Kathleen Kane and the Corbett Investigation

by Barry Bozeman 

This weekend's news suggests that Kathleen Kane's investigation of Tom Corbett's handling of the Sandusky Investigation will not end with anything like an indictment. In fact Penn Live is reporting: 

Sources say report finds no evidence Corbett delayed Sandusky investigation

A report commissioned by Attorney General Kathleen Kane found that no evidence indicates then-Attorney General Tom Corbett delayed the investigation into convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky, but it questions the case's pacing. 

Attorney General Kathleen Kane rode into office, cresting the wave of that ire and promising to investigate Corbett for allegedly "slow-walking" the original investigation of Jerry Sandusky for sex crimes against children in order to make sure he was securely in the governor's mansion before the charges dropped. 

Now, Kane says she is ready to release the report of that investigation, and multiple sources — citing people who've read it in advance — are reporting that it exonerates Corbett.

Corbett: Has Read SanduskyReport, Won’t Comment

Waiting until it is released publicly. BY JOEL MATHIS  |  JUNE 11, 2014

Gov. Tom Corbett has read AG Kathleen Kane’s report on his handling of the Sandusky case while he was the state’s top prosecutor, but won’t comment until it’s released publicly.
Sources say the report largely absolves Corbett of dragging his feet on the case, although it suggests prosecutors could have searched Sandusky’s home sooner in the investigative process.
No word on when Kane’s report will be officially made public.. 

No kidding - the accusation of one victim would have been quite enough to merit a search warrant.  And if all this is true it is very disappointing because is appears that the report does not address the most baffling thing about Corbett's investigation. 

The situation surrounding The Second Mile. 

SMSS has long wondered along with others why Doctor Jack Raykovitz - the professional child psychologist who worked closely with Jerry Sandusky - was not charged with "failure to report". It was Raykovitz who was informed by Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley that an assistant football coach (Mike McQueary) was made to feel uncomfortable when he saw Sandusky taking a shower with a boy after 9pm in February of 2001. Sandusky was an employee of The Second Mile, not Penn State; and the children who Sandusky was eventually charged with molesting were Second Mile boys. A Doctor of Child Psychology should have a much better handle on grooming behavior and how to evaluate a child in possible trouble than an Athletic Director or Penn State's VP for Business.  

The Second Mile was responsible for those boys and for Sandusky, since he was paid by the charity. Raykovitz was the professional who would have been trained to recognize grooming behavior. When Kane first announced her investigation The Second Mile was on her mind at least because of the campaign contributions from TSM to Corbett:

Investigation to Focus on Governor’s Handling of Penn State Abuse Case

Ms. Kane, 46, is a former county prosecutor who specialized in child sex abuse cases. She questioned why it took 33 months to arrest Mr. Sandusky in late 2011 after Mr. Corbett, as attorney general, received a complaint against Mr. Sandusky in the spring of 2009.“It’s never taken me that long” to build a case against a molester, Ms. Kane said in the Harrisburg office she had just moved into, a Carpe Diem paperweight on her desk, adding that speed matters because child abusers seek new victims. “I was on the campaign trail almost two years; I didn’t go a single place without somebody asking me why it took so long.” 

She also questioned the influence of campaign donations Mr. Corbett received from a charity Mr. Sandusky founded, the Second Mile, whose board members contributed to Mr. Corbett’s run for governor. Investigators at the time suspected Mr. Sandusky of using the foundation, which helped troubled youth, to find victims. Mr. Corbett’s spokesman said he could not have returned the Second Mile contributions because at the time the case was before the grand jury and he was sworn to secrecy. 

Ms. Kane also questioned whether Mr. Corbett devoted enough staff to the investigation and whether agents were trained to pursue child abusers.

We have not yet seen the actual Kane report, but if sources are correct and the report does not fault Corbett for failure to look into TSM it will be a major disappointment.  

It is difficult to understand how Dr. Jack Raykovitz escaped this situation unscathed while Penn State has been so thoroughly damaged. Joe Paterno, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz had duties that did not include responsibility for The Second Mile charity beneficiaries. It appears that no good deed went unpunished since they thought they were benefiting the charity by providing facilities for certain events, and believed they were doing the right thing when they informed The Second Mile director of McQueary's unease when he observed Sandusky with a boy at the Lasch facility. It seems quite reasonable for them to believe Raykovitz would be the best person to handle the problem since he would know if the boy was under Sandusky's care. Raykovitz was in the obvious position to evaluate Sandusky's behavior and to know how to find out if the boy needed psychological help. 

But the child psychologist who was a mandated reporter was never seriously confronted or charged concerning his behavior toward Sandusky or his responsibility to protect the children. . The Freeh "investigation" never touched The Second Mile. A football coach was fired and disgraced and the President, Athletic Director, and Vice-President of a major University with no training in the field were indicted. Now it appears that the role of Raykovitz and The Second Mile will never be explored.  

At the heart of Kane v. Corbett, prosecutorial discretion -- a former AG weighs in 

McQueary, Cohen noted, is a 6-foot-4, 240 pound, former Division 1 quarterback who was serving as a graduate assistant to Joe Paterno's football team who testified that he witnessed Sandusky assaulting a young boy in the Penn State showers.

"He comes upon the scene in the locker room with Sandusky and a 10-year-old boy, and what does he do? He walks out, goes home and asks his father what he should do. He doesn't go grab Sandusky off this kid. Why? His defense has been that Sandusky was an icon. He was a legend," Cohen said. 

"Even McQueary, who could have torn Sandusky limb for limb, walks out to avoid dealing with Sandusky because he's an icon."
Cohen said, "Tom Corbett has said something similar. He said you can't take one 10-year-old kid and try to put an icon in prison for life. You need to build a case."

Tom Corbett said he couldn't build a case on an icon based on one crime. Does that mean any icon can get away with one in Tom Corbett's OAG? Odd reasoning I think. But one icon named Joe Paterno saw his reputation destroyed without any crime or case. That pretty much proves Cohen and Corbett wrong. Penn State is also an icon and Corbett & Kelly managed to do great damage to Penn State's reputation by charging three iconic Penn State leaders on the flimsy ever changing statements of Mike McQueary. 

Once again we see the record distorted on what McQueary says he saw and what he said to the people he told. There is no logical reason Tim Curley would not have told Jack Raykovitz what he understood from McQueary's account. Corbett got away with making this case about Penn State instead of his campaign contributors at The Second Mile. 

The night Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky in the showers with "victim 2" he told his father and Dr. Dranov about the incident. Dr. Dranov claims Mike would only mention the 3 slaps he heard when asked if he had witnessed an assault. Mike eventually told some version of the event to 5 people - and one (Tim Curley) informed jack Raykovitz. But Corbett & Kelly's grand juries chose to write a Presentment that claimed Mike told Tim Curley and Gary Schultz he had witnessed a rape. The Sandusky trial jury didn't believe that. Tim and Gary don't believe that. And Dr Dranov says Mike only referred to 3 slap sounds when asked what he saw. 

In terms of culpability for failure to report the list should be ranked like this:

1) Mike McQueary - who claims his report to police was to Gary Schultz
2) Mike's father - the man who should best be able to evaluate Mike's veracity 
3) Dr. Dranov - a medical professional and close family friend 
4) Dr Raykovitz - the Director of TSM responsible for the kids and Sandusky's boss who is also a professional child psychologist. 

If those 4 individuals are not culpable for failure to report how can Tim and Gary be culpable? They did not know Mike and had no way to measure his veracity or read into his words or demeanor anything more than his evidently muddled story of 3 slaps and 2 second glances in a 10 min meeting 10 days following the incident. 

So why were Tom Corbett & Linda Kelly so bent on implicating Penn State and leaving The Second Mile out of it?  Raykovitz knew everything that Joe, Tim and Gary knew; and he was the professional who paid Sandsky's salary and worked with those kids. I don't get it.  

Why isn't anyone in the media interested in these questions? 

There is something very wrong about that, and the question still exists:

What did those campaign contributions from The Second Mile do to influence Corbett not to pursue Raykovitz and The Second Mile?