Pennsylvania AG’s office investigating Sandusky’s charity for criminal responsibility
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The former charity group founded by Jerry Sandusky, the Second Mile, is under review by the state attorney general’s office.
At issue, did the group play a role in Sandusky’s child sex crimes?
The “preliminary analysis” will look specifically at criminal responsibility for the charity, Jeff Johnson, a spokesman for the office, said.
Victims’ advocates say it’s about time.
Kristen Houser has questions. “And as long as we don’t have answers, they’re going to continue to question” if there’s more to the Sandusky story, she said.
Those questions surround the Second Mile, which Sandusky founded in the ’70s to help disadvantaged kids. Houser, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, is not the only one asking.
“Did people there have suspicions, were people voicing concerns, were appropriate steps taken or not taken?” she wondered.
“Did they know, did they not know, how did they know, was there evidence?” Jennifer Storm, the state’s victim advocate, said.
The AG’s office aims to provide answers. This analysis is focused on “fact finding,” Johnson said, to determine whether or not the charity played a role in Sandusky finding victims.
First deputy attorney general Bruce Castor, new to the office in the last few months, is leading the charge.
But why now, so many years later? “I have no idea,” Houser said with a laugh. “I really don’t.”
Houser and Storm say the evidence was there in the Moulton report – that’s the AG’s office analysis of the Sandusky investigation released more than two years ago.
Investigators say in that report they found more victims through the Second Mile and discovered in Sandusky’s home a list of names of the charity’s participants, with some of them highlighted with asterisks. Some of those starred names turned out to be victims.
The report also notes allegations going back to at least 2008 that Sandusky had sexually abused a child in the program.
But in a footnote, the author writes it’s “beyond the scope of this report” to determine if the Second Mile did anything illegal.
“Why now, four years later, are we answering these questions?” Storm said. “Why did it take so long?”
Johnson wouldn’t say whether the office has investigated the charity before, under current or former administrations.
“I think we need a change in administration at the attorney general’s office,” Storm said, “and once we get that, I think we’ll get a lot of questions answered. But until that time I don’t have any faith in anything that comes out of that office.”
Sandusky resigned from the Second Mile in 2010. The charity officially dissolved earlier this year.
The AG’s office says they’re not looking at any person in particular, just the charity as a whole. Johnson said he’s hopeful the office will wrap up the analysis by next month, and then make a decision about whether to pursue a full-blown investigation.
The auditor-general’s office is also looking into the charity’s financial dealings, Johnson said.