicts what we’ve said.”
“We, as criminal investigators, face a different set of standards.
We need to be able to walk into a court and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that certain things occurred.
And we proceed in everything we do with that in mind.”
Penn State confirmed Freeh investigators gave prosecutors a critical string of email messages uncovered in the independent review.
The emails, from 1998 and 2001, illustrate that Paterno and Spanier joined Curley and Schultz in shielding Sandusky, Freeh said. They contradict Paterno’s testimony before a state grand jury, in which he denied knowing about a 1998 campus shower incident.
continued....
Paterno, the longtime Penn State football head coach, died on Jan. 22 of lung cancer. Family members have defended his actions.
Freeh said he would have liked to interview Paterno during his eight-month, $6.5 million investigation. He called the emails the most critical evidence discovered in the investigation, which was ordered by university trustees less than a month after Sandusky’s arrest on Nov. 4.
A Centre County jury last month found Sandusky, 68, guilty of abusing 10 boys over 15 years, often on Penn State property. He is in jail awaiting sentencing.
“The Freeh report appears to be based on an enormous investigative resource pool,” said State College attorney Andrew Shubin, a member of a legal team representing at least three Sandusky victims. “At the same time, it has a laser-like focus on 1998 and 2001. The attorney general had a much broader mandate.”
Shubin said state prosecutors endured “pressures to move the case quickly and bring it to trial.”
The state investigation faced more difficulties from Penn State officials, who were sluggish in turning over subpoenaed documents, a lead investigator testified last month.
And if state prosecutors recovered the internal 1998 and 2001 emails solely from the Freeh group, the private investigators might have invoked a technical advantage, case observers said. Freeh said his team reviewed more than 3.5 million electronic messages and documents, though its methodology was not immediately clear.
“Usually, if (an email) is on a cloud somewhere and it’s been deleted, retrieving it would be almost impossible,” said Jim McCarthy, a partner with Blue Line Forensics in California. “But if it’s on a hard drive, they deleted it and the computer wasn’t used much, you might be able to retrieve it.”
Either way, prosecutors likely are combing through the emails to see if criminal charges are warranted, said Pittsburgh defense attorney Robert G. Del Greco Jr., who is not connected to the case. He said that review would include a focus on Spanier and his grand-jury testimony in the case.
Potential charges against Spanier might include perjury and endangering the welfare of children, Oliver said. He said additional counts against Curley and Schultz could include endangering the welfare of children and abetting a crime.
Attorneys for Spanier, Curley and Schultz did not comment for this report. They all have maintained their innocence.
Grand jury transcripts show the state took a hard line against Curley and Schultz in their appearances, Oliver said. Prosecutors took a less piercing stance with Paterno.
“The Freeh report illustrates that Joe Paterno was given a complete pass,” Oliver said. “The way (prosecutors) questioned Joe Paterno versus the way they questioned Curley and Schultz — it’s night and day. The Joe Paterno appearance before the grand jury looks like more a coronation than it does testimony.”
For example, the prosecution did not press Paterno when he suggested he might have heard rumors about Sandusky before 2001, Oliver said.
Kelly in November acknowledged the possibility of additional charges.
Philadelphia attorney Thomas Kline said Freeh, in his report, appears to nudge prosecutors to take that route.
“I see, between the lines, a recommendation to law enforcement to look more carefully,” said Kline, who represents a Sandusky victim. Freeh “comes to the conclusion that there was a cover-up, and he comes to the conclusion that the conduct was reprehensible and there was reckless endangerment of children.
“Those words, of course, parallel various civil causes of action as well as potential criminal liability,” he said.
http://triblive.com/home/2200957-74/state-freeh-paterno-prosecutors-report-sandusky-penn-curley-schultz-criminal
I heard just the other day from a friend of mine at the State Police barracks that they now have over 45 victims including the 10 already known. The 2nd Grand Jury is going on as we speak.
This is just so unspeakably sad.
Despicable crimes inflicted onto innocent kids.
Duh, we knew there had to me more than 10 kids.
Now that jerry has been found guilty, Let's give these kids who want to come forward Go to court to get whatever they are seeking, have a trial Come to settlement.
This is not healthy for the college, the state and our country, or for our governor's prospects for a second term.!
Jerry was running a boy's club for men?
Is that right, Tom?
By the way, where is Ray
SHAME SHAME SHAME on all of them Nice that they didn't bother to protect kids.
Glad to see someone is connecting the dots on this sickening case of child abuse & the abuse of power & privilege that allowed it to go on for so long. All need to be held accountable.
Second Mile CEO Jack Raykovitz made more than $132,000; wife still makes more than $100,000 from charity Jerry Sandusky founded.
That’s higher than the national average and national median salaries for CEOs of similar charities of a similar size.
Were Raykovitz and his wife blackmailing Jerry Sandusky?...boy their salaries certainly shot through the roof beginning in the late nineties.
According to the most recent Nonprofit Compensation Report from GuideStar.com, the national average salary for top executives at youth development charities with a budget of $1 million to $5 million was $115,179.
The national median salary was $108,000.
The Second Mile had a budget last year of $2.4 million.
Nearly 10 percent of The Second Mile’s annual budget went to the Raykovitz household.
The No. 2 executive at the charity is Raykovitz’s wife, Katherine Genovese.
She was making more than $100,000. That’s significantly higher than her equivalents elsewhere, according to GuideStar.
How much did Raykovitz give to the Corbett Campaign?
Can someone look that up at a PA Campiagn Contrubutors Website, and report back here?
Don't forget wives often use their Maiden names when giving money, so check Katherine Genovese or a cobination of both names to Corbett Campaign?
I don't understand why more "investigation" hasn't been given to the source of js's victims.
Sure he used Penn State to help lure his victims (like any similar semi-famous freakshow would), but they came from the second mile.
Time and time again.
WTF was going on over there?
Just Google Spanier and wife-swapping.
Somebody was blackmailing somebody for something and it wasn't Joe.
Based on questionable actions as Attorney General and Governor, the Citizen's of Pennsylvania need to request a statement from each candidates for the state Legislature in 2012 if they would vote to impeach Governor Tom Corbett, if necessary. The citizens must demand NO Executive cover up.
PA Constitution:
Article VI, Public Officers
Section 4, Power of Impeachment
The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment
Section 5, Trial of Impeachment
The state Senate conducts the trial and can convict with a 2/3 vote
Section 6, Officers Liable to Impeachment
The Governor can be Impeached for "any misbehavior in office"
Suggested charges will be offered in the near future.
OH NO, DON'T LET THE RAIN COME DOWN
Another screw up by OAG, DA, and DPW never notifying Second Mile as required by Law!
Law required children's charity to be told of Jerry Sandusky investigation in 1998
Updated: Monday, July 16, 2012, 11:21 PM
No matter the decision in 1998 — to press child sex abuse charges or not — The Second Mile was supposed to know that Jerry Sandusky was under investigation.
For several weeks, while police interviewed the boy who said he was touched in a Penn State shower, while the boy’s mother confronted Sandusky in her home, and while counselors issued contradictory reports about the charity founder’s behavior, Sandusky was supposed to be under supervision because of his affiliation with a child care agency.
But he wasn’t, according to a source with knowledge of grand jury testimony on this subject.
That now seems to be an apparent violation of a 1994 Pennsylvania law that says child-protective services — in this case, the Department of Public Welfare — is supposed to tell any child care agency if one of its volunteers or employees is under investigation.
When a complaint is made, the child care and welfare agencies are supposed to work together to develop a written supervision plan until the investigation is complete.
Sources close to the charity say no safety plan was put into place in 1998 because DPW never told The Second Mile about the weekslong investigation.
The Louis Freeh Report — Penn State’s internal review released last week — shows that a psychologist who interviewed the victim in that case, Victim 6, did make a report of abuse and DPW was involved.
Jerry Lauro, the DPW investigator who handled the welfare side of the investigation in 1998, said he couldn’t remember exactly what decisions he made at the time.
"If there was a need to have a safety plan, I would have had one there. I’m really not sure if I did," Lauro said.
Lauro said he was never asked about a safety plan by any law enforcement or other agency investigating the scandal.
continued....
Why?
Sandusky wasn’t just an employee of The Second Mile; he was the charity’s founder. And testimony at his trial showed he was using The Second Mile to find children to prey on, and forging contracts under charity letterhead.
So why were administrators at his charity kept in the dark when he was under investigation for allegations of child sex abuse for several weeks in the spring 1998?
Lauro closed his DPW case and labeled it unfounded when then-District Attorney Ray Gricar decided there wasn’t enough for a criminal case. Gricar is now missing and presumed dead, and no definitive explanation has been found for why he decided against charging Sandusky.
A spokeswoman for DPW said there is no way for the department to confirm or deny whether The Second Mile was notified in 1998.
But, according to a source with grand jury knowledge, charity officials testified that the first time they heard anything about an allegation made against Sandusky was three years later, in 2001, when Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley informally told then-Second Mile CEO Jack Raykovitz that Sandusky could no longer bring children to the Penn State showers.
In the 2001 incident, Curley, Vice President Gary Schultz and President Graham Spanier made a decision to not inform any child welfare agency about an allegation brought to them by then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary.
That decision has led to charges against Curley and Schultz, plus speculation that Spanier soon could be charged.
According to the Freeh report, the only people who knew about both the 1998 and 2001 incidents were Spanier, Curley, Schultz and former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno.
What if?
There’s no way to precisely determine what happened.
However, Cathleen Palm, executive director of the Protect Our Children Committee in Pennsylvania, says it’s reasonable to wonder if The Second Mile might have acted differently in 2001 if it was the second time it was hearing of an allegation, not the first.
The Freeh report concluded that several people at Penn State knew about two complaints, but did nothing.
"You really have to wonder what could have been different," Palm said. "Maybe nothing would have been different, but maybe something would have been different. The circle of people who knew about the first incident would have been a little larger."
View full sizeThe Patriot-News/fileJerry Sandusky at a Second Mile event at Hersheypark in the 1990s.
Instead, Sandusky went on participating in charity functions and meeting victims for eight more years.
Seven of the 10 boys Sandusky is convicted of abusing were abused after 1998.
"It’s not just about the individual child, it’s about the collective community of children," Palm said. "So the reason we give notice when someone is under investigation ... is to minimize the harm or risk."
It’s an issue that pains Palm for a few reasons: first, because she fights for changes to laws to help protect children. But that only works if laws are followed, she said.
Second, because it’s very unlikely anyone will have to answer for this, if it was a mistake.
DPW has said there is no internal investigation into the actions of the department in 1998.
"It’s more one of conscience that you have to live with," Palm said.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/07/sandusky_second_mile_dpw.html
Fundamentally dishonest or lazy and incompetent. Take your choice.
I wonder if there is a federal grand jury also working on these things?
"Because it’s very unlikely anyone will have to answer for this, if it was a mistake."
What kind of rules does the DPW really have to abide by?
Oh, well, I made a mistake!
Where is the righteous indignation from all the media and haters?
It only took 8 months but finally a article about TSM. Is PSU responsible for this break down too? When are you going to look into Corbett's role in all of this?
TSM should have been the focus of the investigation from the beginning.
That's where Sandusky was getting all of his victims.
Now they moved to Texas, where is Raykovitz?
What about Corbett?! I'm furious about this!
I do not understand why Sara put the focus on PSU, because it was the easy target?
Why not TSM and Corbett?
Now that this "Freeh Report" has proven Paterno & Company accountable by Emails, who else is to blame??
Corbett seems high on the list of possibilities.
Impeach TC.
PROPOSED Article One. Conflict of Interest and Ethics Impropriety.
Newspapers reported that Attorney General Tom Corbett met with, did outreach events with and participated in at least one fundraiser with people associated with the House Republican Caucus during the years of the criminal investigation. Corbett refused to accept campaign contributions from the Legislature.
It has been reported that Corbett participated in similar activity with the Second Mile. This time he took the campaign money.
Imagine J Edgar Hoover and Elliot Ness visiting Al Capone's speakeasy and having dinner at the table next to Capone and his associates while conducting his investigation?
Should Corbett be held accountable for Article One as it relates to Impeachment as written in the PA Constitution "any misbehavior in office?"
What does your elected state official think?
How much influence did the OAG have on freeh report?
I certainly understand why the OAG didn't want certain people interviewed - but who cares?
The OAG has no power to prevent MM or Spanier from talking to freeh - why did fresh honor it?
Frankly the ramifications of the report are much more important than the prosecution of Curley and Schultz.
Did the OAG approve al materials.
Ie emails, that were released?
For instance prior to the release of the report there was a lot of discussion about the 2001 emails and whether they were taken out of context.
Why didn't the freeh group release all the emails so that people could make their own decision about whether they were taken out of context?
It appears the OAG may have influenced this.
Simply out the freeh investigation should not have allowed any influence from the OAG.
Such influence shows that it was not an independent review.
Alternatively they should ave waited until the legal process played out.
The AG had significant influence they were working along side Freeh and in no way would the AG allow Freeh to risk their criminal cases.
Remember it is the AG who would not let PSU share emails with Spanier (although it may have happened during his interview).
Freeh was not required to include any exculpatory evidence and the AG would not let him.
It was clear from the beginning that PSU and Freeh stated they would not interfere with the criminal investigation.
On the other hand, the AG could only make requests. Freeh was not bound by law to follow them.
Yet, Freeh exposed AG Kelly and Eshbach of being wrong not to include Paterno in the charges of perjury, AG Kelly refused to answer questions at her Press conference after Sandusky Convictions.
This is why they need to be investigated because in their own words and on facebook, both said Paterno did the right thing, only for Freeh to find Emails that proved both Kelly and Eshbach outright wrong or doing a cover up on Paterno!
The media is now questioning Corbett, Kelly, and Eshbach and their refusal to answer the most simple basic questions, is speaking volumes how they are in a cover up, they will not be able to control anymore!
Follow the story as it unfolds... Article on Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/13/1109627/-Could-Sandusky-have-been-stopped-sooner
Latest comment is very HARD HITTING!
Just an outside observer here with no ties to the State of PA.
I watched an interview/debate when the scandal first came out and watched Corbett speak, first time I had ever heard or seen him, didnt even know he was governor.
Anyway, my gut instinct after watching/hearing him was.....this man is sinister/crooked to the bone.
I mean, it just hit me like a ton of bricks that this was not an ethical person.
Whether I am right or wrong I have no idea...........but man he just exuded a bad presence.
I see some real troubling information here that seems to make valid points as to the timing of much of Cobett's decision making in this case.
And to reward Second Mile with 3 million in grants, which smacks of political payoff, just when Sandusky investigation began to really heat up...well...like in message-board parlance, he got it in before the lock.
I don't want to turn this into a liberial versus consevative mudslinging contest...but even as an outsider to Pennsylvania politics, all I can say is Corbett looks guilty to me.
Just want Governor Corbett and AG Kelly to answer the simple questions put to them by the Press, so far they have refused to directly answer them.
Same with USAG Holder Too.
Law Enforcement and especially AG's should have no problem in answering simple questions by the Media to make clear they conducted themselves within the same laws they enforce on others.
I do not care what they say, but they have to say something that makes sense, so far none of them can answer the most simple questions put to them.
GOVERNOR CORBETT IS A PEDOPHILE ENABLER
Remember that child in the shower, Tom. Do you remember that child? What did you DO to find his whereabouts?
Where's the PROOF in the forms of Emails; police reports that you even ATTEMPTED to find that child?
You KNEW since you were Attorney General and you did NOTHING!
You KNEW as you sat on Penn States BOT and you NEVER EVER DID A DAMN THING to limit Jerry Sandusky on campus!
You did NOTHING all the while getting campaign contributions for Jerry Sandusky's PEDOPHILE charity!
How dare you, sir! How dare you do NOTHING to stop this PEDOPHILE!
There maybe even more victims that have not come forward since you KNEW Jerry Sandusky was a PEDOPHILE.
And if they do, they should SUE you for everything you got!
You were Attorney General and you KNEW Jerry Sandusky was a PEDOPHILE; You became Governor and you sat on the Penn State BOT and you KNEW Jerry Sandusky was a PEDOPHILE; and, yet, you did NOTHING to find the whereabouts of that child in the shower -- NOTHING!
Or, perhaps you did. Do you have PROOF?
I am of the opinion and "reasonably"conclude from your lack of action and continued campaign contributions from Jerry's own PEDOPHILE charity that you are a PEDOPHILE ENABLER and should resign effective immediately!
I wont stop, you PEDOPHILE ENABLER, until all 500,000 PSU ALUMS are demanding your resignation!
You do remember that child in the shower, dont you? It was you, responsible for the Louis Freeh report, wasnt it?
Bye bye PEDOPHILE ENABLER. Your career is over - MARK IT DOWN!
Freind: An open letter to Gov. Corbett on Sandusky affair
Published: Monday, July 16, 2012
FREIND
An open letter to Pennsylvania's governor, who refuses to answer disturbing questions about his role investigating the Penn State sex scandal:
Bursting with righteous indignation, his cheeks flushed with rage, the governor banged the podium in disgust while berating a journalist - in fact, chastising the entire media - for the audacity to ask questions on the issue.
We're not talking about New Jersey's Chris Christie, who gets away with such outbursts because of his stellar track record and pure gravitas.
No, this tantrum came from Pennsylvania's Tom Corbett after being queried about his incredibly long investigation of child predator Jerry Sandusky.
And it backfired in spectacular fashion. Why?
Because Tom Corbett is no Chris Christie.
Since questions on this matter remain unanswered, it seems only fitting, on behalf of the media and public, to pen an open letter to Mr. Corbett.
For the record, no media commentator in Pennsylvania supported Corbett's ideas more than Freindly Fire during the 2010 campaign, from increased Marcellus Shale drilling to school choice to liquor privatization. In fact, FF even backed Corbett's decision to subpoena Twitter during the Bonusgate corruption probe - a highly unpopular position. Bottom line: this isn't personal, and it's not partisan. It's only about one thing: the truth.
Dear Gov. Corbett:
Since there are a number of questions which you have failed to answer concerning your investigation of Jerry Sandusky, on behalf of the media and the public, I respectfully ask for clarification in the following areas:
1) Based on a decade's worth of evidence of Sandusky's predatory activities, why did it take the Attorney General's Office three years to arrest him? I fully understand that it takes time to conduct an investigation, but as numerous prosecutors have stated, you could have arrested him quickly and continued building the case.
Tragically, it is probable that Sandusky continued to molest victims during your epic investigation, as predators do not stop preying unless forced to do so. Had he been arrested early, (standard procedure in many cases with a lot less evidence), Sandusky would have had to post bail, had restrictions placed upon him, and, most important, been under an ultra-intense media and community spotlight - every minute of every day until his trial.
In short, children would finally have been safe. And contrary to your assessment, this would have created a much more favorable environment for additional witnesses to come forward, knowing their bigger-than-life demon could hurt them no more. Arresting Sandusky quickly would have in no way jeopardized the strength of the case.
One of two things seems to be true, as there is no third option.
Either A) you were an incompetent attorney general, which virtually no one believes,
or
B) the investigation was deliberately understaffed and drawn out because you did not wish to be the gubernatorial candidate who took down fabled Penn State - with its massive and intensely loyal alumni network - and the beloved Joe Paterno.
Since doing so would have presented difficult campaign challenges, many are asking if politics was placed above children's safety. Which leads to the next question.
CONTINUED BELOW....
CONTINUED FROM ABOVE.....
2) Why was the investigation so understaffed? Yes, you just now claimed - after eight months - that media reports are wrong that only one investigator was assigned the case for the first 15 months. The real number, as you now state, was a whopping two. We know you were busy with Bonusgate, but political corruption never threatens anyone's physical well-being, particularly defenseless children.
And the two investigators assigned were narcotics agents. While Sandusky's heinous crimes were many, drug offenses were not among them.
Yes, they were former police officers. But wouldn't the reasonable course have been to assign agents with experience in child molestation cases? Did their inexperience lengthen the investigation more than normal … say, past your election in November 2010?
Additional resources were available. Upon becoming governor, you placed state police on the case. You could have made that same request to Gov. Ed Rendell, and, given the stakes, there is virtually no possibility he would have refused. And since you are a former United States attorney, you undoubtedly realized that federal assistance was also available.
3) Do you believe ethical and moral lines were crossed when, after investigating Penn State as Attorney General, you then participated as a member of the Board of Trustees upon becoming governor?
In other words, knowing full well that the investigation was still in full swing, conducted by your handpicked attorney general successor, you nonetheless chose to sit on the very board you had been - and still were - investigating!
Did you ever consider recusing yourself from board activities until the investigation was concluded? Since governors rarely attend board meetings, this would have in no way raised suspicions.
4) As governor, why did you personally approve a $3 million taxpayer-funded grant to Sandusky's Second Mile charity, given your knowledge that Sandusky was under investigation for multiple child rapes?
Your statement that blocking the grant would have tipped people off to the investigation is utterly disingenuous, particularly since the media reported on the investigation in March, and you did not approve the funds until July 2011.
Vetoing the charitable grant would have simply been viewed as another financial cutback in a budget full of slashed programs.
So one has to ask if the $640,000 in campaign donations from board members of the Second Mile, along with their businesses and families, had anything to do with your actions?
If not, fine. But how did such a massively significant point slip your mind - until the media brought it up? And was that question also out of line?
Since these are matters of grave concern, I and many others look forward to your immediate response.
The media talks about Penn State's Big Four casualties: Joe Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley. But perhaps they are missing the biggest: Tom Corbett.
He has always claimed to hold himself to a higher standard, and has roundly criticized Paterno and others for not doing more to stop Sandusky. But when it came down to it, when Corbett had the power to put a speedy end to Sandusky, he didn't.
If mistakes were made, fine. People can accept that. But to stonewall reasonable questions on such an important matter, and then stalk off , is something that should not, and will not, be tolerated.
Tom Corbett has a choice, perhaps the biggest of his career. He can either answer now - or in 2014.
Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television/radio commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com. He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com
COULD CORBETT & KELLY & ABRAHAM BE COVERING FOR A POWERFUL POLITICAL PEDOPHILES SEX RING WITHIN SECOND MILE? LINK!
Edward Savitz, Associate of ex-Penn State football Coach Jerry Sandusky:
By Christian Red / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 2:45 PM
Greg Bucceroni says he doesn’t remember the specific location he was driven to in 1979, when he says he was a troubled teenager who had been in and out of at least one Philadelphia after-school youth service program.
Bucceroni says he accompanied Edward Savitz, a well-known Philadelphia businessman, Democratic political booster and advocate for at-risk children, to a fund-raiser “somewhere past Harrisburg.”
The event was to raise money for the recently established Second Mile foundation, and Bucceroni says he remembers meeting the man everyone referred to as “The Coach,” Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who founded Second Mile in 1977. Bucceroni says Savitz and Sandusky knew each other through The Second Mile and political fund-raising events.
“I remember thinking that the Second Mile is going to save me.
I have a chance to get out of trouble,” says Bucceroni.
Bucceroni’s story was a twisted, tortured one in the three years leading up to his brief interaction with Sandusky.
The Philadelphia native, who now works as a police officer in the city’s public school system, says he was sexually abused by Savitz starting in 1977.
Like Sandusky, Savitz met and groomed many of his alleged victims through his work with at-risk youths.
Bucceroni says Savitz lived in an apartment near Philly’s affluent Rittenhouse Square, and that the abuse took place there as well as well as at other locations.
Bucceroni recalled horrific instances of abuse, where Savitz would engage in oral sex with Bucceroni and other victims.
Savitz’s attorney, Barnaby Wittels, told the Daily News Savitz paid his victims in exchange for them performing deviant acts.
Bucceroni says he told police in 1980 about his abuse at the hands of Savitz, but that no charges were filed then; Savitz was finally arrested in March 1992, charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sex abuse of children, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of a minor. He died of AIDS in a hospice days before his trial was to begin in April 1993.
Continued
(WE ATRE QUESTIONING CORBETT/KELLY/ABRAHAM BECAUSE SO FAR THEY REFUSE TO ANSWER SIMPLE QUESTIONS SUCH AS CORBETT AND KELLY OUTRIGHT COVER UP FOR PATERNO'S PARTICIPATION IN HER GGRAND JURY, AND ABRAHAM ONCE EMPLOYED CORBETT'S DAUGHTER AND CANNOT REMEMBER THE DETAILS IN THIS CASE?
Bucceroni says he doesn’t know if any of his abuse claims were part of the charges brought against Savitz in the early ’90s.
He adds that he talked to Lynne Abraham, the former Philadelphia district attorney who prosecuted Savitz, in December, but that she couldn’t recall all the victims whose claims led to Savitz being charged. There were over 5,000 photos of Savitz’s many alleged victims recovered by authorities from Savitz’s apartment, including many of Bucceroni.
Last fall, when the Penn State/Sandusky scandal exploded, Bucceroni says he decided to speak out about his past, hoping that by doing so, he might inspire “other people to have the courage to come forward” and talk about being sexual abuse victims. Monday, the Patriot-News (Harrisburg) reported that police have identified three new victims who were allegedly abused by Sandusky in the ’70s.
Bucceroni, now 49, says he came very close to becoming involved with Second Mile — his stepfather even completed paperwork to enroll him in the program the following year, 1980, and he went with Savitz to a State College-area Second Mile fund-raiser to “hand deliver” the enrollment form to Sandusky. But an altercation between Bucceroni and Savitz that spring of 1980 torpedoed any chances at being accepted into Second Mile. That was as close as Bucceroni ever came to being in contact with Sandusky, who was convicted last month on 45 counts of sexual abuse of minors.
“Savitz would take us out to places, he gave us clothes, money, alcohol,” says Bucceroni. “He first asked if I was well-endowed, and I didn’t know what that meant. Then, one thing led to more and more requests. I became almost like a child prostitute.”
Wittels says he is not aware of any communication that Savitz maintained with Sandusky and that he was unaware of the two men spending time together socially or through charity events. Wittels says he did not handle any civil suits filed against Savitz.
When former FBI director Louis Freeh released his report on Penn State and the Sandusky matter last week, the report only addressed Sandusky’s abuse from the ’90s to present. A spokesman for the Freeh group told The News Monday that Freeh would not comment on why the investigation did not extend back to the ’80s and ’70s.
“All I wanted was my dignity,” Bucceroni says of why he decided to address his past. “I never went to college, my first marriage failed, there were failed job opportunities. It f---ed my life up. But maybe by talking, this will help others.”
(NOTE:"He died of AIDS in a hospice days before his trial was to begin in April 1993." -- Wonderful. Not only did he scar these kids psychologically, he may have physically killed them as well.)
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/sex-abuse-victim-recalls-horrid-encounter-edward-savitz-associate-jerry-sandusky-article-1.1115909#ixzz20urpPKeC
It's suprising there hasn't been protests outside his Corbett's office in Harrisburg by now.
Here's a guy that had access to a lot more detailed information than all the others and yet he let Jerry run free.
If people were outside his office it would make the national news and take some of the heat off PSU.
Then Corbett woudl be forced to answer teh questions he refuses to answer in fear of they are the truth that will catch him.
As for if Corbett/Kelly/Abraham alleged potential covering up anything for powerful political elites?
Here is one more fact, Lynne Abraham handled the Savitz case, and like MAV said it takes time to investigate these cases and it took her 10 years. Guess who hired Corbett's Daughter on her Staff and guess who is investigating Second Mile? Lynne Abraham
Now guess who left Lynne Staff when the Sandusky Case broke? Corbett's Daughter?
Now we know Corbett's Hand Selected Appointment - AG Kelly botched the Paterno Grand Jury Investigation on Paterno and his testimony by one of her SR Deputy Eshbach.
The Freeh Report directly not only contradicter both of them, but found evidence they never could find in between Corbett/Ryan/Kelly 3 years Investigation, but will not return calls to Media, and Second Mile contributions to Corbett and Corbett's Grant to Second Mile are just a coincidence?
Savitz was big political contributor, and someone should check out his phone records that still exists in archives and campaign fundraisers records are kept forever, it would be great to see who Savitz supported and who came to his parties to raise funds for some powerful people including Sandusky.
We hate to say it, but one can see a suicide coming soon or multiple suicides, as more breaks on the involvment of Pennsylvania Political Powerful and how they assume such lofty positions of power on silence, cover ups, political influence to quash investigations or slow them down or outright wreck them.
Looks like with 50 Years Statue of Limitation on child Abuse Cases, some Agency will have to go back to 1970's and 1980's and 1990's.
The Freeh Report only went back 14 years?
Was that by design or request from OAG?
Does Corbett have regular PCs? If so, will he shy away to avoid questions?
The ball may be just starting to roll for the next stage of hunting down more culprits outside Freeh's mission to investigate.
We know Corbett blew a gasket at his last PC/media event when asked about the scandal.
Anyway, are his PCs regularly scheduled?
Will the press start hounding him for answers?
Will he gut these PCs out or find excuses for not having them?
(I'm not a PA resident and am thus not familiar with his practice.)
I don't remember seeing Corbett actually have a press conference where he answers any questions.
I think right now he will lay low and stay in hiding.
The odd thing is that it seems the local Harrisburg press, especially the Patriot News, is giving him a pass on this issue.
Plenty of daily negative articles on Penn State and Paterno but no indepth reporting on Corbett's involvement.
I keep waiting for an Anderson Cooper (CNN) or Shepard Smith (Fox) to do a report but nothing yet.
Very odd!!
I agree with that the media will begin to look for their next ounce of flesh.
All one has to do is read the attached investigative piece - it is quite clear who engineered the 1998 "cover up" and why they did it.
It is equally clear who engineered the 2001 "cover up" (actually, handing off to The Second Mile might be more accurate) and why they did it.
The State of Pennsylvania via multiple Agencies including DPW/CYS, PAG and Gov's Office via too tight a relationship with The Second Mile is responsible -- ditto the attempted cover up of V1 in 2008.
The sham Freeh Investigation is the latest FRAUD perpetrated by this group.
One can only hope the light of day is eventually shown on the truth - Pennsylvania is a politically corrupt and bankrupt State I'm sorry to say about my native State.
Does anyone know who commissioned Jerry Lauro of the DPW?
Jerry Lauro and of course John Seasock are not exactly painted in the most flattering light in this article, but we really need to know who it was specifically that entered these two into the equation.
Has anyone addressed this??
It is not allowed to demonstrate outside of Corbett's office.
Corbett had the Capitol Police run some protesters out of the building a couple of weeks ago.
FINALLY i am starting to hear more about that SCUM Corbett!!!
Why is he not being investigated/charged.
It is SOOO freaking obvious that he did not pursue bringing charges against Perv Jerry so he fund his political career.
He BETTER go down with the ship...Corbett did nothing to protect the children.
NOTHING!
He had a chance to stop Sandusky years ago yet he chose his political career over the children.
Yet he has the NERVE to talk about the football culture of Penn State. How about Corbett and his political aspirations. ONE TERM TOM!!!
Sounds to me that possibly Savitz was bringing boys to the 2nd Mile to be abused for political donations. Perhaps Savitz was the model that Sandusky followed.
Former Democrat PA Gov. Ed Rendell alleged involvement in Child Molestation ring cover-up
Posted by Eric Dondero at 10:46 AM
http://www.punditpress.com/2011/12/former-democrat-pa-gov-ed-rendell.html
A "Joe Paterno Bill" making it a National Crime not to report Child Sex Abuse
BACKGROUND: My true story begins back in January 1977 while I was a troubled adolescent youth associating with other at-risk youth in the Center City area of Philadelphia.
I was originally introduced to Mr Ed Savitz thru political election campaign social events on behalf of Ed Rendell for Philadelphia District Attorney.
These political events were in the South Philly and the Center City area where I worked cleaning up tables and supporting local elected officials.
At these political social events I was introduced to Ed Rendell and other local political types by Ed Savitz.
These social political events were also a social magnet for wealthy politically connected pedophiles being introduced to unknowing adolescent boys working or socializing at these events.
They were openly allowed to socially drink alcohol and unknowingly socialize with these various adult wealthy politically connected pedophiles.
Initially Savitz pretended to mentor various boys purchasing alcohol for these various kids. Then while the kids were intoxicated, Savitz (who was subsequently convicted of child molestation and died in prison of AIDS), and other pedophile types attending these political social events, would fondle and sexually exploit these adolescent victims. He offered the intoxicated youth money and gifts in return for sexual acts.
All of the warning red flags were up, but unfortunately ignored by many city officials including Philadelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell attending these political social events in the name of politics.
BACKGROND ON CHILD MOLESTOR ED SAVITZ:
Edward Isadore Savitz (also known as Uncle Ed, Fast Eddie and Dr. Feel Good) (February 22, 1942 ?
(March 27, 1993) was an American businessman who was arrested for paying thousands of young men for either engaging in anal and oral sex or for giving him dirty underwear and feces, which he kept in pizza boxes in his apartment. Ed Savitz was one of four sons by Russian immigrants Paul and Ann Gechman Savitz.
The Savitzes ran an amusement arcade in downtown Philadelphia. Ed ranked first in his class of 278 students, and voted most likely to succeed.
He won a full scholarship to study economics at the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out after two years.
His brother, Joseph, a lawyer who once served as a Deputy Pennsylvania Attorney - via FreeBase.com
From Eric Dondero:
Greg Bucceroni contacted Pundit Press early this week, after being shunned by local media in the Philadelphia area.
Bucceroni is a former NJ police ofcr. and currently a youth crime ofcr. in Philadelphia.
He explained to LR how he was a victim of convicted pedophile (deceased) Ed Savitz. He was molested on numerous occasions by Savitz sometimes in the presence of top Philadelphia politicians.
We interviewed Greg this morning:
ERIC: Greg, thank you for allowing Libertarian Republican to bring your story to a national audience. Can you tell us why it is that you decided to step forward at this time?
GREG: Well, with everything that is going on at Penn State right now. I just saw former governer Ed Rendell as a commentator on some TV news show. NBC or something.
I forgot what it was. And this son-of-a-bitch is out there talking about how horrible the Penn State cover-up is. But he was part of a similar cover-up in the late 1970s, 1980s. He was the Joe Paterno. He was in the same position as Joe Paterno is right now.
And just like how Penn State covered it all up, that son-of-a-bitch protected Savitz and the internal politics of the Philadelphia Democrat Party.
The reason I am stepping forward is that I don't want this happening to other young people who may get throwin into the same position I was as a youth.
ERIC: What do you hope will come of this?
GREG: I want to make it a crime to have knowledge of pedophile behavior and not doing anything about it. I want to push national legislation.
ERIC: This is all very brave of you to do this. Are you willing to name names?
GREG: Absolutely. In addition to that scumbag Rendell, there were other witnesses. They decided to look the other way, and throw those kids under the bus, because those pedophiles were wealthy politically-connected businessmen, who were extremely generous to the Philadelphia Democrat Party.
I am willing to name names. You wanna hear names of witnesses. Congressman Bob Brady (photo) who was a political committee person at the time. He is the Chairperson today for the Democrat Party in Philadelphia. He was the one who introduced me to Ed Savitz to be my mentor.
ERIC: Our readers are particularly interested in the politics of the whole situation. How has this affected your view of the Democrat Party?
GREG: I am disgusted with the whole Democrat machine in Philadelphia. I have left the Democrat party. I am a Republican now...
ERIC: Thank you Greg. God Bless. And we hope to have more interviews with you as this story develops in the coming weeks.
GREG: No problem. Contact me any time.
Please refer to Anonymous' posting on July 17, 2012 at 12:10 AM.
PA Constitution, Impeachment based on "any misbehavior in office."
Please refer to IMpeach TC posted on July 17, 2012 at 11:09 AM
PROPOSED Article One. Conflict of Interest and Ethical Impropriety.
Corbett's outreach with the House Republican Caucus and The Second Mile events and fundraising dollars.
PROPOSED Article Two.
Theft of Service
Tom Corbett has sent people from the Legislative Branch to jail for using state employees for campaign purposes. Corbett's Executive Office arranged for a significant increase in Press Events around the state in 2008 for Corbett's re-election campaign. While Corbett's prosecutors were sending people from the Legislative Branch to jail for Theft of Service, Corbett was doing the exact same thing using state employees from the Press Office in his Executive Office. The number of Press events dropped back to 2007 levels in 2009. This is public information provided by the Office of the Attorney General.
CasablancaPA should put up an official Impeachment or Recall Document and where petitions can be taken around to be signed especially when Penn State Students return from summer vacation.
This is getting serious and serious people need to become involved.
2nd Mile donated $641,481.21 to Corbett's campaign. While he investigated them.
It is crazy. This is an article from November and I don't want it to be forgotten!
Earlier today, we reported that some two dozen current and former board members at The Second Mile had given money to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's 2010 campaign. The board members donated a combined $201,783.64, to be exact. But direct contributions are hardly the end of it. Big donors can also encourage family members or employees to send cash to a politician.
Take Bill Greenlee, who served on The Second Mile board until 2004. Greenlee died last year and never gave money directly to Corbett. But he founded Greenlee Associates (now called Greenlee Partners), one of the top lobbying firms in Pennsylvania. And Greenlee Partners donated $36,535.19 to Corbett's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, with another $1,000 coming from Vanessa Getz, one of the firm's top employees. In 2007 and 2008, Greenlee Partners gave $2,000 to Corbett, when the then-attorney general was running for reelection. The firm also gave money to Corbett when ran for attorney general in 2004?his first campaign?and in the subsequent year. From 2003-2005, the firm donated $13,295.02 to Corbett. [Note: That figure includes a $1,500 contriubtion credited to "Greenlee Associates" because the checks came from the same PO Box in Harrisburg.] The total amount transferred from Greenlee's firm to Corbett's political coffers: $51,830.21.
Another longtime and current board member of The Second Mile is Louie Sheetz, the Executive Vice President of Marketing at Sheetz, Inc., a successful chain of gas stations and convenience stores. Like Greenlee, Sheetz hasn't given money directly to Corbett. But his family-owned company and his family have. Corbett received $106,000 in Sheetz, Inc. money for his 2010 gubernatorial run. In prior election cycles, Sheetz, Inc. and Sheetz family members donated $7,350 to Corbett, bringing the Sheetz total to $113,350. [Note: Sheetz, Inc. also donated $20,000-$49,999 to The Second Mile in 2010 and currently has the company's public relations manager, Monica Jones, sitting on the charity's central board.]
A smaller but still representative money tendril is associated with Michael Gillespie, the chief accounting officer of the Hersha Hospitality Trust and a director on The Second Mile's southcentral board. Gillespie only gave Corbett $250 in 2010. But Gillespie's co-workers gave Corbett $7,142.80. Of the eight other employees listed on the hospitality trust's website, four gave to Corbett, as did the chairman of the trust's board and the chief investment officer for the Hersha Group, which oversees the trust. Two other employees of the Hersha Group gave to Corbett's gubernatorial campaign, bringing the total to $8,642.80.
The surface donations are easy enough to count up. We've already covered that ground. But it's also worthwhile to look at how much money these people have donated to Corbett since 2003, when he first ran for public office. Same goes for how much money Corbett received from companies or people with strong ties to directors on the charity's boards. At the very least, even the indirect connections show, again, how influential and well-connected The Second Mile is.
2011 state board of directors
Bob Poole, Chairperson
President and CEO, S & A Homes and Poole Anderson Construction
2009-2010 cycle: $9,133.34
Other years: $2,125
Total: $11,258.34
Dave Woodle, Vice Chairperson
Chairman & CEO, NanoHorizons, Inc.
2009-2010 cycle: $5,000
Other years: $1,000
Total: $6,000
Cliff Benson, Director
Retired, Deloitte Tax LP
2009-2010 cycle: $750
Other years: $500
Total: $1,250
Michael Fiore, Director
Executive Vice President, Leonard S. Fiore, Inc.
2009-2010 cycle: $4,590
Other years: $6,112.56
Total: $10,702.56
Bruce Heim, Director
Chairman, Keystone Real Estate Group, LP
2009-2010 cycle: $1,000
Other years: $2,500
Total: $3,500
[Note: Three other current or former Keystone employees?Al Pringle, Michael Trombley, and Ben Heim?are both Corbett donors and current or former members of the charity's boards. Their donations are listed below.]
Heidi Nicholas, Director
Real Estate Developer & Manager
2009-2010 cycle: $5,000
Other years: $1,000
Total: $6,000
Al Pringle, Director
Senior Vice President of Commercial Real Estate, Keystone
2009-2010 cycle: $250
Other years: $0
Total: $250
Nancy Ring, Director
Realtor, REMAX Centre County
2009-2010 cycle: $350
Other years: $0
Total: $350
2011 central board of directors
Michael Hawbaker, Director
Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc.
2009-2010 cycle: $500
Other years: $0
Donations by family members and/or other Glenn O. Hawbaker employees: $23,225
Total: $23,725
Ben Heim, Director
President, Keystone Real Estate Group
2009-2010 cycle:$500
Other years: $2,500
Total: $3,000
Benjamin Hulburt, Director
President & CEO, Rex Energy
2009-2010 cycle: $6,500
Other years: $0
Total: $6,500
Jack Infield, Director
Regional President, Graystone State Bank, State College
2009-2010 cycle: $500
Other years: $0
Total: $500
Alan Kirk, Director
Esquire, Babst Calland Clements & Zomnir
2009-2010 cycle: $350
Other years: $0
Donations by other Babst Calland Clements & Zomnir employees or PACs: $4,550
Total: $4,900
Harry Sickler, Director
CPA, Owner, Harry K. Sickler Associates
2009-2010 cycle: $600
Other years: $200
Donations by Harry K. Sickler Associates and an employee: $3,000
Total: $3,800
Michael Trombley, Director
Retired, President, Keystone Real Estate Group
2009-2010 cycle: $350
Other years: $275
Total: $625
2011 southcentral board of directors
Rod Savidge, 1st Vice Chairperson
VP, Director of HR, Gannett Fleming, Inc.
2009-2010 cycle: $110.30
Other years: $0
Donations from Gannett Fleming and it employees: $15,300
Total: $15,410.30
Michael R. Gillespie, Director
Chief Accounting Officer, Hersha Hospitality Trust
2009-2010 cycle: $250
Other years: $0
Donations from other Hersha employees and board members: $8642.80
Total: $8,892.80
Former Second Mile board members who donated to Corbett's campaigns:
Anne Deeter Gallaher, Director
2009-2010 cycle: $300
Other years: $0
Total: $300
Kimberly Ortenzio-Nielsen, Director
2009-2010 cycle: $1,300
Other years: $0
Total: $1,300
Rick Karcher, Director
2009-2010 cycle: $1,200
Other years: $0
Total: $1,200
James Swistock, Director
2009-2010 cycle: $6,200
Other years: $1,000
Total: $7,200
Lance Shaner, Director
2009-2010 cycle: $155,550
Other years: $1,125
Donations from a family member: $6,600
Total: $163,275
Derek Walker, Director
2009-2010 cycle: $1,500
Other years: $0
Total: $1,500
Current state board members whose companies and/or families donated to Corbett:
Jake Corman, Director
Pennsylvania State Senator
Corman's father, J. Doyle Corman, Jr., a former state senator, gave Corbett $600 in the 2009-2010 cycle. In past cycles, Corbett received a combined $6,912 from Corman's parents and the senator's "Friends of Jake Corman" PAC.
Total: $7,512
Mike Fiaschetti, Director
Senior Vice President, Highmark Blue Shield
Highmark health insurer is a major Corbett donor. The company donated $21,250 to Corbett's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. The company's chief legal counsel, Gary Truitt, gave $5,000. (Truitt retired last year.) Another employee donated $300. Contributions from Highmark and its employees from previous years: $17,300.
Total: $43,850
[Note: The Highmark Foundation, the company's charitable wing, is also a big donor to The Second Mile.]
Ray Roundtree, Director
Regional Vice President of Finance, Comcast Cable
Comcast donated $69,500 to Corbett in the 2009-2010 cycle. Comcast employees gave $36,300. Comcast and its employees did not give money to Corbett before his gubernatorial run.
Total: $105,800
DrueAnne Schreyer, Director
Community Volunteer
DrueAnne Schreyer is a longtime member of the board and the daughter of former Merril Lynch CEO William Schreyer, a Penn State alum who served two terms as the president of the school's board of trustees. Schreyer gave PSU $55 million to create an honors college at the school called the Schreyer Honors College. In 2010, he gave Corbett $10,000.
Total: $10,000
Louie Sheetz, Director
Executive Vice President, Marketing, Sheetz, Inc.
No direct contributions to Corbett from Louie Sheetz, but Sheetz, Inc. and Sheetz family members donated heavily: $106,000 to Corbett's 2010 gubernatorial run and $7,350 to previous campaigns.
Total: $113,350
Rick Struthers, Director
Retired, Bank of America (former president of global card services)
Bank of America donated $2,500 to Corbett in 2007.
Total: $2,500
Current central board members whose companies and/or families donated to Corbett:
Katherine Cestone, Director
Senior Vice President at Bank of America
See Struthers above.
Monica Jones, Director
Public Relations Manager, Sheetz, Inc.
See Sheetz above.
Ted McDowell
Regional President, Ameriserv, State College
Ameriserv gave $750 to Corbett in the 2009-2010 cycle.
Total: $750
Current southcentral board members whose companies and/or families donated to Corbett:
Matthew Sommer, Director
Vice President of Natural Gas and Electricity for Shipley Energy
William Shipley, the CEO of the Shipley Group, gave Corbett $10,000 in 2010, and $1,000 in 2008.
Total: $11,000
Karen Creasia Yarrish, Director
Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel, Penn National Insurance
Corbett received $9,150 from Penn National insurance for his gubernatorial campaign. The company gave him $1,100 in previous cycles.
Total: $10,250
Current southeast board members whose companies and/or families donated to Corbett:
Stephen J. O'Connor
Operations Manager, Gilbane Building Company
Two Gilbane employees, Gregory Stewart and Julius Tarsi, gave $3,200 to Gorbett in the 2009-2010 cycle.
Total: $3,200
Former board members whose companies and/or families donated to Corbett:
Bill Greenlee, Director
Founder, Greenlee Partners
Greenlee Partners donated $36,535.19 to Corbett's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, with another $1,000 coming from one of the firm's emplpyees. From 2003-2008, the firm gave $15,295.02 to Corbett.
Total: $51,830.21
GRAND TOTAL: $641,481.21
LINK:
http://deadspin.com/5860034/past-and-present-board-members-of-sanduskys-charity-and-their-businesses-or-families-gave-64148121-to-gov-tom-corbett
The state Constitution includes language regarding the impeachment of the Governor. The House or Representatives can bring charges based on "any misbehavior in office."
How would your state Representative vote if presented with evidence of misbehavior? Please ask them!!!!
PROPOSED Article Three.
Election Law violation.
The media reported months ago that Corbett used his campaign cell phone to call the Executive Office of the Attorney General. Reports suggested he did this several hundred times. OAG prosecutors said it was OK since the taxpayers did not pay for the phone bill. The truth is non-campaign use of campaign funds by the candidate is ILLEGAL in PA.
Corbett broke the law at the same time he was indicting people from the Legislative Branch of government and sending people to jail.
Sound like a cover up? Was he discussing his campaign with state employed staff in the Office of the Attorney General?
Corbett needs to be held accountable for his personal actions while inside the "executive bubble" known as the Office of Attorney General.
Corbett investigated the House Members as AG, and got dirt on all of them, how do you think they will vote?
However, this could be the time to remove Corbett as Governor and then pass a resolution to investigate his tenure as AG, and that would free our legsilators to be free men again.
But, then you have the Senate that was never investigated and they may support Corbett, unless a few stand up, and say, we want to be free too!
Atty Gen Linda Kelly Words and Motives - Where is Second Mile in This?
I find the Attorney Generals website featuring the Attorney General's Press Release on the Sandusky case is a study in misrepresentation of facts and truth.
We should blame this misrepresentation on an overzealous prosecutor in charge of the Grand Jury investigation for the language in the Grand Jury Presentment that was laughably wide of the mark in it's misleading description of the testimony of Mike McQueary.
The Press Release by Attorney General Linda Harris leaves no doubt that the intentionally distorted Finding of Fact in the Presentment was a product of the woman in charge.
Now that we know about Second Mile's $205,000 donated to the campaign of now Gov. Corbett during the year he investigated Sandusky following the complaint of Victim 1 we have more reason to question the motives of the Attorney General.
We also know that board members of Second Mile donated thousands more to Corbett.
Why have we not heard any testimony from the Executive Director of Second Mile?
He was informed of the 1998 investigation and was contacted by Tim Curley in Mar of 2002.
We know Sandusky's victims were Second Mile kids and we can assume that the alleged "victim" 2 was also a Second Mile kid.
Did they not keep tabs on what Sandusky or other adults were doing with those children?
Did they not investigate people who might take those kids out for outings and events?
How did Second Mile operate and why are they not a focal point of this investigation?
Did the money to Corbett buy their immunity?
Attorney General Kelly and PA State Police Commissioner Noonan issue statements regarding Jerry Sandusky sex crimes investigation.
Why would the Attorney General devote over 60% of her press release to the issues involved in the Victim 2 section of the Grand Jury Presentment and exclude or reduce emphasis on the victims who testified against Jerry Sandusky?
In this Press Release the Attorney General makes it clear that the identity of Victim 2 is unknown.
That requires the State to prove a case against Jerry Sandusky for child molestation or corruption without a victim based on Mike McQueary's 1 or 2 second glances and 3 slaps described as Rhythmic Slapping Sounds.
The Attorney General has 8 actual victims and their stories and willing testimony to use to convict Mr.Sandusky.
Surely that testimony is far more compelling than the wide range of beliefs and suspicions of Mr. McQueary.
McQueary has testified to a belief in molesting, fondling, intercourse of some kind, or something 'extremely sexual' but unspecific.
He has stated under oath he is not 100% certain.
That means the witness has reasonable doubt and no jury can convict if reasonable doubt exists.
So it seems this emphasis on the McQueary testimony is actually detrimental to the prosecution of Sandusky. It raises reasonable doubt that could potentially poison a jury against the prosecution and the testimony of the actual victims.
The Attorney General has caused Perjury charges to be brought against Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice-President Gary Schultz base on a difference in recollections of words used in a 10 minute meeting between McQueary, Curley and Schultz over a 45 second locker room visit nine years in the past.
The absurdity of that seems incredible to me.
Based on Perjury Hearing testimony under oath we know what Mike McQueary experienced in his own words.
What we don't know is what exactly he said to Curley and Schultz in that long ago 10 minute meeting.
The only people who do know are Curley, Schultz and McQueary since there are no notes or recordings.
To maintain a perjury charge there must be corroboration and there is none.
The defense has a variety of statements made by McQueary but only what was said to Curley and Schultz is relevant and it's 2 men against Mike when it comes to that.
These charges are a sham and disgrace. They cannot be sustained. So what is the purpose?
Is it a distraction with a purpose?
Does making this case about Penn State and Paterno give the press some big game to chew on instead of delving into what the Governor knew and why he drug his feet as Attorney General?
Based on this press release the major element of the Attorney General's case is wrapped up in the Victim 2 charges where no victim has come forward to prosecutors and the defense claims the alleged victim swears he was not molested or assaulted that night.
So given the mass of graphic testimony from actual victims why does the Attorney General devote such passion and intensity on the victim 2 charges in this press release.
It seems to be by far the weakest part of her case.
HARRISBURG - Attorney General Linda Kelly and Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan today issued the following statements concerning the ongoing Jerry Sandusky sex crimes investigation:
Equally significant, however, is the role that several top Penn State University administrators, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President of Business and Finance Gary Schultz, played in this matter, allegedly failing to report suspected child abuse and later providing false testimony and false statements to the grand jury that was investigating this case.
The incident which occurred in 2002 at Lasch Hall where Sandusky was seen committing a sexual assault on a young boy of about ten years of age, was reported to University officials by a graduate assistant who happened to be in the building late one Friday evening.
Sandusky was not seen committing a sexual assault.
Mike McQueary testified that he could not SEE insertion or penetration or the genitals of Sandusky touching the boy.
Mike McQueary could not see the hands of Sandusky.
What we have is McQueary's belief that either molesting, or fondling, or some kind of intercourse, or something extremely sexual was happening in the 1 to 2 second glance at Jerry Sandusky's back because McQueary heard "Rhythmic Slapping Sounds" consisting of 3 hand claps
Those officials, to whom it was reported, did not report the incident to law enforcement or any child protective agency, and their inaction likely allowed a child predator to continue to victimize children for many more years.
Actually Mike McQueary's father Dr John McQueary and his partner and friend Dr. Jonathan Dranov also did not report the incident to police and they told Mike McQueary not to call police.
And the investigation of Sandusky began in 2008 with victim 1's complaint went on for 3 years without any action being taken to arrest or contain Sandusky. Who was victimized during that period of time?
A report to police in 1998 ended in no charges and Sandusky being cleared for an incident almost identical to the 2002 incident.
"We had been down that road before" said Gary Schultz. There is not real reason to expect a call to police about a couple of brief glances and 3 slaps would have resulted in anything different since the alleged victim says he was not a victim of anything.
The grand jury heard some very graphic and compelling testimony from key witnesses in this case - including the graduate assistant who told them what he saw in the shower and Penn State football coach Joe Paterno-- men who saw or heard about the sexual assault of that young boy in the football locker room and reported that incident to top administrators at the university.
Mike's testimony of actual observation is not compelling - only his suspicions that are not in sync with his observations. The Attorney General's description of a 1 to 2 second glimpse of Sandusky's back and 3 claps as "graphic and compelling" is just laughable.
The grand jury also heard testimony from others at the university, including the defendants, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, who are now charged with making false statements about what they knew, making statements that were not credible and failing to report suspected child abuse.
In this case, it is alleged that top administration officials at Penn State University, Curley and Schultz, after receiving a report of the sexual assault of a young boy in a Lasch Hall shower by Sandusky from both a graduate assistant and the coach of the Penn State football team not only failed to report the incident, as required by law, but never made any attempt to identify that child.
Sandusky was not seen committing a sexual assault on a young boy and the "graphic compelling testimony" if so full of holes it sinks under the weight of it's own contradictions. This press release is another example of egregious overstatement by the Attorney General concerning the testimony of one Mike McQueary. If anything the Attorney General should be investigated for inflating Mike's testimony to the point of ruining Joe Paterno's reputation.
The more we see revealed the more we know the truth and the worse the AG, the BOT and the media look.
Penn State students and alumni and those who support Coach Joe Paterno should demand an explanation of Attorney General Linda Harris for her wording in this press release.
The Attorney General had to know her inflammatory overblown description of Mike McQueary's testimony would do serious damage to the reputations of Joe Paterno and Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice-President Gary Schultz and they would serve no purpose in the prosecution of the cases of the real victims of Sandusky.
So it appears there must be some ulterior motive for the AG. Was she making these explosive indefensible assertions in order to deflect public opinion and press inquiries into questionable campaign donations or some foot dragging in a 3 year investigation prior to the bringing of charges? Sandusky could have been arrested as soon as victim 1 came forward and his testimony and it's publication would have likely resulted in the other's coming forward much earlier.
Have some victims lost their lives or has the statute of limitations run out over these three years? How much money went to the Governor and AG from Second Mile and it's board members besides the $205,000 we know about?
Waiting until Joe Paterno aged another three years in this stage of life puts 3 more years of distance on a diminished memory and makes the perjury cases even less likely to be viable adding a third more time in distance from the actual events.
The Attorney General's reckless disregard for fairness and accuracy made statements so far out of line with what Mike McQueary witnessed and testified to under oath, is so far from reality a serious question is raised concerning her reasoning skills and mental competence. No reasonable person could possibly read Mike McQueary's Perjury Hearing testimony and arrive a the descriptions used by the Attorney General.
If this is descriptive of her level of competence the citizens of Pennsylvania should be very concerned about her ability to convict Jerry Sandusky on the counts of the Presentment that have significant merit.
Those counts that do not include the flimsey Victim 2 evidence. Her behavior raises serious questions about her motives and opens the state to charges of libel, slander and gross defamation of character.
As always I make these fan posts from my keen interest in this story that has elements that are completely unique.
I've never seen a more egregious case of character defamation based on less.
I hope this obsession with this story does not cause more discomfort with my new friends connected to Penn State and I welcome your comments, likes, votes and recs along with any compelling reasons for me to quit.
But now I want to know about how Second Mile board members and the director have escaped all interest and investigation. Think the AG and Gov may have focused attention on PSU and Paterno for a reason?
See hot-linked site -- how was I able to guess exactly what this guy lays out simply using Ockham's Razor and The Second Mile's connection to ALL OF THE EVENTS and The Second Mile's best interests always and everywhere being best served with the help of a lot of "political grease" (otherwise known as $$$$$).
There is one fact in here that I have never heard before that is astonishing if true -- I always knew that The Second Mile had strong and powerful connections to the Republican Party in general and the PA GOP specifically, but I had never heard that Corbett himself was a Member of the Board of Directors of The Second Mile in the early 2000's!?!?!?!?
If the information contained at this site is accurate, it is BEYOND OBVIOUS what happened here (including the SWIGJ Presentment and Freeh's Hatchet Job disguised as an "investigation" by a former FBI Director!).
http://notpsu.blogspot.com/
Better yet, if the seasoned AG's and former FBI Directors can't look at the facts of how the 1998 matter was handled and the best they can come up with is a "football coach", they aren't INVESTIGATING VERY HARD.
Why does no one ever go and speak with the EPICENTER OF ALL THESE EVENTS - THE SECOND MILE??????? Seasoned and hardened "Investigators" can't see any reason to "investigate" The Second Mile and it's dual REGULATORS (DPW/CYS and The Attorney General's Office)???? Really?
I think the little kid who gets the "investigator kit" in a box of cracker jacks could figure out that The Second Mile and it's political connections hold the key to this investigation, yet none of the "seasoned", "hardened", "elite", investigators can even figure out where The Second Mile is located to have a brief word with them????
Weird that!!!!!
What would trigger The US Attorney generals involvement?
Would we have to see Corbet coverup?
What kind of review would they undertake?
Probably the realization that everyone associated with this is a complete idiot incapable of doing the right thing for starters.
On top of that I imagine they looked at the average intelligence displayed by the state of Pennsylvania and decided based on the evidence of this situation you're complete morons.
Some say, would require a racism angle.
Or perhaps a need to coverup a liberal attempt at gun control that resulted in the death of at least one border agent and many mexicans?
Maybe, Generally, the scent of a multi billion settlement that can be shared among states.
So they'll be more interested in the "LIBOR scandal" than they will be in the Sandusky fall out.
Thank you... But I suppose that all of the Second Mile records are suddenly missing. Where are their computer hard drives? Or servers?
Just like the Pennsylvania Senate!
Will your investigative reporters please dig into this further? Corbett was a trustee who was instrumental in calling for Paterno's firing.
I watched his press conference after sandusky was arrested and he wouldn't comment on hisinvestigation when he was attorney general.
I truly believe he swept this under the rug to continue to foster his political career.
It's not about lack of staff its about concealment and ambition. The Pennsylvania press just takes what he says at face value.
Please dig deeper
It's all well and good to say that the case required multiple accusers in order to have a solid case against Sandusky, but it was Corbett, as Attorney General, who failed to commit adequate resources to the case to investigate properly, in a timely manner.
He didn't want the case coming up before he was elected, because he was afraid that if the arrest occurred prior to the election, it would hurt his chances.
This case could have been properly investigated and prepared more quickly, if Corbett hadn't been so intent on squandering the resources of the AG's office on absurd political vendettas.
He has a great deal for which to answer.
JM - Last month, Corbett said, “the one thing you do not want to do as a prosecutor is go on one case. You want to show a continued course of action.”
SM - Corbett does not know how multitask?
JM - Corbett was the attorney general when the investigation began, and was leading the office as he launched his successful run for governor.
SM - He launched the Sandusky investigation with one investigator. What can one investigator do with an institution the size of PSU? And all the roadblocks that were thrown in front of him,
JM - After Corbett was elected governor, more investigators were brought into the case. Sandusky, Curley and Schultz were indicted about 10 months after Corbett’s inauguration.
SM - Corbett like sure bets. He wrapped up his election. Has a successful prosecution of Bonus Gate. Now it was time to dance around State College. Notice how slow he slowed dance?
JM - Corbett has vehemently denied that politics intervened in his decisions.
SM - No one in their right mind will ever believe this bogus excuse. He’s a politician. His main objections was getting elected governor in order to get his bonus of $1 million and a magnificent state retirement package. WOW!
JM - If charges are filed early and prosecutors lose that case, “it would be much more difficult to bring charges in other cases because it would be seen by you, by the public, as vindictive,” Corbett said.
SM - What would happen if all law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth took this same approach to their investigation? How much would they get accomplish if they had the luxury of investigating one case at a time?
JM - Greg Randall Lee, a law professor at Widener Law’s Harrisburg campus, praised Corbett for the investigation of Sandusky. He also noted the investigation was under way while Corbett’s office put several former lawmakers behind bars for misusing millions of taxpayer dollars.
SM - I’m in process of interviewing law schools to attend - marked this one off my list.
JM - The attorney general’s investigation began at Square One, while the Freeh team built upon the foundation that the attorney general’s office had laid.
SM - Define square one. And who is that single AG investigator that needs to be credited of clearing the avalanche for Freeh to plow through this two decade storm.
JM - Freeh’s team uncovered emails where Penn State officials reportedly decide against alerting authorities about a report of Sandusky abusing a boy in the shower in 2001.
Filler said Penn State administrators were more inclined to be cooperative with the Freeh team.
SM - Other words, Penn States had no inside track to Freech to slow the investigation as they did with then Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office.
JM - “The Freeh report was done with substantial support of Penn State in a time of crisis,” Filler said. “When the attorney general was doing it they had to tiptoe around ... because people would have protected the institution in all sorts of ways that would have made a legitimate investigation impossible.”
SM - This was a nice sugar coating of the Sandusky case that-at last count-now reaches back two decades of serial molestation of males reaching puberty.
Everything that Corbett did was to win the Governor's Office.
1. Corbett attacked the House Democrats to discredit them and flip the House to a Republican majority.
2. Corbett attacked Republican John Perzel and his staff to eliminate him as an opponent for Governor.
3. Corbett left the Senate alone since it was firmly in Republican hands and he did not want to loss the Senate majority with a Republican scandal.
4. Corbett took money from everyone to win. He refused money from the Legislature to give a good appearance. The dollar amount would have been negligible regardless when compared to the PSU and Second Mile Boards campaign contributions.
5. Corbett accomplished all of this using his Executive Staff to support his campaign and his prosecutors to abuse the law and the actors.
The Republican controlled Attorney General's Office has been compromised and must be removed from political influence.
Let's end the AG's Office as a stepping stone to "the next step" the Governor's Mansion, as Corbett stated.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s got some thin skin when it comes to reporters questioning his, well, questionable handling as attorney general of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse investigation at Penn State.
Critics have blasted Corbett for allegedly dragging his feet on investigating Sandusky for fear of alienating PSU and its formidable (and wealthy) defenders during his 2010 run for governor.
After the Freeh report was released, Corbett was asked about doing anything differently as AG.
“Why are you all obsessed with that?” Corbett snapped while pounding a lectern, reported Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Angela Couloumbis.
After defending the “men and women” in the AG’s office — and not answering the question — Corbett added, “To continue to ask that question, quite honestly, is in my mind out of line.”
Hmmm. Sort of sounds like Ann Romney’s, “We’ve given all you people need to know,” answer when asked last week about Mitttens’ refusal to release more than two years of tax returns.
Did the GOP declare July to be “Smug and Defensive Month” or what?
OK,
As the House Majority Leader Mike Turzai would say:
Sandusky Trial - DONE
Freed PSU investigation - DONE
NCAA investigation and retribution - DONE
Impeachment of Tom Corbett - ????
So who investigates and bring charges against Tom Corbett? Does attorney Mike Turzai of the state House of Representatives have the guts to bring articles of Impeach to the Floor of the House? The Pa Constitution says impeachment charges are for "any misbehavior in office?
I clicked "like" on facebook, mistakingly thinking that that was what I needed to click on to share this blog with my facebook friends. Based on what I've read, it seems to me that Corbett should resign as Governor.
I do not like what I read about Corbett in this blog entry and I do not like what I read about the person from his team in this blog entry.
I do not like what I read about Corbett in this blog entry and I do not like what I read about the people from his team in this blog entry.
Is Spanier a pedophile and is Corbett and Kelly covering it up?
Read some articles today that linked him to multiple convicted pedophiles during his time in Nebraska.
Was he brought in to specifically watch over this whole thing?
I'm beginning to think JoPa was just a bystander in all this and he was held hostage by forces much larger than him.
He was the scapegoat.
How deep does this actually go?
One may think I'm a crazy conspiracy theorist but I honestly believe Spanier was recruited because of his pedophile background.
I've been reading about some of the boys town stuff in Nebraska where wealthy politicians and businessmen created a giant pedophilia ring.
They needed someone to look over this whole Second Mile organization that wouldn't ask any questions.
That's why I say this thing went way above Paterno and being protected by Governor Corbett as we speak.
No other way to explain Corbett as AG waiting to investigate and notw anting to investigate.
Tons of money was exchanging hands for kids between wealthy influential people.
Sounds the same money given to Corbett does it not for his Campaign?
We'll probably never know the whole story, until an outside Agency or Prosecutor is given power.
Maybe Gricar could answer that if were not dead?
He may have had second thoughts about reopening the 1998 charges against Sandusky and was knocked off.
Folks with this kind of money and influence do not hesitate to wipe out their adversaries.
.... from a letter to the editor of the Daily Collegian:
Did Spanier invite/approve the invitation of a known pedophile to be a keynote speaker at a women's health conference on March 26, 2002?
Pedophile Keynote Speaker at Penn State Womens' Health Conference?
Penn State University Daily Collegian letter to the editor ^ | March 26, 2002 | Gary Morella
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2002 11:17:37 PM by StopGlobalWhining
I have a question concerning the purported "Womens' Health" Conference recently held at Penn State.
The keynote speaker, Patrick Califia Rice, is a well known champion of adult-child sex and the pederasty group NAMBLA, whose published works include a fictional short story about a lesbian who performs acts of sadism on her 13-year old daughter.
NAMBLA is the North American Man/Boy Love Association, a New York-based group that advocates legalizing sex between men and young boys.
The NAMBLA Web site includes a quotation from Califia, attributed to an interview she gave in October 1980 with the homosexual magazine The Advocate: "Boy-lovers and the lesbians who have young lovers are the only people offering a hand to help young women and men cross the difficult terrain between straight society and the gay community. They are not child molesters.
The child abusers are priests, teachers, therapists, cops and parents who force their stale morality onto the young people in their custody. Instead of condemning pedophiles for their involvement with lesbian and gay youth, we should be supporting them."
One of Califia Rice's books is Macho Sluts (published by Allyson Publications), a collection of sadomasochistic erotic fictional short stories.
One story, titled "Finishing School," is about a lesbian mother who submits her 13-year-old daughter to sadistic homosexual torture. In the story, the mother whips the daughter until she bleeds.
In regard to the praise of those speakers promoting Planned Parenthood and abortion rights, the last that I heard, many of those aborted babies are little girls.
So I have an obvious question.
What does homosexuality, as Califia clearly understands it, and aborting little girls have to do with womens' health?
Gary L. Morella
Applied Research Laboratory assistant Gary Morella can be reached at glm7@psu.edu
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Whitney v. California [1927]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/657679/posts
Here's another one I read today.
Talks about Spanier's connections in Nebraska.
Also implicates Governor Corbett and Erickson.
http://americanfreepress.net/?p=5131
WEB EXCLUSIVE: PSU Cover-up…Connecting the Dots....
By Victor Thorn
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.—To illustrate the prolonged, ugly and incestuous protection racket that Pennsylvania State University (PSU) erected for over a decade, on January 11, 2012, former PSU linebacker Brandon Short cited two independent sources that saw Jerry Sandusky sitting in President Graham Spanier’s luxury box during Joe Paterno’s final game as a head coach at Beaver Stadium on October 29, 2011.
A number of PSU Board of Trustee members sat alongside Sandusky in this suite.
Not only had Sandusky been busted over 14 years earlier for inappropriate behavior with a minor, minutes from a March 18, 2011, Board of Trustees meeting verified that current PSU President Rodney Erickson and former President Graham Spanier heard news that a grand jury was examining allegations against Sandusky. Moreover, Short also revealed that on March 11, 2011, Spanier discussed the grand jury probe with trustees.
Yet, Sandusky still basked in Spanier’s privileged box despite him and others knowing full well of an ongoing investigation.
To make this situation even sleazier, Erickson—who took over as president following Spanier’s disgraceful firing—lied about when he first heard of the Sandusky charges.
He initially said that he didn’t become aware until media reports broke the story in November 2011.
“Nearly all individuals at the university, including me, were not aware of any of this until we read the grand jury presentment, so how would we have known?” he stated.
That was lie number one.
A few days later, Erickson flip-flopped, saying he actually read about the Sandusky grand jury investigation in State College’s local newspaper, The Centre Daily Times, (CDT) on March 31, 2011.
That was lie number two.
As minutes from the Board of Trustees meeting confirm, Erickson knew of the grand jury on at least March 18, 2011. However, it seems an extensive hush-hush campaign had been instigated, as trustee Ira Lubert complained on November 9, 2011, “He [Graham Spanier] should have told us a lot more. He should have let us know much more of the background.”
Here’s the bottom line: in the normal world, if someone is found in questionable pedophile predicaments on multiple occasions (i.e., 1998, 2000 and 2002, at a bare minimum), employers, institutions and co-workers immediately disassociate themselves from the party in question.
After all, pedophiles are the lowest scum on any social scale. Yet, Sandusky still maintained an office at PSU, Internet access, a parking pass, and regularly worked out at an on-campus gym several times a week, right up until the time of his arrest.
Worse, in 2007 Sandusky gave a commencement speech for PSU’s College of Health and Human Development.
Then, at Joe Paterno’s (JoPa) final game, he sat in President Spanier’s luxury box with several other Board of Trustee luminaries.
In the normal world, a pedophile with repeated accusations against him who has been censured by their employer is blackballed and ostracized quicker than greased lightning.
Unless, of course, he’s being protected, he has damning information on others in his circle, or he’s part of an extensive criminal network.
1998: The Tom Corbett Connection
To understand this scandal, one must revert back to when the initial cover-up began.
In early 1998 Sandusky admitted to showering naked with an 11-year-old boy inside a PSU locker room. He also confessed to hugging the pre-teen and touching his genitals.
Afterward, the child told his mother, “I don’t understand, mommy. I’m just a little kid.
I know what he did was wrong. Why didn’t he?”
When the prepubescent boy’s mother grew increasingly troubled, she contacted authorities.
At this point, according to Sara Ganim of Harrisburg, Pa.’s Patriot News on November 11, 2011, “Then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar set up a sting in the mother’s house.
Sandusky had requested to meet with the mom, and Gricar had officers hide in another room and listen to their conversation.”
PSU police detective Ronald Schreffler was one of those present at her residence on May 13 and 19, 1998, when the boy’s mother confronted Sandusky.
During these meetings, the woman asked Sandusky if he had touched her son’s ‘private parts.’
He replied, “I don’t think so . . . maybe.” He later broke down, “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.”
Another wrinkle must be introduced to the equation.
Four of Sandusky’s accusers—identified as victims # 4, 6, 7 and 8—all first made their acquaintance with Sandusky between 1994 and 1997 through The Second Mile (TSM).
Coincidentally, the Pa. Attorney General (AG) from 1995 to 1997 was none other than Tom Corbett, who later became AG again in 2005 before being elected Governor in 2010.
Corbett claims he only learned of the Sandusky allegations in March 2009, yet he accepted over $200K in campaign contributions from trustees of the TSM (which Sandusky founded).
In the quid pro quo world of politics, Corbett also re-released to TSM a $3M grant after being elected governor in 2011.
Now, analyze the timeline. Corbett says he learned of the charges against Sandusky in 2009, yet two later he’s forwarding a cool $3M to them.
If that’s not enough, during his second term as AG, Corbett assigned only one—yes, one—state trooper to investigate the Sandusky scandal.
Then there’s this tidbit from a January 25, 2012 Sports by Brooks column.
“From the month he learned of the Sandusky allegations to the day he took office as governor, Corbett’s AG office issued 42 press releases touting hundreds of arrests by the Corbett-commissioned Child Sexual Predator Unit.” Strangely enough, Corbett’s crime-fighters didn’t mention a single word about Sandusky. Zero.
Adding the final insult, when Corbett presided over the Trustees meeting (via speakerphone) where JoPa was made into the sacrificial scapegoat to divert the media’s attention, he resorted to the most despicable of tactics.
“Remember that little boy in the shower,” he told the Board.
Now, when it was beneficial to him, Corbett miraculously cared about an abused boy’s welfare.
Moments later, after Corbett had tugged at their heartstrings, the Board terminated JoPa as PSU’s head football coach, hanging him out to dry so that other guilty parties could be protected.
Tom Corbett is a man without shame.
1998: Psychological Reports
On May 8, 1998, Centre County Child and Youth Services (CYS) assigned psychologist John Seasock to diagnose Sandusky after the PSU shower incident. Seasock recounted how the naked Sandusky “came from behind [the 11-year-old boy], made a large growl and gave him a large bear hug.”
One day earlier, on May 7, Dr. Alycia Chambers, a clinical psychologist, forwarded her observations of Sandusky to PSU officer Ronald Scheffler.
She wrote, “My consultants agree that the incidents meet all of our definitions . . . of a likely pedophile’s pattern of building trust and gradual introduction of physical touch.”
She added, “There was very little doubt in my mind Sandusky was a male predator, someone that was in the process of grooming a young man for abuse . . . I thought my report was strong enough to suggest that this was somebody who should be watched.”
Chambers concluded by classifying Sandusky as “a likely pedophile.”
There is no wiggle room here. Once Chambers laid her cards on the table, no doubt remained whatsoever that Sandusky exhibited the characteristics of a predatory pedophile. There were no excuses for inaction . . . unless, of course, Sandusky merited protection from official sources in positions of power.
1998: PSU Chain-of-Command
To completely understand the concerted PSU cover-up, one needs to be aware of the chain-of-command in place at that time in 1998. Graham Spanier— subsequently fired in 2011—was President. Athletic Director Tim Curley was charged with perjury by the 2011 grand jury.
Gary Schultz, the man in charge of campus police—later to become senior vice president of finance and business—was also charged with perjuring himself. The chief of PSU police that answered to Schultz was Thomas Harmon, who once lived three houses down from Sandusky in Lemont, Pa. Finally, the commander of campus police, Detective Ronald Schreffler, had Harmon as his supervisor.
So, after Sandusky’s 1998 shower incident with the 11-year-old boy, Harmon reported it to Schultz and kept, by his own testimony, in regular contact with him.
The man closest to the case among those on PSU’s campus police force was Schreffler, who stated, “At the very minimum, there was enough evidence for some charges, like corruption of minors.” Schreffler was the man who hid in an adjacent room and heard Sandusky’s confession to the boy’s mother.
But, inexplicably, Centre County District Attorney (DA) Ray Gricar informed Harmon that he would not file criminal charges against Sandusky, notwithstanding the lurid details he gleaned from the sting operation when Sandusky made his confessions.
Harmon subsequently closed the case and told Schreffler that there would be no further investigation. For his part, Schreffler claims that he spoke with Gricar, who provided no explanation for his decision.
“You don’t question Ray,” Schreffler recalled. “Ray was not a person to be intimidated. If he didn’t feel the events were there . . .”
1998: Ray Gricar
As you’ll see, the entire Sandusky cover-up is rooted in the 1998 incident.
Particularly, why did Ray Gricar make his determination not to file criminal charges? In a December 2011 article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reporter Paula Reed Ward wrote, “Mr. Schreffler speculates that the DA [Ray Gricar] declined to press charges because the State Dept. of Public Welfare didn’t indicate a charge of abuse.” Schreffler added, “It’d be a little hard for them to prosecute when you have the state saying there wasn’t any abuse.”
This information is crucial, but as you’ll see, it attempts to shift blame onto the state, and therefore is patently not accurate, especially in light of the two psychological examinations cited earlier by Dr. Chambers and John Seasock. Chambers, if you recall, clearly indicated that she felt Sandusky exhibited the characteristics of a pedophile.
But, remarkably, Seasock opined that Sandusky had not sexually abused the boy.
Rather, as the CDT’s Mike Dawson revealed on March 29, 2012, Seasock felt that what happened was merely “the result of a routine that coaches like Sandusky do after a workout.”
The preeminent question is: Where did Seasock come from?
Answer:
PSU police hired him. Question number two: For whom did Seasock work?
Answer:
He was a paid consultant for CYS via a grant from the federal government.
Here’s where the PSU cover-up is fully exposed. On May 8, 1998, Seasock spent a mere one-hour with the 11-year-old boy after being given no background information or documentation on the case by PSU police.
On top of that, CYS was the agency that licensed Sandusky as a foster parent, thus introducing a definite conflict-of-interest.
Anyway, Seasock determined that a naked Sandusky had engaged in nothing more than “horseplay” with the naked 11-year-old boy.
In his report, Seasock used the word “horseplay” two times. Coincidentally, after the 2002 shower incident when coach Mike McQueary caught Sandusky with another naked boy, Athletic Dir. Tim Curley met with JoPa and likewise used the phrase “horsing around” to describe this grown man’s actions.
It seems a buzzword or precedent had been started with Seasock’s peculiar use of words, ones that clearly tried to minimize wrongdoing.
Circumstances get even stickier.
It appears that even though PSU police referred to Seasock as a “psychologist” in their reports, he was nothing of the sort in 1998.
In fact, Pa. state records indicate that Seasock didn’t even become licensed as a professional counselor until January 2002. Worse, the only report provided to Gricar was Seasock’s—the one referring to Sandusky as merely engaging in “horseplay.”
Now, let’s put ourselves in Gricar’s shoes for a moment.
Up until 1998 he had presumably heard nothing about Sandusky’s alleged pedophile activities. Plus, Sandusky was a legend—the architect of “Linebacker U.” that helped JoPa win two national championships.
So, a report is laid on his desk that says nothing happened between Sandusky and the boy. On the other hand, Gricar did initiate a sting operation that indisputably provided enough evidence from Sandusky’s own confessions to justify an investigation.
Yet, two days after receiving the Seasock report provided to him by PSU police, Gricar closed the case. Moreover, a writer for Harrisburg’s Patriot News went so far as to say that their sources believe Seasock’s report was the reason why Gricar didn’t proceed.
But, Seasock wasn’t a psychologist, or even a licensed counselor in 1998. Instead, he appears to have been some type of ringer or plant.
At this stage, we need to bring another individual into the mix. Specifically, Jerry Lauro, an investigator for Pa.’s Dept. of Public Welfare (DPW).
Lauro went on the record with NBC News saying that neither Schreffler—nor anyone else at PSU—ever presented to him Dr. Chambers’ incriminating report about Sandusky being a “likely pedophile.”
After the scandal broke in November 2011, Lauro told NBC, “Wow! This is the first I’ve heard of this [Chambers’ analysis].
I had no idea. If I [had] seen this report, I would certainly have done some things differently. Boy, this is a shock.”
As mentioned earlier, these statements put Schreffler’s explanation in an entirely different light.
The state of Pa. didn’t cover up the affair, PSU did by suppressing the Chambers document and only forwarding Seasock’s bogus distraction report to Gricar. But there’s more.
Although Lauro did interview Sandusky along with Schreffler, he told the Patriot News, “I remember my last conversation with [Schreffler] concerning him hiding in that room.
He didn’t tell me details. All he said was, ‘There’s nothing to it—we’re going to close the case.’ I said, ‘That’s fine. I’m going to close my case, too.’”
PSU was at the crux of this cover-up, concealing vital information from both Gricar and Lauro.
Furthermore, Karen Arnold—Center County’s Assistant DA—who should have handled any matters dealing with child abuse, was not permitted to proceed on this matter.
On page 32 of a Pa. State Police report, Incident no. G07-1146135, Arnold described having an “extensive disagreement” with Gricar over the PSU investigation.
In the end, Gricar—and Gricar alone in the DA’s office—made the final decision not to file any criminal charges.
Joe Paterno: 1999
Despite this extensive suppression of evidence, in 1999 Sandusky shocked Nittany Lion Nation by announcing his retirement at the age of 55.
According to most sources in the know, Sandusky stood as the heir apparent to takeover JoPa’s post as head coach. Now he was gone.
Not only that, but PSU had formed plans to create a satellite football program at the Altoona, Pa. branch campus, with Sandusky spearheading the endeavor.
All such talk quickly ended with Sandusky’s exit. The decision to “retire” Sandusky appears to have been JoePa’s, as Schultz testified before a grand jury. “Coach Paterno felt it would be best that he make a coaching change.”
To keep everyone in the dark, explanations were floated in regard to Sandusky’s apparent retirement:
(a) Sandusky wanted to spend more time working with TSM, and
(b) he was disgruntled that JoPa wasn’t stepping down sooner.
To the contrary, during Sandusky’s final season with the Nittany Lions, he was allegedly abusing victim #4 on a repeated basis, including at the Toftrees Hotel where team members stayed the night before home games.
Also, its important to keep in mind that PSU police had compiled a 130-page file on Sandusky by this point.
But the real indicator that JoPa was well aware of Sandusky’s proclivities came at his coach’s retirement party.
During a November 11, 2011 broadcast of Anderson Cooper’s 360 Degrees, sports reporter Corry Giger of the Altoona Mirror observed, “There’s every reason to believe that Joe Paterno knew a lot about those 1998 allegations. One interesting story is at Sandusky’s retirement dinner, there was a peculiar situation. Joe spoke very briefly, only a few words, a minute or so, only stayed at the celebration for a few minutes, and then left.
It was very odd to many people at the time.
No one really knew exactly why.
You would think that Joe would have stayed a long time.
But there was every reason to believe, looking back on all this, that Joe was probably disgusted by the 1998 allegations and just wanted to distance himself as much as possible from Jerry.”
Indeed, there could be no clearer indication that JoPa saw Sandusky as a complete scumbag and wanted nothing more to do with him.
Regrettably, it must have burned JoPa to no end every time he saw Sandusky still roaming the hallways, using the weight rooms, and showering in PSU’s locker rooms.
JoPa may have run PSU football, but there were powers far more influential that—for whatever reason—provided carte blanche privileges to a man that was widely seen as a child predator.
Mike McQueary: 2002
In 2002 assistant coach Mike McQueary alleged that one evening inside a PSU shower room, he caught a naked Sandusky in a compromising situation with a naked pre-teen boy.
Since McQueary’s account has been widely documented, only one further aspect needs to be highlighted: Harmon revealed that his superior, Schultz, never once came to him with any of McQueary’s sordid claims. The cover-up at PSU continued.
However, by some accounts, McQueary remained in contact with Gricar following the 2002 incident and felt that the DA was investigating claims about Sandusky right up until the day he disappeared.
Mark Madden
Seven months prior to when the Sandusky scandal broke, radio talk show host Mark Madden of WXDX-FM in Pittsburgh, Pa., penned an article on April 3, 2011 for the Beaver County Times.
In the piece, Madden focused on the crucial 1998 incident, observing, “Did Penn State not make an issue of Sandusky’s alleged behavior in 1998 in exchange for him walking away from the program at an age premature for most coaches? Did Penn State’s considerable influence help get Sandusky off the hook?”
He continued, “In 1999, Penn State was rid of Sandusky.
His reputation was unblemished, which allowed him to continue running a charitable foundation that gave him access to underage males [and] be a volunteer assistant with a high school football team, thus gaining access to underage males.”
Strangely, upon Sandusky’s “retirement,” he never coached at another college despite undoubtedly being recognized as one of the country’s premier assistants.
On November 11, 2011, Madden upped the ante during an appearance on Boston’s WEEI. Hosted by John Dennis and Gerry Callahan, Madden dropped a bombshell about Sandusky.
“I can give you a rumor and I can give you something I think might happen,” he began.
“I hear there’s a rumor that there will be a more shocking development from the Second Mile Foundation—and hold on to your stomachs, boys, this is gross—that Jerry Sandusky and the Second Mile were pimping out young boys to rich donors [and] that was being investigated by two prominent columnists even as I speak,” Madden announced.
Filling in the final details, Madden stated, “I think they’ll find out that Jerry Sandusky was told that he had to retire in exchange for a cover-up.
If you look at the timeline, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? My opinion is that when Sandusky quit, everybody knew—not just at Penn State.
I think it was a very poorly kept secret around college football in general, and that is why he never coached in college football again and retired at the relatively young age of 55.”
Adding credibility to Madden’s words was Dom Cosentino, editor of Deadspin. On November 10, 2011, after the scandal became public knowledge, Cosentino referred to a conversation he had with a Pittsburgh, Pa., journalist, who told him, “He [Madden] ain’t bluffing here.
I know he’s confident in what he has. Separate his on-air persona with journalistic chops [and] Mark is a hell of a reporter. Don’t dismiss him.”
In the sports world, Mark Madden is known as a bombastic blowhard that loves the limelight.
He’s brash, a loudmouth, an egomaniac, and a publicity hound. Cosentino even described him as a “professional troll.”
So, considering how Madden is attracted to controversy like moths to a flame, why did he suddenly go mute after making these original statements on the radio?
This writer left at least a dozen messages on Madden’s answering machine, in addition to at least a dozen emails, all with no response.
It is this writer’s contention that, after blabbing about a far-reaching pedophile network at PSU and TSM, someone quickly paid Madden a visit, tapped him firmly on the shoulder, and threatened, “Listen, boy, if you utter one more word about a pedophile network, it’ll be the last words you ever utter.”
Mark Madden isn’t stupid, and he innately understood what was being told to him.
Graham Spanier
As previously mentioned, during Graham Spanier’s tenure as PSU president, the university hosted two events that drew incredible amounts of blowback. O
ne, in November 2000, was called CUNTFEST: a Declaration of Independence. To promote this brouhaha, huge banners with the words CUNTFEST were hoisted from campus buildings.
The second, held only months later in February 2001, went by the name Sex Faire.
Games at this gala included “Pin the Clitoris on the Vulva,” “Smut and other Great Literature,” plus “Orgasm Bingo.” In addition, a “Tent of Consent” allowed participants to engage in whatever type of consensual sexual activity they so desired.
One must remember that PSU is a state-funded university using taxpayer money. When enraged legislators—prompted by incensed citizens—asked Spanier if he thought these two events were immoral, he responded, “It depends on what your definition of immoral is.”
Oddly enough, Spanier publicly pronounced that he sought to make PSU the most homosexual-friendly university in America. Moreover, while serving as Chancellor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Spanier requested that all faculty post pink triangles on their office doors in order to show their support for gay and lesbian students.
Creepier yet, one of Spanier’s personal associates at UNL was a man named Ronald Roskens [a past UNL Chancellor and President]. Roskens has been intimately linked to the notorious Franklin Scandal, and then received his termination notice after being photographed with young naked boys at his residence.
Gary Caradori, a private investigator that delved into Franklin, wrote of the circumstances surrounding Roskens’s firing.
“I was informed that Roskens was terminated by the state because of sexual activities reported to the Regents and verified by them. Mr. Roskens was reported to have had young men at his residence for sexual encounters.
As part of the separation from the state, he had to move out of the state-owned house because of the liability to the state if some of his sexual behavior was illegal.”
On July 11, 1990, after obtaining pornographic-pedophile photographs that would have irreversibly exposed Franklin, Caradori was murdered when his Piper aircraft exploded in mid-air, killing him and his eight-year-old son.
It goes without saying that the similarities between these acts of pedophilia in Nebraska show a close resemblance to the alleged Sandusky pedophilia scandal that Spanier helped cover-up at PSU.
In this light, a question must be asked:
Was Spanier brought to PSU because of his close ties to a far-reaching pedophile network in Nebraska?
Was he the hands-on university president that oversaw what many in-the-know at PSU realized was a powder keg that could explode at any moment (and eventually did)?
On November 7, 2011, only two days after Sandusky headlines erupted across the country, Brent Goodwin—a former member of U.S. Naval Intelligence, a former Central Intelligence Agency field officer, and private detective—delivered a scathing expose on Graham Spanier.
Goodwin stated, “Spanier and Roskens are both ‘closeted’ gay men who are sexually aroused by young boys.
They are classic pedophiles. Ronald Roskens has ties to former Franklin Credit Union president and convicted felon/child molester Larry King, as well as a long list of known pedophiles throughout the United States.
Several of Spanier’s ‘military friends’ were recently charged in an international pedophilia scandal at the Department of Defense. Spanier and Roskens were also close friends and longtime associates of convicted child molester Dr. Daniel Schrein.”
Although Goodwin’s words are his and his alone, Roskens did work directly with Spanier at the UNL.
Oh, in case you’re wondering what happened to Spanier after being fired from his post as president of PSU, he announced on April 11, 2012 that he has a new employer: the U.S. federal government where he’ll be working in, of all things, national security.
How convenient, especially since Spanier did such a stellar job protecting the ‘security’ of all those shower facilities on the PSU campus where Sandusky reportedly preyed on numerous pre-teen boys.
Questions
1) Why would PSU engage in such an elaborate cover-up for Sandusky rather than permanently cutting all ties with him (i.e., severing the cancer before it could spread any further)? After all, who in their right mind would want an alleged pedophile in their midst that had been accused multiple times?
2) Why did PSU afford Sandusky all of the many lavish perks heretofore mentioned?
3) Did Gricar harbor a bitter, ongoing resentment of the PSU football program due to being, at least partially, bamboozled by them during the 1998 incident? Is this why his nephew, Tony Gricar, stated that his uncle had had “a bitter taste in his mouth for the program, and it’s coach, and that was not much of a secret?”
4) Did PSU officials deliberately make JoPa a media target to divert attention away from what could potentially be much deeper and darker secrets?
Those questions need to be answered, and I would add a 5th Question now:
Is that why Erickson agreed to such a "sweet" deal with the NCAA?
I just think its way too big a coincidence that a guy who has multiple friends who are pedophiles is just randomly brought in to this situation at penn state.
The people pulling the strings knew his history and brought him in for a reason.
He was almost gone from NU, when PSU hired him and took the "problem" away.
If he was recruited to "run" and "oversee" this kind of environment at Penn State, that is a horrific thought.
Many Husker fans are saddened by this as well. My diploma from UNL has Spanier's name on it. ugh.
PSU BOT recruits and hires President Spanier.
Would have to be BOT member with ties to Second Mile, yet due to cash to Corbett, no investigation of Second Mile, and not charges for Spanier by Corbett's AG Staff?
And Paterno no charges and declared he did the right thing by AG Kelly in Public Press Conference, then Freeh Reports finds Emails that makes AG Kelly & OAG Staff look just not stupid but being complicit to cover up for Corbett?
Not absolving JoPa of everything. He was obviously in the wrong but at the same time was disgusted with the actions of Sandusky i.e. only staying at his retirement dinner a few minutes.
Just think the big picture is being missed.
People with a lot more money and power than JoPa were involved.
Add in if you look at retirement note Joe specifically says no to Jerry bringing kids on campus.
So I am assuming Spanier granted it Something just doesn't seem right that Spanier granted him emeritus status too.
I thought he might be one too. His actions in this entire thing are just strange.
I don't think he was brought in for anything evil but maybe once he was here and around Second Mile kids and Sandusky who knows.
I don't doubt anything at this point.
FIFY
PA Attorney General Tom Corbett's office was obstacle preventing 'VIP' sex ring investigation
Town officials powerless to stop sex ring
'There needs to be a moral investigation of this. It's not gonna come out of the Attorney General's office in Harrisburg'
It's 1996. The Pennsylvania attorney general is an obscure but ambitious political appointee from Pittsburgh named Tom Corbett.
A prominent public figure is caught having sex with a young victim. Investigators would come to believe VIPs are engaging in pedophilia and prostitution, and that the sex ring is well entrenched and politically protected by a corrupt state attorney general's office.
And no one is protecting the young sex victims.
Protecting whom, and why? Gov. Tom Corbett (top) and accused serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky.
Tom Corbett's political agenda and modus operandi began to emerge:
A prominent figure would be sacrificed, but the VIP sex and prostitution ring would be concealed and protected for years. This was done not only to protect Corbett's political allies, but also to protect Corbett's own political fortunes and ambitions.
On Labor Day weekend, 1996 -- about the same time a state grand jury says Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky began using the Penn State athletic shower room and the Second Mile charity to seduce young boys -- a state senator from York, Pennsylvania, Dan Delp, enjoys a weekend of drinking and sex with a 19-year-old girl supplied through contacts with the York County, PA, district attorney's office.
When the pedophile sex scandal becomes public, the case is quickly referred to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.
Corbett and his close allies would time and again obstruct and cover up the sex ring -- for more than fifteen years.
Jim Sneddon was the editor and publisher of the York Dispatch. Sneddon recounts how the attorney for the daily newspaper, Niles Benn, secretly hired a private detective to uncover the truth about the ‘VIP’ sex ring. But then Sneddon was fired, and the newspaper and its lawyer concealed the work of their private eye.
York Police Commissioner Herbert Grofcsik says even he was powerless to expose the courthouse sex ring. Yet the truth slowly emerged.
As well, AG Tom Corbett's political agenda and modus operandi began to emerge.
A prominent figure would be sacrificed, but the VIP sex and prostitution ring would be concealed and protected for years.
This was done not only to protect Corbett's political allies, but also to protect Corbett's own political fortunes and ambitions.
Sound familiar?
In this video, former Pennsylvania Police Chief Herbert Grofcsik discusses how he was forced to ask federal agents for an investigation into the sex abuse of young people at the hands of prominent and protected Pennsylvanians.
As Pennsylvania newspaper editor and publisher Jim Sneddon and others explain it, the overtly political Pennsylvania attorney general's office was the obstacle protecting the sex ring. Soon complaints would emerge that Corbett obstructed any number of high profile investigations to ease and help his path to the Pennsylvania governor's office.
"I said there needs to be a moral investigation of this. It's not gonna come out of the Attorney General's office in Harrisburg," Sneddon says he knew.
But there was a problem: the FBI office in Harrisburg had close working contacts with politicians and law enforcement officials close to the perpetrators and Attorney General Corbett.
"My intention was federal," Grofcsik says. "The reason I didn't go to the FBI in Harrisburg is because we had agents assigned to (the local) police. We had a DEA agent, we had an FBI agent. I have no reason to suspect that they did anything wrong, but because they were there so long, I just felt that they weren't the right people to go to. ... I didn't know where they would go, so I was suspicious of the next couple of levels."
Over the coming years, at every turn, they and others would say the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, and Tom Corbett, stood in the way of stopping VIPs from having sex with children.
Later, court officers would openly boast of enjoying sex with children, and praise Corbett for protecting their illicit activities, and another local DA, Tom Kearney, would be asking federal officials to investigate contractors with ties to Corbett.
DA Kearney told the FBI that concerned citizens and even high-ranking law enforcement officials in York County are helpless to stop the well-placed courthouse pedophile and prostitution ring. DA Kearney in his letter asked the FBI to "review and follow-up."
"I note that both (former York City controller) James Sneddon and former York City Police Chief Herb Grofcsik both confirmed in recorded interviews that information ... was forwarded to ... Federal authorities although it is unclear what became of that investigation," Kearney wrote in a letter sent to the FBI.
Let's go media.
Start digging deeper into this.
This is a way bigger story then trashing JoePa.
Start digging into why Freeh was hired.
Dig man, dig!
It could get you a pulitzer like it did for Sarah Ganim.
Corbett is holding true to the saying "Your best defense is a good offense..."
Notice how anytime anyone questions him how angry he gets and immediately goes on the attack?
He immediately spouts off everything about how the leaders of the university didn't do anything and puts them all on the defense?
Even attacks reporters at times who try follow up questions.
Dig man, dig!
He immediately tries to deflect and put everyone else on the defensive side.
Intersting tactics in that he never answers the questions....what is ol' corby hiding?
Inquiring minds want to know...Dig man, dig!
In truth it might be the only thing that can save Penn State, is for the truth about all of this to hit the light.
Corbett, IMO, was always the major player in all of this.
It has always been about how to best handle the ever changing story as to deflect attention to where it deserved to be.
If Corbett gets what he deserves, how quickly this will unravel.
Would love to see the NCAA try and spin a false report by Freeh, brought from the BOT, directed by Corbett.
Maybe do your own investigation you sorry human beings scumbag or become a noble Reporter exposing the full truth!
Quite the track record our Governor has in this department!
"When the pedophile sex scandal becomes public, the case is quickly referred to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.
Corbett and his close allies would time and again obstruct and cover up the sex ring -- for more than fifteen years.
Jim Sneddon was the editor and publisher of the York Dispatch. Sneddon recounts how the attorney for the daily newspaper, Niles Benn, secretly hired a private detective to uncover the truth about the 'VIP' sex ring.
But then Sneddon was fired, and the newspaper and its lawyer concealed the work of their private eye.
York Police Commissioner Herbert Grofcsik says even he was powerless to expose the courthouse sex ring. Yet the truth slowly emerged.
As well, AG Tom Corbett's political agenda and modus operandi began to emerge.
A prominent figure would be sacrificed, but the VIP sex and prostitution ring would be concealed and protected for years.
This was done not only to protect Corbett's political allies, but also to protect Corbett's own political fortunes and ambitions.
Sound familiar?"
ChiTownLion
VIDEO DEPOSITION LINKS:
http://www.yardbird.com/tv_police_chief_cant_stop_pedophile_sex_ring.htm
Police Chief Herbert Grofcsik discusses
'VIP' sex and pedophile ring protected by
Pennsylvania attorney general's office
Tom Corbett caught in spin cycle
What's the truth about Gov. Tom Corbett's
role in the Penn State - Jerry Sandusky case?
Don't ask Tom Corbett
Seeking to draw attention away from his scandalously bad performance as state attorney general, Tom Corbett last week chose to call attention to his shortcomings as Pennsylvania's governor.
Freeh Report ignores obvious question: What about Tom Corbett?
Freeh Report 7-12-12
Hours after the July 12 release of the Freeh Report on the Penn State-Jerry Sandusky scandal, reporters in Harrisburg asked Gov. Corbett about his two or three year delay in bringing the case to court while he was attorney general.
"Has it led you to ponder at all whether as attorney general you could have done anything different in your investigation to move faster or alert the public somehow?" asked a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Why are you all obsessed with that?" Corbett angrily shot back. He banged the podium with his finger. "It has been answered over and over and over!"
Corbett went on, "To continue to ask that question, quite honestly, is, in my mind, out of line."
But it's a question that's important to many Pennsylvanians. And it should be.
'That little boy in the shower'
Corbett's politicized "Bonusgate" distractions and his assigning of a single state trooper to the Sandusky case aren't the only issues that have been politically spun with revisionist intent by Corbett and his staff.
Corbett has also personally re-spun such issues as whether he, by mentioning a victimized little boy in the shower with Sandusky, buffaloed and stampeded the Penn State Board of Trustees into taking hasty action.
The controversy is whether Corbett frightened and bullied the Board of Trustees into a rush to judgment to fire Coach Joe Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier on November 9, 2011, in an effort to create scapegoats, smokescreens, and diversions from Corbett's own political foot-dragging and legal misbehavior.
Last January, I wrote:
"On November 9, 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett indulged the Penn State board of trustees, by telephone, to throw Joe Paterno under the bus. At the moment of the vote to fire Paterno, Corbett said over the speakerphone, 'Remember that little boy in the shower.'
"From the 31 trustees in the room there was no response.
No question.
No objection.
Just silence. Despite the illustrious backgrounds of most of them, they all marched in lockstep, following Corbett's lead.
The obvious complaint against Corbett here (aside from blatant emotional manipulation of the trustees) is that Corbett himself had done little or nothing to help "that little boy."
It suggested the rank hypocrisy of a foot-dragging former-AG Corbett now scolding the trustees that they must do something.
Penn State Trustee Tom Corbett was shocked shocked! to see what was going on at Penn State!
By talking about a specific young victim of a specific horrific crime, the implication was that Corbett was intimidating trustees to vote his way, less dissenting trustees risk ignoring the lead of the former attorney general and sitting governor.
There was an uproar after others and I began writing about this.
Gov. Corbett and his spin doctors quickly denied he'd ever mentioned in such graphic detail a specific victimized child.
Corbett instead suggested that he merely, mildly, generically and harmlessly, told the trustees to "remember the children."
There is a profound emotional difference.
By mentioning a specific victimized child, Corbett was politically and/or legally manipulating the Board of Trustees to instantly and recklessly act in a case that Corbett himself for years had alternately ignored, stonewalled and politically manipulated.
Now Tom Corbett's shocked, shocked to see what's going on here!
Gov. Corbett, lo these many months, after all had been sitting on the Penn State Board of Trustees as silent and stone-faced as Buster Keaton or Cal Coolidge.
Corbett, after all, had taken campaign money from and doled state money to Sandusky's Second Mile Charity.
It's easy to see why trustees and others at Penn State and the Second Mile Charity may have come to believe that Sandusky had been given Corbett's seal of approval.
But now, by God, on November 9, 2011, Tom Corbett was demanding decisive, instant action from his fellow trustees.
'Remember that ten-year-old child'
A review of taped statements by Gov. Corbett shows his shifting political spin over the months concerning what he may have said over the speakerphone to the Board of Trustees about the sodomized child.
This video clip shows Corbett talking about the controversy on two separate occasions, three months apart, in November 2011, and then February 2012:
VIDEO LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnNfGo5_tfk
On November 10, 2011, the day after Paterno and Spanier were fired, Corbett is asked by a reporter, "Did you actually weigh in with your disappointment to the board members before they had their meeting last night?"
Corbett replies, "I won't go into the deliberations of the board meeting last night. I sat and I listened. I will say that I reminded the board that we must remember that 10-year-old-child and the other children."
(This exchange comes about 8 minutes and 45 seconds into this tape of the press conference, also found here:
SECOND VIDEO LINK:
http://videos.pennlive.com/patriot-news/2011/11/pennsylvania_governor_tom_corb_4.html)
Corbett in this first video specifically says, "I reminded the board that we must remember that 10-year-old-child."
He refers to a specific victim of a horrific criminal act.
After the uproar caused by trustees complaining that Corbett had actually said, "Remember that little boy in the shower," Corbett quickly changed his words.
In this video clip taped by WJAC-TV on February 8, 2012, -- one minute into the tape -- the interviewer and Corbett say:
Interviewer: "The governor does have a seat at the table for the Penn State trustees and Corbett says when they met in November to consider Paterno and Spanier's status, he was on the speaker phone and before the vote here's what he said:
Corbett: "The only thing I said was that you have to remember the children. That was it.
I listened. This was their discussion. Because I, being the investigator, it's a little bit different.
The only thing as I said was is they have to remember the children. People may have different memories, but I know exactly what I said."
Interviewer: "Corbett denies reports he said, 'Remember the boy in the shower,' referring to one of Sandusky's alleged victims."
'Like a lonely Maytag repairman, Trooper Yakicic quietly handled the case by himself for the first 18 months or so it languished in the AG's office'
At first blush, this perhaps might seem like a small difference, but, in this overheated story, it's not. It's a big deal.
It illustrates whether Corbett, as he spins it, was only playing a "small role" at the November 9 Board of Trustees meeting (which after all led to a student riot on campus).
Or, on the other hand, whether Corbett was acting as a Machiavellian Svengali to cover his own slow tracks when attorney general and to protect his own vulnerable political hide.
It goes to Corbett's credibility, staked against the credibility of trustees, and those writing about the trustees.
In an article written by Don Van Natta in ESPN Magazine, for example, posted on April 4, 2012, the writer expounds on this important and telling controversy.
Van Natta writes that (Corbett spokesman Kevin) "Harley had previously referred ... ESPN The Magazine to several recent local TV interviews in which Corbett explained what he described as the minor role he played in the trustees' deliberations regarding Paterno and Spanier.
"This was their discussion," Corbett said in a Feb. 8 interview with WJAC-TV. "The only thing I said is that they have to remember the children. People may have different memories, but I remember exactly what I said."
"'That is a bald-faced lie,' one trustee says,'" writes Van Natta.
So who's lying?
Corbett's November 10 taped statement bolsters this trustee's claim that Corbett is lying about the specifics of what he told the Board.
Someone here sure is lying. By writ of his own shifting words, it looks like it's the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Number of investigators and 'Bonusgate'
Aside from the crimes perpetrated by Sandusky, there is obvious broad concern about the extraordinary length of time it took -- more than a decade -- for state institutions to do anything to stop Sandusky.
The heart of the controversy involving Corbett is whether he ran the state attorney general's office not as a straight-shooting law enforcement officer, but as a calculating, double-talking and double-dealing politician.
Increasingly entangled in this controversy of his own making, Gov. Corbett The Politician has alternately tried to shift the blame and avoid the hard questions, even as he offers a revisionist campaign of political spin.
Corbett and his staff have sunk to bending or denying facts that they once openly joked about.
None of this is working very well for Gov. Tom Corbett. Or for Pennsylvania.
These bare facts are by now well known:
• AG Corbett for more than a year assigned the bare minimum of a single state trooper to the Sandusky case. This allowed the investigation to languish while Corbett ran for governor.
• While he ignored Sandusky, Corbett instead assigned finite AG office resources into his grandiose and highly political "Bonusgate" prosecutions, which were the cornerstone of his political campaign for governor.
One of Corbett's political opponents convicted in "Bonusgate," former state Rep. Bill DeWeese, went so far as to complain this January that AG Corbett "had 14 prosecutors and agents tearing my life ... apart. He had one investigator on Jerry Sandusky."
Corbett spokesperson Kevin Harley wisecracked at the time, "Is (DeWeese) complaining or bragging?"
Corbett and his staff aren't laughing now.
King o' Sobby: Aside from the famous Lone Ranger -- or rather, lone state trooper -- Gov. Corbett now says he put another investigator on Jerry Sandusky's trail ...
At his angry July 12 press conference, Gov. Corbett now suggested that the number of investigators he assigned to the Sandusky investigation was three.
Gov. Corbett told reporters that he had, in addition to the now-famous Lone Ranger -- I mean the Lone State Trooper -- assigned AG Office Bureau of Narcotics Agent Anthony Sassano to the case, as well as Sassano's supervisor, Randy Feathers.
But this too is stretching and spinning the truth. Feathers is the supervisor of the narcotics bureau, and is Sassano's boss. As such Feather's involvement comes automatically with Narcotics Agent Sassano, who actually was the investigator.
During Sandusky's trial, in fact, it was suggested that the lone state trooper assigned to the case, Robert Yakicic, thought he had enough evidence early on to bring a case, but that he was "unauthorized" to do so.
Like a lonely Maytag repairman, Trooper Yakicic quietly handled the case by himself for the first 18 months or so it languished in the AG's office. The investigation was so hobbled, the Freeh report suggests, that Penn State officials and trustees didn't take the investigation seriously, even when the university was finally subpoenaed for records, or when top school employees were brought before a grand jury.
As I first wrote this January, AG's Office Bureau of Narcotics Agent Anthony Sassano came to the case much later, in mysterious circumstances, around the time of Corbett's election as governor, in late 2010.
Among the serious questions left unanswered by Corbett is how and why Narcotics Agent Sassano came to be involved in the Sandusky investigation. (Internal labor agreements in the AG's office forbid using narcotics agents for investigations other than those involving narcotics.)
As well, State Trooper Yakicic's inability to early on file charges against Sandusky appears to stem from restrictions put in place by the elected AG's front office to politically control cases like Sandusky's.
"In the old days, agents and troopers ran the cases," I wrote in January. "They would consult with the deputy AGs mostly for matters like legal advice and warrants. For the most part, back then, investigators were in the driver's seat. They'd file charges, and the AG's office would follow through."
But, as I pointed out, starting around 2003, a new policy for criminal investigations required agents and troopers to consult closely with a deputy AG for what was called the direction, scope and flow of a case.
AG Office Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) agents were tied up by gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett: agents were assigned by Corbett to perform questionable tasks like this arrest by news conference
"Simply put, if a deputy AG was not allowed by superiors to push a case, or did not approve of its 'direction, scope or flow,' the case would go nowhere, no matter how many cops or investigators were put on the job."
AG narcotics bureau supervisor Randy Feathers, for his part, in a June 24, 2012 interview with the Altoona Mirror, is quoted as saying, "During the Bonusgate investigation, we had a shortage of investigators in Harrisburg."
As I wrote in January, AG Office Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) agents were tied up by gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett: these agents were assigned by Corbett to perform questionable tasks like "arrests by news conferences," and background checks on hundreds of potential "Bonusgate" jurors.
Undermines Freeh PSU Report
These tapes documenting what Gov. Corbett may or may not have said to the PSU Board of Trustees also serves to undermine the credibility of former FBI Director Louis Freeh's report, paid for by Penn State.
On page 99 of the report, Freeh discusses interviewing confused trustees about what Corbett might have told the Board of Trustees on November 9.
Freeh and his team, paid $6.5 million by the state-funded school for this purposefully limited "report," never reviewed Corbett's own statements on tape.
Freeh was instructed to only investigate Penn State personnel and trustees. But isn’t Corbett a trustee? Constraints put on Freeh raise questions that deserve an investigation in themselves.
From the report (page 99), (the only mention, by the way, of Corbett in the entire Freeh Report):
"The Trustees have differing recollections of Governor Thomas Corbett’s role in the Board discussion. Some Trustees recall people asking if the Governor was still on the phone line, as he was quiet during parts of the call. Some Trustees, including Corbett himself, said Corbett did not assert himself more than other Trustees. At least one said Surma gave Corbett the opportunity to do so. Some Trustees recall Corbett saying something right before the vote on Paterno along the lines of “I hope you’ll remember the children.” Others described him as being vocal and playing a leadership role in the meeting."
For six-and-a-half million, why didn't Freeh do a more thorough job and interrogate Trustee Corbett?
What else has Freeh ignored or turned a blind eye to?
And what else about Tom Corbett?
'Out of line'
As we see, political spin has been injected into this sad affair, due to the conflicts of interest involving Corbett as both a politician and the state's chief law enforcement officer.
Is this what Pennsylvanians want in their governor's office, or in their law enforcement offices?
And the question yet remains and begs further exploration of whether Corbett learned about the Sandusky matter as part of whatever inadequate investigation was made of the disappearance and likely murder in 2005 of Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar. Gricar was in charge of an earlier Sandusky investigation and, a few days before his disappearance, had appeared with Corbett at a press conference about a narcotics prosecution.
At the heart of the growing Corbett-Sandusky scandal is whether the offices of the Pennsylvania Attorney General and the Governor have finally been so perverted by politics and political contributions that children for years were allowed to be raped for political gain.
Politician Tom Corbett made several Faustian bargains, and now he's paying the devil.
Troubled Tom Corbett, ensnared in a growing scandal of his own making, is out of line to suggest these questions should not be raised.
-- Bill Keisling IV
Posted July 21, 2012
The NCAA will fold it house of cards SOOOOO fast it will make your head spin if the POLITICAL SCANDAL that is attached to all of this becomes public.
If not, they will be judged as accomplices to a MAJOR criminal act.
If they had any meetings or conversations with ANYONE even remotely involved with political allies of the cover up, I can see SERIOUS JAIL TIME for MANY NCAA personnel.
Have Faith PSU....THIS IS NOT OVER YET! Not by a long shot!
The question I've had during this and the entire Bonusgate travesty is where, oh where, is that bucktoothed jackass Jeb Wagner?
WEB EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
Victim Claims Sandusky Sex Scandal Connected to Philadelphia Pedophile Network!
July 22, 2012 AFP
By Victor Thorn
On November 11, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania radio talk show host Mark Madden dropped a bombshell during an appearance on Boston’s WEEI when he told radio talk show hosts John Dennis and Gerry Callahan, “I hear there’s a rumor that there will be a more shocking development from the The Second Mile (TSM)—and hold on to your stomachs, boys, this is gross—that Jerry Sandusky and the Second Mile were pimping out young boys to rich donors.”
Now, further evidence that Jerry Sandusky’s TSM was being used to traffic underage boys to wealthy donors took a major step forward via a July 19 interview with Greg Bucceroni, currently employed as a school police officer in the Philadelphia, Pa. school district while also volunteering with the District Attorney’s office.
Bucceroni told this reporter, “In 1979 and 1980—when I was 13 and 14 years old—a well-connected pedophile named Edward Savitz took me on trips from Philadelphia to TSM fundraisers.
I knew the minute I got there it was a breeding ground because of Savitz’s involvement. While [Jerry] Sandusky interacted with wealthy donors, the other men were sizing-up kids.
I felt like a cheap whore because I was in these naked pictures that Savitz was passing around.”
When asked how certain he was in regard to these claims, Bucceroni replied, “I’m sure of it.
Savitz talked about taking kids from Philly to TSM and introducing them to men—soliciting them to ‘his friends.’
They exchanged and swapped kids like baseball cards. It was a feeding frenzy.
I felt like a prostitute or a go-go dancer at a bachelor party. I felt dirty, used and cheap.”
When it came to TSM’s founder, Bucceroni didn’t overplay what happened.
“Savitz introduced me to Sandusky on two separate occasions, but he didn’t come across like a pedophile.
The other guys at these functions, though, were different.
I could tell from their body language what they had in mind.
When I met him, Jerry was a like a movie star.
Everyone called him ‘Coach.’
After Savitz hand-delivered my enrollment forms to him, Jerry grabbed me by the shoulder—not in a sexual way—and said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.’ Savitz told me that Jerry would take kids to football games.”
Sexually abused victims who testified at the Sandusky trial in Bellefonte, Pa. confirmed this point.
As questioning turned to other individuals at these get-togethers, Bucceroni remarked, “They were obviously wealthy—like doctors, attorneys, politicians and businessmen—and I could tell some were married from their wedding rings.
But their body language gave away their intentions.
On my second trip to TSM, I went with Savitz, another pedophile, and a boy my age.
Savitz mingled with the other adults, discreetly showing them child porn pictures that he’d brought along.
These are the kinds of places where guys from New York, Jersey and Pa. interact.
Plus, with all the Penn State hoopla, TSM promoted itself as an alternative to jail or juvenile hall.
They said it was the best thing since peanut butter and jelly. But Sandusky is just one in a handful of them.
I hope you shine a light on this society of pedophiles.”
On July 16, nearly a month after Jerry Sandusky’s conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse, Sara Ganim of Harrisburg’s Patriot-News revealed, “Sources close to the Jerry Sandusky case say that three men have come forward and told police that they were abused in the 1970s or 1980s by the convicted pedophile.”
She continued, “If found to be credible, [they] would directly attack the 68-year-old’s defense argument that a person doesn’t become a pedophile in his or her 50s.”
The Story’s Beginning
During our July 19 interview, Greg Bucceroni described himself back in the mid-to-late 1970s as “a young tough John Travolta-type kid with a New York accent—a poster boy for juvenile delinquency that got in lots of trouble.”
In 1976 he met Edward Savitz, a “youth advocate,” Democratic political booster, and big donor to then-Philadelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell.
In a July 17 article for the New York Daily News, Christian Reid wrote, “Savitz was finally arrested in March 1992, charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sex abuse of children, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of a minor. He died of AIDS in a hospice days before his trial was to begin in April 1993.”
Reid also noted, “Like Sandusky, Savitz met and groomed many of his alleged victims through his work with at-risk youths.”
In this context, Reid continued, “…Savitz would engage in oral sex with Bucceroni and other victims. Savitz’s attorney, Barnaby Wittels, told the Daily News Savitz paid his victims in exchange for them performing deviant acts.”
Lastly, “There were over 5,000 photos of Savitz’s many alleged victims recovered by authorities from Savitz’s apartment, including many of Bucceroni,” Reid wrote.
Bucceroni continued this narrative.
“Instead of going to juvenile jail, Savitz pushed me toward TSM.
My stepfather had already filled-out the paperwork, so when we drove up there [32 years later, Bucceroni can’t recall the exact location], Savitz said he’d keep me out of jail if I ‘treated his friends right.’
Back in those days I didn’t know anything about Penn State or Jerry Sandusky.
My whole goal was to stay out of jail, so I went along with it.
Afterward, Savitz gave me and the other kids money and gifts and alcohol, but a couple of months after the TSM trip I beat him up when he tried to molest me.
That’s what caused him to call the police.”
Prompted to describe what Savitz did to him, Bucceroni explained, “He liked me to defecate on him, perform oral sex on me, or else he’d take naked pictures and masturbate while other juveniles had sex.
Savitz also wanted me to introduce him to other kids.
Savitz had an entire photo album from TSM.
Over the decades, I’d say he probably had hundreds, if not thousands, of victims until his arrest in 1992. Time magazine even wrote about him.”
Indeed, an April 13, 1992 Time magazine article entitled “Uncle Ed’s Ugly Secret” began, “To the teenage boys who visited his apartment near Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square, Ed Savitz was an easy client who paid $15 for oral sex and had a fetish for soiled underwear and socks.
Health and law-enforcement officials fear that Savitz was also a walking AIDS time bomb.”
Fast Forward
In November 2011 when the Sandusky scandal broke, Bucceroni spoke of his reaction.
“After I told the Philadelphia police about Savitz in 1980, I tried to bury my past for the next 30 years.
But everything I heard about TSM really hit home.
There were all these allegations about TSM and their well-connected donors.
So, I decided, since all of this stuff from my youth screwed up my life, maybe I could help other kids.”
But, Bucceroni insists, the process has brought about many hardships.
“It would’ve been easier to get in the ring and fight Mike Tyson than come out and talk about this stuff.
I don’t have an agenda, Eddie Savitz is dead, and I don’t plan on suing anybody.
All I know is that if the Philly police had listened to me in 1980 and done their work, there’s a chance that the Penn State sex scandal could have been avoided. But the police did nothing.”
On a final note, Bucceroni added, “There are a lot of politicians that take money from these wealthy pedophiles.
That’s why the Freeh Report didn’t go very deep. He kept the focus limited.
Similarly, the mainstream media hasn’t—for the most part—touched this story either.”
The big question now is: will local and national TV stations, news reporters, and radio talk show hosts investigate this hidden angle, or will they continue to provide cover for a network of perverted pedophiles that prey on vulnerable children at supposed “safe havens” like TSM?
If they continue to stay silent, they’re as guilty as all the others who’ve covered up this atrocity.
My name is Paul Soentgen, and my family tried to enlist the help of this Jonnelle Eshbach in a public corruption and race case involving my black wife Virginia Soentgen. This Ms. Eshbach had her henchman Cirby Conrad personally throw my then 15 year old daughter Heather and her 16 year old boyfriend and myself out of the attorney general's lobby in strawberry square, where this monster refused to accept any evidence that we had in hand, let along allow us access to the Attorney General's office of Ms. Eshbach. This cover-up by Ms. Eshbach, a brutally evil woman, has led to my family being pauperized, my daughter Lauren's severe bulimia, and Heather Soentgen, now 19 in a wheel chair, among other disasters. To check out this evil monster and corrupt is Pennsylvania, please preview: THE LYNCHING OF VIRGINIA SOENTGEN on YouTube, or go to our nationally known web site at:
www.Photobucket.com/albums/a88/Psoentgen/ How could this Penn State thing happen - cover-up should be the state motto, and Tom Corbett is the no. 1 monster in charge at this time.
Corbett's dual role as Penn State trustee, former attorney general under scrutiny!
HARRISBURG— Gov. Tom Corbett knew Penn State was going to be facing the worst crisis in its history, but his inability to warn other school trustees about the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case before the former assistant coach’s arrest has critics questioning which role should have been more important: school leader or a former prosecutor.
Corbett’s unique dual role — Penn State trustee and the state’s former attorney general — came into focus once again with last week’s release of an investigative report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh. It criticized an out-of-touch board for its lax oversight of the university, and for failing to probe deeply enough when it learned of the grand jury probe six months before Sandusky’s arrest.
“His fiduciary responsibility as a board member to put the university first was almost certainly compromised by both his own personal involvement and his role as governor who must put the interests of the state first,” said Barbara Doran, a Penn State graduate who narrowly lost election to the board this year.
Corbett couldn’t tell his colleagues even if he wanted to.
As the former state attorney general whose office had spent the past two years building a case against Sandusky, he was bound by a legal straitjacket — the state law that cloaks grand juries in secrecy.
“I was not in the position to tell them anything while this was going on,” he said Thursday following an unrelated news conference.
More than anyone else, Corbett was in a position to prepare the board for a scandal that has seriously tarnished Penn State’s reputation. But Jules Epstein, a professor at Widener University School of Law in Delaware, said Pennsylvania law “absolutely prohibited Mr. Corbett from disclosing this information to the board of trustees.”
As attorney general, “Mr. Corbett’s job was to investigate crimes, get them investigated well, and not to blow an investigation by telling anyone else prematurely,” Epstein said.
A trustee would normally have an obligation to share potentially damaging information with fellow board members or the school’s administration, said Richard Legon, president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
“I don’t think it is healthy for a board member to sit on critical information that can affect institutional risk,” said Legon, speaking generally and not about Penn State.
As a full voting member of the board, Corbett has all the same rights and responsibilities as any other trustee, including a responsibility to “support the university’s mission” and “act ... at all times in the best interests of the university,” according to the board’s governing documents.
Corbett’s spokesman Kevin Harley contended it was “neither his duty nor his obligation” to alert the trustees about the Sandusky investigation. Historically, governors do not enmesh themselves in board issues.
The governor himself, though, has seemed to suggest he could have taken a more active role.
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At the board’s May 2011 regular meeting, Penn State lawyer Cynthia Baldwin informed trustees about the grand jury investigation and revealed that Paterno, Penn State President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz had testified.
But she also said that Penn State did not “appear to be a focus of the investigation,” and trustees complained that Baldwin and Spanier minimized the impact it would have on the school, according to the Freeh report.
Corbett missed the May meeting. But he told Freeh’s investigators that, had he attended, “he would have asked more questions or prompted other trustees to ask further questions,” the report said.
Corbett did participate in the board’s Nov. 9 decision to oust Spanier and Paterno, but his precise role remains unclear.
Some of the trustees, and Corbett himself, said he played no greater role in the debate than any other trustee, while other board members say the governor was a vocal participant, the report said.
“Some trustees recall Corbett saying something right before the vote on Paterno along the lines of ‘I hope you’ll remember the children,’ ” the report said.
Trustees meeting behind closed doors in Scranton last week expressed no anger at Corbett’s neglect to prepare them for the scandal, said a trustee, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the board discussions were considered private.
The trustee said there was far more consternation about the failure of three board members, including former board chairman Steve Garban, to alert the full 32-member board when they learned in late October that Sandusky, as well as Curley and Schultz, were about to be arrested.
Corbett has aggressively defended his handling of the Sandusky investigation against criticism that, as attorney general, he initially assigned too few investigators to the case and allowed Sandusky to walk free for more than two years before his arrest.
Last week, he exploded at a reporter who asked again about the pace of the investigation.
“Why are you all obsessed with that? It’s been answered. It has been answered over and over and over,” he said, rapping the podium.
Corbett kept his composure Thursday as he fielded more questions about Penn State and acknowledged he has read only two-thirds of the week-old Freeh report.
He said was disappointed by the university’s “incomplete” response to subpoenas issued by prosecutors early in their investigation. He cited court papers that said emails contradicting the grand jury testimony of Schultz, Curley and “others” were only recently turned over even though they were subpoenaed long ago.
Asked if he thought administrators obstructed justice, Corbett said, “I have my own opinion and I am not going to share it with you.”
The agency’s investigators “are certainly checking into it to see why emails were not turned in earlier,” said Bruce Antkowiak, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at St. Vincent’s University. “That doesn’t mean there was obstruction of justice. Obstruction is not something you can commit negligently. It is a crime of specific intent.”
The governor was responding to reporters’ questions about why former Freeh’s report on the scandal last week had emails that were not provided to the attorney general. The 1998 and 2001 emails were “the most important evidence in this investigation,” Freeh said.
The university’s trustees hired Freeh’s law firm in the aftermath of Sandusky’s arrest on child molestation charges last November. Corbett, a former federal prosecutor, said he recommended Freeh.
Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/07/20/3266906/corbetts-role-under-scrutiny.html#storylink
Citizens of Pennsylvania,
The above postings demonstrate a requirement for the state House of Representatives to conduct an Impeachment inquiry of Governor Tom Corbett. The PA Constitution states impeachment is based on "any misbehavior in office."
Will attorney Majority Leader Mike Turzai bring the legislation to the Floor of the House?
An additional question is, which state Senator will lead the Impeachment Trial in the Senate Chambers?
Please ask your Legislator.
I just read about the "Franklin Scandal" the pedophilia ring in Nebraska that sent kids to east coast for parties.
I read it had tied to powerful Republicans in Bush Administration but the weird part here is the place where Second Miles Assets are being transferred is in Texas, it had a Penn State Alumni 1965 as COO who has ties to Harrisburg and one of the woman who is second in command is a Bush.
I really don't know what to think anymore.
I am referring to the thread that goes something like "It might be a crazy theory but... " by a Huskers fan?
If not, you may want to read the links they posted in that thread about the Franklin/ Boys Town scandal.
Interesting stuff if true.
With all the play that Sandusky got, and all the victims who surfaced to testify against him, where are the victims accusing others who would be in this bizarre trade of underage kids?
With the bonanza of cash and prizes ready to be handed out by PSU to victims, seemingly without objection, where are they?
It also said while investigating the Franklin Scandal a number of people went missing.
Sound familiar?
Oh please... They are getting more money to shut up...or fear getting hurt. All JMO of course?
A certain party already paid them off.
Mmm, this smells like wacko conspiracy theory.
Anyone knowledgeable?
It also said while investigating the Franklin Scandal a number of people went missing.
Sound familiar?
Oh please... They are getting more money to shut up...or fear getting hurt. All JMO of course?
A certain party already paid them off.
Mmm, this smells like wacko conspiracy theory.
Anyone knowledgeable?
Didn't Corbett publicly state that he accepted campaign contributions from the Second Mile Board and PSU BOT in order to avoid having to refuse contributions and offer an excuse which could have raised questions and interfered with the integrity of the Sandusky investigation?
So now that the Sandusky trial is over, he can return those particular campaign contributions. After all, he gave a $3 million state grant to TSM and then took it away from the kids.
Let's have a full accounting so Corbett's Campaign Treasurer can return the moneys.
Corbett can not give the money to charity, according to state campaign law, but he can give it to other campaigns.
How about Corbett contributing an equal share to the campaigns of each member of the Legislature opposed to child pedophilia?
That would be legal and affirm the Governors position and that of the members of the General Assembly to be aware of the issue and always listen to the kids in their Districts.
Gov. Corbett angrily rebuked a reporter who asked whether he could have moved faster on the nearly three-year investigation of child abuser Jerry Sandusky.
Following the recent release of Louis Freeh's report on the Penn State scandal, Gov. Corbett took questions from the media about the investigation of serial child molester Jerry Sandusky, which began when Corbett was attorney general.
When asked if he could have expedited the three-year investigation and taken the former assistant coach off the streets earlier, Corbett pounded the lectern and angrily insisted,
"We do not hold up investigations for anything."
He added that the question was "out of line" because it supposedly disparaged the rank-and-file investigators and prosecutors who worked the case.
Corbett's apoplectic reaction was strange indeed.
As he must have known, no one was questioning the excellent work of the law enforcement personnel who brought Sandusky to justice.
The questions concerned Corbett's leadership and allocation of resources to the investigation while he was heading the Attorney General's Office and running for governor.
Corbett initially assigned one or possibly two investigators to the Sandusky case, according to reports.
This puny allocation of personnel continued for the remainder of his term as attorney general, during which time he ran successfully for governor.
On taking over for Corbett in 2011, his successor as attorney general, Linda L. Kelly, promptly ramped up the investigation and increased its staffing, which led to Sandusky's highly publicized arrest and conviction.
So why did Corbett take such a relatively lackadaisical approach to what promised to be a high-profile case? It is more than fair to ask whether the then-gubernatorial candidate had concerns about alienating the vast Penn State community of voters and potential donors by arresting Sandusky, an icon of the university's football program, before the election. The question is especially pertinent given that Corbett's campaign reportedly accepted more than $640,000 in donations from people associated with Sandusky's charity, the Second Mile.
In addition, after he became governor, Corbett approved a $3 million state grant to the Second Mile. He did this knowing that a child molestation case was being built that could destroy Sandusky and discredit his charity.
Corbett claims that he had to approve the grant because to do otherwise would have revealed that Sandusky was under scrutiny. Seriously? Was there no way to defer action on the grant? Was it really a choice between approval or rejection? Of course not. There are many ways Corbett could have punted on the funding without alerting the world to the Sandusky investigation.
As governor, Corbett is an ex-officio trustee of Penn State.
According to the Freeh report, when the board met to decide the fate of Joe Paterno and others, Corbett admonished his fellow trustees to "remember the children."
That was good advice. But we must
I don't like posting on another schools message board, but I have a question regarding this situation that I have not seen brought up or answered.
I apologize if this has been posted on your board and I have not seen it.
Can anyone tell me what was the Second Mile's policy regarding background checks?
I simply don't understand how a youth organization or the AG that knew allows a man to be around children, who has been investigated for child molestion.
And did the Second Mile know about the 1998 investigation?
If they didn't know, how come nobody told them?
In my opinion that is the root of the problem, but instead of going after the root of the problem, people would rather tarnish a legend.
I think if people really were concerned about the victims, the ultimate goal would be to ensure a child molester never works with a youth organization again as opposed to caring about a statue, a wins record, bowl games, or number of scholarships a school has.
CORBUTT NEEDS TO BE FIRED FOR NOT IMMEDIATELY FILING CHARGES , but rather plotted and planned and used public employees and his public paid position to benefit his career advancement...
PENN STATE CANNOT HEAL UNTIL THE LAST SHOE FALLS ON THE IMMORAL JUDGEMENT OF A PUBLICLY PAID EMPLOYEE, WHO CHOOSES TO SERVE HIMSELF FIRST, RATHER THAN SERVE THE PUBLIC...
this so called COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYEE, has treated himself to our wealth and now NEEDS TO BR REMOVED FROM HIS DO-NOTHING OFFICE and the PENN STATE BOARD which he FAILED MISERABLY!
Penn State and Penn State Football keeps getting punished by the REPUBLIC PARTY POLITICIANS and SURROGATES who have infiltrated PENN STATE and the NCAA...
THOMAS CORBUTT took 4 years to mastermind a REPUBLIC PARTY TROPHY since his hidden agenda is to destroy public institutions...
THOMAS CORBUTT is not the solution...he and his REPUBLIC PARTY MEMBERS will cleaverly plot and plan ways to destroy public institutions and replace them with REPUBLIC PARTY DONOR INSTITUTIONS lead by their CEO MILLIONAIRE AND BILLIONAIRE DONORS...
KEEP VOTING REPUBLIC PARTY AND PENN STATE WILL KEEP ON GETTING PUNISHED...NO MATTER WHAT....THE REPUBLIC PARTY AND CORBUTT ARE TRYING TO RIG THE NEXT ELECTION, FIXING A SEX ABUSE SCANDAL IS EASY FOR THEM...ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY WANT TO DO THINGS FAST AND MAKE PEOPLE "JUST CLOSE THEIR EYES"...
WE ARE PENN STATE AND AS A PENN STATER I WILL BLEED BLUE BLOOD BEFORE LETTING THE CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC PARTY CRIMINAL INSTITUTION DESTROY OUR PENNSYLVANIA AND PENN STATE PRIDE!!!
We need a full and complete investigation of Tom Corbett and his Office of the Attorney General. 32 years of elected Republican Attorney Generals must stop.
LeRoy Zimmerman served 8 years as AG and is currently under investigation by Corbett/Kelly/Freed?????.
Remember Freed is LeRoy's Son in Law.
Earnie Preate went to Federal prison and did not complete his 8 year obligation. Tom Corbett became the unelected AG to complete the second term.
Mike Fisher went to Federal Court
and did not complete his 8 year obligation. Jerry Pappert, campaign manager and Chief of Staff, became the unelected AG to complete the second term.
Tom Corbett ran for Governor and did not complete his 8 year obligation. Linda Kelly was appointed by Corbett to complete his second term.
Pennsylvania needs a full time Attorney General with no ties to Corbett.
The House of Representatives needs to step forward and impeach Corbett for misbehavior in office so the Senate can conduct a Trial.
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