Posted on 11/17/2011 12:13:11 PM PST by mojito
A critical break in the investigation of Jerry Sandusky came via a posting on the Internet: a random mention that a Penn State football coach, years before, might have seen something ugly, but kept silent.
Investigators with the Pennsylvania attorney generals office had by 2010 already come to the conclusion that Sandusky, the longtime defensive coordinator for Joe Paternos Nittany Lions, was a serial molester, according to two people with knowledge of the case. But what had started with a complaint of sexual assault from a high school freshman had grown to include another matter altogether: whether Penn State had acted to cover up Sanduskys behavior, even crimes.
[....]
Officials at the Second Mile, the charity for at-risk children that Sandusky founded and that prosecutors say he used to target victims, reported that several years of the organizations records were missing and had perhaps been stolen. The missing files, investigators worry, may limit their ability to determine if Sandusky used charity resources expense accounts, travel, gifts to recruit new victims, or even buy their silence, according to two people with knowledge of the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I, too, am against making wild accusations. An accusation can destroy a person’s life. The initial headlines are on the front page. The aquittal is buried on page ten.
However, this isn’t a wild accusation. This is grand jury testimony that was done under oath. I think that carries a little more weight.
Of course there has been a cover up, that’s been obvious from day one.. the question is WHY...
Too many people IMHO had to turn a blind eye for too long for this just to have been a lone wolf thing. I know state college is a small town, and I know all about how things work in such places, but even that cannot explain away how many people HAD to look the other way, for this guy to do what he did. TOO MANY people from too many organizations had to turn a blind eye for it to have simply been “oooh its Sandusky he’s a big fish, don’t question it”.
This guy was taking children from school without parental consent, you have to know you are protected to even attempt such a feat, and you’d have to be protected by powerful people to think you could (and did for likely years) get away with it. Someone (or more importantly MANY SOMEONES) are likely watching your back.
I suspect, that once they start digging they are going to find a whole lot of other powerful folks were having sex with these kids or others, and they have been protecting one another. Sandusky may have been a relatively big fish in State College PA, but he wasnt so big that everyone was going to turn a blind eye to him especially a decade or more after he was let go.
I Believe that PSU knew without question probably before, but certainly no later than 1998/9 when the initial investigation happened that this guy was abusing children. They covered it up to protect the program and the university, and would not be suprised if they knew long before.
I also believe that this scandal will ultimately take out a lot of power folks, who were just active in covering it up, but were active in acts as well. If I am right on this, and I am admitting speculation on this at this point, but my gut tells me this is way bigger than just a single sicko, I guarantee the tentacles will will go into all sorts of entities, school administration, police, business leaders, and yes no doubt current and/or former politicians in Harrisburg and potentially even DC.
I may turn out to be completely wrong on this speculation, but I just don’t believe that he got away with everything he got away with for so long as a simple lone wolf, at least not in the manner of things he’s been accused of doing.
If he were having the boys come to his house or a neutral private location, then certainly could see that going on for years with no one knowing. Taking them from school in the middle of the day? Fooling around with them in Penn State facilities? etc etc etc.. I think there is way way way more goin going on here.
I was referring to the idea that Sandusky was running an underage homosexual prostitution ring with the blessing of his charity, the University, the football program, and half the town. That is a wild accusation. I personally believe that Sandusky is guilty of being a serial abuser based on the report. There is a convincing case for that. Even so, he gets his day in court.
The other accusations are, at this moment, completely unfounded. If some evidence can be found for that, then those involved deserve everything coming to them.
You nailed it.
And for some recent evidence, look at how the judge let him go with a no-bond bond, and a no-lockup lockup, completely on his own recognances - and she's a member of his kids organization! When's the last time someone was arrested on 40 counts of child rape and told by the judge, "hey, go get yourself a beer, when we have a trial we'll give ya a ring"?
More to this? HELL yes.
Apologists for Paterno said that was just our unfounded opinion.
Well, here's the NYT (The Paper of Record) not only saying that talking to Paterno at Penn State was like talking to god, but . . . work your way to the third paragraph, the money paragraph:
Paterno, through his son Scott, also said he did not know of the 1998 sex crime investigation of Sandusky, who was then his most prominent and accomplished assistant.
Investigators over the last week have made clear that they have serious doubts about whether so few people in senior positions of responsibility came to know of the 1998 investigation.
You have to understand those statements in context there is nothing that happens at State College that Joe Paterno doesnt know, or that Graham Spanier doesnt know, one person involved in the investigation said. Whether or not a criminal case went forward, there were ample grounds for an administrative inquiry into this matter. I have no evidence that was ever done. And if indeed that report was never passed up, it makes you wonder why not.
Well. Alrighty then.
She was a contributor. The Second Mile grew to be a huge deal. Over 100,000 kids have had some involvement with it. The list of Honorary Trustees is a Who's Who of the national sport's world and Pennsylvania's political and business world. If you were anybody in business, politics, or charity in that area of Pennsylvania, you probably were hit up to contribute to The Second Mile over the last fifteen years by somebody more powerful than you.
I am! Oh noes!
Please dude. This isn’t a court this is n online msg board. Get a grip.
I stand by my comment. Eat it.
I don’t see any evidence for the pedophile ring idea. On the contrary, I think Sandusky is a highly organized child molester who wouldn’t put himself at the mercy of fellow abusers who might rat him out. I also think the Second Mile head who just quit and his wife, the agency’s #2 who’s now in charge, are both guilty as sin of enabling Sandusky’s crimes, knowingly or via intentional blindness.
Some people knew something, I have no doubt. I suspect that former DA Ray Gricar, who disappeared and has been declared legally dead, knew quite a bit. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances back in 2005 and apparently he had the final say in not pushing forward with criminal charges in 1998.
I’m starting to wonder if perhaps there are not some missing or murdered children that might fit in that time gap for when the records are missing.
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With JoePa’s tenure at PSU and his great morale character (sarcasm intended) , the university will sadly be known as Pedophile State University.
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