Kathleen Kane: 'Crucial Missteps And Inexplicable Delays' In 3-year Investigation Of Jerry Sandusky --Same AG who pulled plug on investigation into Dem corruption

Attorney General Kathleen Kane of Pennsylvania

By Steve Esack, June 23, 2014, Call Harrisburg Bureau, Mcall.com

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Monday that Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky abused two additional boys during a drawn-out investigation replete with "crucial missteps and inexplicable delays" caused by senior leadership in the state attorney general's office between 2009 and 2011.

But two former prosecutors and a former criminal investigator who led the case that resulted in Sandusky's fall 2011 conviction strongly denied there were two additional victims. Kane mentioned the two victims in a statement separate from a voluminous report done for her office on the Sandusky probe.

Kane made the comments during a news conference in the Capitol, where she released a report that settles a campaign promise she made when she was seeking to become the first Democrat-elected attorney general in 2012. She won the election largely by promising to review whether her predecessor, Tom Corbett, had purposely delayed the Sandusky probe for political purposes while he sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.

"The facts show an inexcusable lack of urgency in charging and stopping a serial sexual predator," Kane said in a statement. "The report documents that more investigative work took place in just one month in 2011 than in all of either 2009 or 2010. This case sat inactive for months while a predator was on the streets and a victim waited for justice."

The report makes no mention of two additional victims.

"You look at the report and what [Kane said at] the press conference said, they don't match up," said Randy Feathers, now retired as head of the attorney general's criminal investigation unit. "You have to ask why."

Kane commissioned the report by Widener University law professor and former federal prosecutor Geoff Moulton. Moulton's report paints a picture of then-Attorney General Corbett as a hands-off leader, and his top lieutenants as failing to adequately help front-line investigators make decisions, but says no proof exists that politics played a roll in the amount of time it took to charge Sandusky.

"In short, there is no clearly 'right' answer to the question whether Sandusky should have been charged in 2010, particularly since the question turned to a great degree on the necessarily speculative forecast of how [victim 1] would fare as a trial witness," Moulton wrote. "Reasonable minds differed at the time and continue to do so today."

In a written statement after the report's release, Corbett thanked law enforcement for their work in bringing Sandusky to justice. He also thanked Moulton for his work and the recommendations he made to improve investigations.

"The Sandusky investigation was conducted with a single purpose: to ensure justice for the victims and families by taking a child predator off the streets. Nothing more. Nothing less," Corbett said. "As I have said many times, this investigation was conducted appropriately and timely. Because of the complexity of the case and for the sake of the victims, the investigators were careful to explore all evidence to the fullest extent. As made clear by the Moulton Report, this investigation was never about politics. It was always about the people victimized by this man."

But lead prosecutor Joseph E. McGettigan, his co-counsel Frank Fina and Feathers had harsher words for Kane. They blasted her during their own news conference Monday in the Capitol.

Sandusky might not be behind bars, they said, had law enforcement rushed to prosecute. They accused Kane of politicizing the original investigation by questioning how it was done, and said such gamesmanship not only tarnishes law enforcement but also could make future victims fearful of coming forward.

"[Investigating Corbett's handling of the Sandusky probe] was a campaign promise she made," Fina said. "It was a trick she used to get elected and Moulton didn't deliver for her [in his report]. What's she going to do? She has to come up with something else sensational to detract that she [made] a series of falsehoods to the public during the campaign."

In his report Moulton said he is mindful that "hindsight is always 20-20," and it is easier to connect the pieces of a complex puzzle after it is fully assembled. But he added: "Of course, the risk of hindsight bias does not mean that after-the-facts appraisals should not be taken or cannot be valuable."

Still, those appraisals could further damage Corbett's chances at winning re-election in November against Democrat Tom Wolf, even though Sandusky was convicted on June 22, 2011, on 45 of 48 counts of child sex abuse. Using a timeline, the report paints a picture in which Corbett's top administrators were slow to help front-line investigators make decisions.

A quarter of voters do not think Corbett deserves a second term, polls show. Part of his low approval ratings stem from simmering resentment among Penn State's vast alumni network and its football fans over the belief the agency's three-year probe was too long and its outcome unfairly tarnished the reputation of legendary coach Joe Paterno.

Paterno was fired on Nov. 9, 2011, four days after Sandusky was charged. He died on Jan. 22, 2012 at age 85.

Moulton's report paints a picture of Corbett as a hands-off administrator who deferred to his staff and did not get involved in the Sandusky probe.

Fina, previously one of Corbett's top prosecutors, told Moulton: "Corbett never made any substantive decisions related to the conduct of the [Sandusky] investigation."

Corbett was given a chance to respond to the report prior to it being made public. He chose not to make a written statement.

In a June 11, 2014, letter to Moulton, Corbett's private attorney Mark R. Zimmer of Honesdale wrote: "The recommendations contained within the report are more properly discussed in public. Once they are made public, he may address those recommendations."

The report does not name any of Sandusky's victims. It refers to them by initials. The Morning Call typically does not print the names of alleged or confirmed sexual abuse victims.

But Sandusky's first victim, a Clinton County high school student named Aaron Fisher, who made his identity public after the trial, wrote a book about his ordeal.

The vast sections of the report detail how the attorney general's office, under Corbett's watch, handled the investigation once Fisher came forward. The following timeline comes form Moulton's report:

•November 2008: Fisher, a ninth-grader at Central Mountain High School in the Keystone Central School District, reported to school staff he was "the victim of inappropriate conduct by Sandusky" at Sandusky's Centre County home. School staff conducted an investigation and then notified Clinton County Children and Youth Services that same month.

•Nov. 21, 2008: County officials notify state police. Trooper Joseph M. Cavanaugh and county case workers interview Fisher, his mother and school authorities on Dec. 12, 2008.

•Jan. 2, 2009: Clinton County officials notify Sandusky he is under investigation per regulations.

•Jan. 15, 2009: Cavanaugh and others interview Sandusky, who does not admit to engaging in criminal conduct but does make "damaging admissions that played an important role at his later trial."

•Jan. 16, 2009: County caseworkers write a report and send it to state Department of Public Welfare's "ChildLine" reporting system that is used for allegations of child abuse.

•February 2009: Cavanaugh meets with Clinton County District Attorney Michael Salisbury to discuss further investigation and possible prosecution.

•Salisbury sends the case to Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira because the crimes allegedly occurred that jurisdiction and he contacts the state attorney general's office on March 3, 2009 due to a conflict of interest. His wife is the sister of one of Sandusky's adopted children and he has no knowledge of a 1998 Sandusky probe a predecessor, Ray Gricar, did prior to his disappearance.

•March 17, 2009: Attorney general's office takes over jurisdiction of the case. Corbett and staff under him recall learning about [the case] very soon after it arrived at the agency [and], according to Corbett ,he recognized right away the significance of the allegations. Fina, Corbett's top prosecutor, puts prosecutor Jonell Eshbach in charge.

•Cavanaugh is replaced by Trooper Timothy Leary as the lead investigator and Leary re-interviews Fisher on March 12, 2009, and March 19, 2009. In the latter interview, in the presence of a psychologist, Fisher admits Sandusky performed oral sex on him.

•April 3, 2009: Eshbach meets Fisher for the first time and tells Fisher that he may have to testify in front a grand jury.

•May 1, 2009: The agency submits the Sandusky investigation to the Thirtieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury on Fina's recommendation after consulting with his supervisor Richard A. Sheetz Jr., head of the criminal law division, and Eshbach. Corbett was informed of the decision and agreed with it. The report states, According to Fina, while many sexual-assault cases are not necessarily appropriate for referral to an investigating grand jury, this one was, particularly because of the perceived need to keep the investigation secret," so potential victims would feel more comfortable coming forward.

•Later in May 2009, Leary is replaced by Trooper Scott Rossman and Eschbach asks her supervisor for an attorney general agent to help Rossman. Agent Anthony Sassano is chosen at a time the agency was "heavily invested in a set of investigations and prosecuting involving the Pennsylvania Legislature that fell under the heading of 'Bonusgate.'"

Read the full story:  www.mcall.com

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