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A jury awarded $16.5 million Thursday to a woman who said she was drugged with carbon dioxide and manipulated to believe she was raped by family members at the hands of a former State College psychologist. ... Cantorna said his client was made to believe she was raped at the hands of her family and abused in cultlike rituals by prominent members of the community. Metter was accused in the civil lawsuit of creating those images and suggesting them as reality while the woman was drugged and in her most vulnerable state. “He took a woman who never had any...

The Penn State University sex-abuse scandal certainly seems unique. College-football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky (shown at left) could have been investigated as early as 1995 for abusing young boys, but instead was allowed to commit his crimes for another 10 years. School athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz face charges of lying to a grand jury investigating Sandusky, and university president Graham Spanier has been fired. And even more headline-grabbing, famed head football coach Joe Paterno has also been discharged. While not accused of any criminally actionable behavior, the gridiron legend is...

Police Search for Pennsylvania Prosecutor Missing Since FridayBy Mark Scolforo Associated Press Writer Published: Apr 16, 2005 BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - With helicopters and road patrols, police searched across central Pennsylvania on Saturday for a prosecutor who was reported missing after he failed to return home from a drive the day before. Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, 59, had taken Friday off from work and said during a cell phone call at about 11:30 a.m. that he was heading toward Lewisburg on Route 192 in Union County, police said. He did not return home that night and has not...

Back in 1999, I was driving into State College for a Penn State football game, listening to the pregame show on the radio. They were interviewing Jerry Sandusky about his impending retirement. The play-by-play man asked him how much he had enjoyed working with Joe Paterno. “Nobody enjoys working for Joe,” Sandusky said. “He’s hard on everyone. He demands perfection, and perfection is hard to achieve. And he lets you know about it when you fall short.” The host sort of recoiled from the answer, but the color man cackled and said, “Yeah, Joe and Jerry don’t exactly see eye...

I was looking for some information on the Sandusky case and stumbled upon this tidbit, which may be irrelevant, but I thought it was interesting. According to this news story, Jerry Sandusky was not the only person affiliated with Penn State that DA Ray Gricar declined to prosecute for a sexual offense. "As evidence that Gricar had the guts to not prosecute someone contrary to popular opinion, Buehner recalled the case of Scott Paxson, a star defensive tackle accused of raping a woman at his campus apartment in December 2004. Gricar was criticized for not prosecuting that case. His successor,...

It is strange that Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar never prosecuted Jerry Sandusky on child-rape charges 13 years ago, some speculate, because Gricar was known for being fiercely independent and hard on crime. But it is even stranger that we cannot ask Gricar why Sandusky was not put behind bars because the tough-as-nails district attorney disappeared in 2005. And though he was declared dead July of this year, his body has never been found. "People ask why Ray did not prosecute, and I have no problem saying, because he clearly felt he didn't have a case for a 'successful'...

Jerry Sandusky: the flags were there all along The list of enablers seems to grow by the minute... the beloved JoePa may now even face charges himself for not reporting Sandusky.  Then there's the crimes themselves: suffice to say, the kind that get you killed your first week in prison. What an unmitigated nightmare for sleepy State College, Pa, the entire NCAA, and above all the victims.  But the sad fact this case could get a whole lot uglier... Obviously there's more questions than answers at this point: like how the wife, family, and Penn State associates of Jerry Sandusky all...

... The state attorney general’s office says Gricar is the one who made the decision not to prosecute Jerry Sandusky in 1998, when two kids reported that Sandusky washed them during a shower. ... According to those who were present during that investigation, Gricar seemed to be the one who made the decision not to prosecute. We’ll probably never know why. Gricar disappeared April 15, 2005, after taking a day off work to drive to Lewisburg. His disappearance has been the subject of a lot of speculation. His laptop hard drive, which was found dumped in the Susquehanna River near...

Legally, Ray Gricar is dead. A Centre County judge has ruled that the fruitless efforts of law enforcement to find the missing former prosecutor are enough evidence to legally declare him deceased. That means his family can start distributing his estate and his county pension will be paid to his beneficiary. But Bellefonte police -- and a task force of officers including some from the FBI -- won't stop trying to solve the mystery. Gricar vanished April 15, 2005, after taking a day off work as the Centre County district attorney. His red Mini Cooper was found abandoned in a...

One of the questions surrounding the sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky is why a former district attorney chose not to prosecute the then-Penn State assistant coach in 1998 after reports surfaced that he had inappropriate interactions with a boy. The answer is unknowable because of an unsolved mystery: What happened to Ray Gricar, the Centre County, Pa., district attorney? Gricar went missing in April 2005. The murky circumstances surrounding his disappearance — an abandoned car, a laptop recovered months later in a river without a hard drive, his body was never found — have spawned Web sites, television programs and...

BELLEFONTE — Before he disappeared April 15, 2005, former District Attorney Ray Gricar used his home computer to search the Internet for information on “how to wreck a hard drive,” “how to fry a hard drive,” and “water damage to a notebook computer.” Tuesday, one day before the fourth anniversary of Gricar’s disappearance, Bellefonte Police Det. Matthew Rickard released information that raises the question as to why Gricar might have wanted to destroy that hard drive. Gricar, who was planning to retire in eight months, went for a drive through Brush Valley, toward Lewisburg, on April 15, 2005, and hasn’t...

BELLEFONTE -- Police and family are hoping a computer hard drive found on the banks of the Susquehanna River will contain clues about District Attorney Ray Gricar's disappearance more than six months ago. The piece of equipment was found a few weeks ago by people walking along the river and was turned over to the state police. Troopers notified Bellefonte police of the find, according to Bellefonte police Cpl. Dan Holliday, and then sent it to the FBI, where it will be analyzed by computer experts. Police say the hard drive is in pretty bad condition, found pressed into the...

BELLEFONTE -- Local police say a body found in the Lackawanna River last week is most likely not that of missing District Attorney Ray Gricar, although police in Scranton have not yet received DNA test results on the discovery. The decomposed body was found in a dry riverbed Sept. 20. Autopsy reports are inconclusive and no cause of death has been determined, according to officials at the Lackawanna County Coroner's Office. Bellefonte police became aware of the find late last week, and Detective Tom Thal contacted police in Scranton, according to Bellefonte police Officer Darrel Zaccagni. "Someone disappeared a few...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — The man in photographs taken at a Texas restaurant last month isn't missing Centre County District Attorney Ray F. Gricar, police said Tuesday. A woman dining at a Nacagdoches, Texas restaurant in early August snapped the pictures after striking up a conversation with the man. She said he resembled Gricar and gave the photos to police, who asked the public for help and sent the pictures to the FBI for analysis. An FBI report Monday concluded that the man in the photos isn't Gricar, said Bellefonte Police Office Darrel Zaccagni, who is leading the investigation. Gricar,...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Two fishermen found a laptop computer at the bottom of a river that belonged to a county prosecutor who has been missing for 3 1/2 months, police said Monday. The laptop, which was missing its hard drive, was found Saturday in the Susquehanna River under a bridge, Bellefonte police said. The fishermen turned it over to state police who determined it belonged to Centre County District Attorney Ray F. Gricar. Authorities had searched the river several times already. Dive teams searched it again Saturday and Sunday but found nothing else. The computer's hard drive had either fallen...

BELLEFONTE - Police searching for a missing district attorney said yesterday that they have received their best lead in nearly two months after he was reportedly seen in Michigan. A man and his daughter reported seeing Centre County prosecutor Ray F. Gricar with an older woman at a restaurant on May 27 in Southfield, Mich., a Detroit suburb, Bellefonte Police Officer Darrel Zaccagni said yesterday. Gricar, 59, has been missing since April 15, after taking a drive from his home in Bellefonte. His car was found the next day near an antiques store he frequented in Lewisburg, about 45 miles...

Police investigate Michigan sighting of missing prosecutor By GENARO C. ARMAS The Associated Press BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Police searching for a missing district attorney said Wednesday that they have received their best lead in nearly two months after he was reportedly sighted in Michigan. A man and his daughter reported seeing Centre County prosecutor Ray F. Gricar with an older woman at a restaurant on May 27 in Southfield, Mich., a Detroit suburb, Bellefonte Police Officer Darrel Zaccagni said Wednesday. Gricar, 59, has been missing since April 15, after taking a drive from his home in Bellefonte. His car was...

- - snip - - Police continue to investigate the disappearance -- they looked into two tips this week that led nowhere -- but the leads are shrinking. The few tips they've confirmed do not point to any definitive answer."It's not looking good," Dixon said. "Statistically, if you don't find someone within a few days, it's bad news."Getting facts is another reason McKnight suggested the meeting with police and district attorneys. He said he hopes police will share information about what they've found during their investigation, to give the district attorneys some facts."My feeling has been consistent since day...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - For the last couple of Friday afternoons at the dark and historic creekside eatery called Gamble Mill Restaurant, bartenders have kept glancing over at Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar's usual spot at the bar. "They look over at the little spot he used to sit in," with his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, playing their weekly game of Trivial Pursuit as he sipped a Grey Goose martini, said the restaurant manager, Andi Heidt-Nixdorf. "When every Friday comes along, they think they're going to see him." But no one in this Victorian-tinged, mountainside county seat is known to have...

Bellefonte police hope woman can spark new leads Bellefonte police have begun working with a California psychic in hopes of generating new clues in their investigation into the disappearance of District Attorney Ray Gricar nearly one month ago...