Gricar knew he couldn't win a case against Jerry Sandusky with a Happy Valley jury. Sandusky was the defensive coordinator of the Penn State football team and had been for 22 years; the school was known as Linebacker U because of Jerry Sandusky. He'd been a coach at Penn State for 31 years, and he's played at Penn State for three. He was supposed to be the head coach after Paterno. He was also known as the founder of The Second Mile, a charity for at-risk kids, and everybody who was anybody was either on the real or honorary board of trustees (including every famous name in the sports world) and made donations to is.
Standing on the other side, accusing him, was an eleven year-old boy who was being 'helped' by Sandusky. The kid had returned home from one of his first outings with Sandusky. His mother noticed that he had wet hair. The kid said that after a game of "Polish bowling" (rolling tape - perhaps athletic tape - into cups) Sandusky said they had to take showers. When naked, Sandusky said "I'm going to squeeze the guts out of you!" and bear-hugged the kid, then held him up and shampooed his hair.
The mom called the PSU police. The University Park police and child welfare also get involved. They eavesdrop on two calls the mother makes to Sandusky. He admits he's showered with boys and apologizes. He says he doesn't know if his 'private parts' touched Victim 6 but he says "I don't think so." He asks for forgiveness. But he won't promise the mom that he'll never shower with another kid.
Later, he promises child welfare that he'll stop.
Gricar, the Centre County District Attorney, gets the case. Investigators find another boy, "BK" who had a similar experience.
There's no touching of genitals like with the other victims. This is early in the grooming. No sex.
Gricar decides not to press any charges.
Look at the circling of the wagons around Joe Paterno after we KNOW that he didn't report child rape. Can you imagine the circling of the wagons around Sanduksy, the defensive coordinator, a man who was helping a boy as part of his The Second Mile charity and simply showered with the kid?
Where would Gricar have found a jury to convict Sandusky? The only charge I've found in PA law would have required Gricar to prove that Sandusky did it for sexual stimulation.
No wonder Gricar elected not to bring a he-said/he-said charge against mighty Penn State and Jerry Sandusky.
Seven years later, Gricar disppeared. His nephew was interviewed when the renewed interest showed as a result of the Penn State indictments. The nephew said that Gricar always had a sour taste in his mouth for Penn State football because he felt that Penn State football stonewalled the investigation of Sandusky in 1998.
So, that's why I think Gricar chose not to prosecute. Anybody else thing Gricar had a winnable case. Against Sandusky in 1998. A 31-year Penn State coach. In Happy Valley? You've seen what these people are like when Penn State football is obliquely on trial.
I completely agree with your reasoning here. If Gricar had pursued the case, there is no way Jerry Sandusky would have been convicted at that time in Happy Valley. He could have been 100% guilty and he would have walked. Right, wrong, or indifferent, JS would have been a free man. After that, what would be the chance that others would come forward? Slim to none. Even now the creep may serve little time if any, but I sincerely hope that’s not the case this time.
The only thing that even opened the window here this time is that an unflappable mom heard her son complain about “sex weirdos”. So she followed up on what was going on. It turns out for her that a nightmare had been going on for her son, and everyone around him was letting it happen based on the idea that Jerry Sandusky was a fine, upstanding citizen.
It reminds me of the cop that broke the Jaycee Dugard nightmare. Her radar went off when she encountered the kidnapper/rapist 19 years after the fact...and the rest is history. Who would have ever conceived that Jaycee had to go through ALL that she went through before she would be rescued all those years later? It was the woman cop who said her intuition kicked in and that she knew something wasn’t right and she didn’t ignore it. She followed up. This is like that in a way. Someone finally followed up!!!