Two cases of child sex abuse alleged against Jerry Sandusky have been opened by Children and Youth Services in Pennsylvania. The cases were reported less than 60 days ago, and so they are still in the initial stages of the investigation.
If they are found to be credible, these would be the first known cases to be reported since Sandusky’s arrest that involve current children. All of the other publicly known cases of alleged victims coming forward have been adults.
In Pennsylvania, when an adult comes forward and alleges abuse -- even if it happened when that person was a child -- it’s solely a police matter. CYS only participates in the investigation if the victim is still under 18.
This new information could give credence to a growing debate over whether Sandusky should have been arrested more quickly.
When a 15-year-old Clinton County boy first alleged crimes against the former football legend and charity founder, police opted to open a grand jury investigation instead of making an immediate arrest.
It was a surprise move to the family of the boy, now known as Victim One.
And, it became a point of wonder for others in law enforcement when The Patriot-News first reported earlier this month that, for the first 15 months of the investigation against Sandusky, there was only one state trooper assigned to the case.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2010 that agents from the state Attorney General’s office got involved, and then when then-Attorney General Tom Corbett was elected governor and took office in January 2011, he appointed state police commissioner Frank Noonan, who increased the number of investigators to eight.
That was when things really started to take off. It wasn’t until January 2011 that Joe Paterno, fomer athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz testified. It wasn’t until April that officials from The Second Mile testified.
None of the other seven cases of alleged abuse, outlined in the grand jury presentment, were known until more investigators joined the team.
The 1998 police report -- which never led to charges when investigated by missing district attorney Ray Gricar -- wasn’t found until late 2010. That file was found around the same time that assistant coach Mike McQueary was contacted for the first time by police.
McQueary testified before the grand jury that he’d witnessed abuse in 2002 and reported it to Schultz and Curley, but nothing ever came of that investigation.
As a result of his testimony, Curley and Schultz were charged with perjury and failure to report a crime.
But none of the cover-up investigation began until 2011. And it wasn’t until after The Patriot-News broke the story of the investigation in March of this year, that officials from the Clinton County school district where Sandusky had allegedly spent time with Victim One were subpoenaed.
Gricar’s former staff members were not interviewed until after March 2011.
And Jerry Sandusky’s home was not searched until this summer — two and half years after the investigation began.
In response to questions about the length of the investigation, Corbett said yesterday:
“The one thing you do not want to do as a prosecutor is go on one case. ... You want to show a continued course of action.”
If a first set of charges are filed early and “you were to lose that one case, it would be much more difficult to bring charges in other cases because it would be seen by you, by the public, as vindictive,” he added.
Corbett noted that decisions on filing charges or working to build a stronger case are made with the team of investigators. He did not address why only one investigator was assigned to the case until late 2010. His spokesman, Kevin Harley, has said that information is not accurate. However, The Patriot-News confirmed it with several sources close to the investigation.
“These are professional prosecutors who are ... making tactical decisions which you all are questioning. And you have the right to question that,” Corbett said. “But these are people who have experience in these fields, and they made decisions that I agreed with when I was there, and that current Attorney General Linda Kelly has agreed with thereafter.”