THE DIGGING CONTINUES IN THE SECOND MILE CHARITY

Penn State and the Second Mile Charity founded by Jerry Sandusky seemingly went hand in hand.  As the days and weeks and months follow, look for more despicable dirt to be raised between the two.  Today, we found out some alarming news.   One wonders why oh why would the university continue their relationship with Second Mile after 2008.  The following report from Fox News will make you wonder and just might make you sick.

Weren't they closing their doors?

"Penn State University received almost $250,000 for a series of sleepover camps in 2008 and 2009 run by the charity group founded by Jerry Sandusky - years after ex-athletic director Tim Curley imposed an “unenforceable” ban on the accused child molester from bringing children onto the school’s sports facilities and main campus.

Financial records obtained by FoxNews.com show $124,587 was given to Penn State by The Second Mile in 2009. The year before, in 2008, the university received $119,592 from The Second Mile. The money is listed under “food and lodging” in charity records, and officials said the payments were made on a series of week-long sleepover camps. 

Penn State apparently took money for the camps months after the mother of a high school freshman contacted authorities in the spring of 2008 saying her son had been abused by Sandusky. That allegation kick-started the grand jury investigation that earlier this month indicted Sandusky on 40 counts of child sex abuse charges.

It’s not clear if Sandusky, who was still director of The Second Mile in 2008 before the group cut ties with him, participated in the camps. University officials said their records do not show the names of those who participated, and The Second Mile officials declined requests to answer questions about Sandusky’s involvement.

But Sandusky was still an “active” director of The Second Mile and earned $57,000 in The Second Mile’s 2008 fiscal year, which ended August 31, 2008. Three months later, in November, Sandusky told The Second Mile he was under investigation, and the charity banned him from activities with children, according to a recent statement by the former The Second Mile CEO Jack Raykovitz, who resigned on Sunday.

Sandusky also held sleepover football camps for boys, run through his own corporation, Sandusky Associates Inc., at satellite Penn State campuses all over the state, even after he was turned out from The Second Mile.

When asked for details about money paid to Penn State in 2008, the university’s associate vice president for finance and business, Daniel Sieminski, told FoxNews.com via email that The Second Mile ran five weeks of camps. "These funds paid for all the food, lodging and miscellaneous expenses incurred by the University for these camps.”

In response to a series of follow-up questions, Sieminski said the activities related to the camps were held at various locations on the main Penn State University Park Campus. “Camps were conducted in classrooms, the outdoor pool, outdoor fields, and Creamery,” he said, adding that campers had access to those locations and the university dorms where they stayed.

The 2008 camp dates were:

July 5-10 boys - 64 participants, 21 staff

July 12-17 girls - 100 participants, 24 staff

July 19-24 girls - 90 participants, 23 staff

July 26-31 boys - 75 participants, 22 staff

August 2-7 boys - 65 participants, 21 staff

Sieminski said he did not know the specific name(s) of the The Second Mile camp program. The university’s records do not precisely correspond to the information in The Second Mile’s online reports for the summer of 2008, which classified the camps as a 10-week “Challenge Program.”

FoxNews.com on Friday visited the The Second Mile office in State College, and a receptionist said the charity’s new CEO, David Woodle, was in meetings but would reply to email questions. Woodle did not reply to two emails sent afterward.

When asked about the camps and the money, the receptionist referred to reports on the website. When told the report for that year mentions only one sleepover camp, the Challenge Program, she said the charity also hosted other camps, but would not offer details. The Second Mile and Penn State officials have both denied they were associated with the Sandusky Association football sleepover camps for boys grades 4 to 9 — though they were held on Penn State campuses in 2008, according to a flyer still posted on the website of the university’s Erie campus. Advertisements for the camp have listed the registration contact information as the Penn State (psu.edu) address of Sandusky’s son, Jon.

Sandusky ran the same football sleepover camps on Penn State campuses the following year, in 2009, nearly a year after the charity banned him from activities with children and nearly a decade after the first reports of his alleged sex abuse surfaced.

The 2008 payment was not the only one found in The Second Mile’s tax returns, in which Penn State is listed among the highest paid consultants. In 2009, after the charity says it banned Sandusky from activities with children, The Second Mile paid Penn State more than $100,000 to hold another series of camps on the university's campus. The Second Mile 2008 fiscal year payment is reflected in Penn State’s 2008/09 fiscal year, the school official noted.

The charity’s director/treasurer, Ralph Licastro, an accountant and professor at Penn State’s business school, was not home or unavailable when FoxNews.com stopped by on Friday to ask about the payments. His wife asked for a reporter’s business card, and said he would call back if he chose to do so.

No one answered the door at the home of Raykovitz, who stepped down on Sunday in the wake of the ongoing scandal. But Raykovitz’s wife, Katherine Genovese, is still with the group, and remains its second-highest earner on the charity board, according to records.

Allegations Sandusky sexually abused children go back to at least the late 1990s, according to a grand jury report released two weeks ago. And in March 2002, a then-graduate student Mike McQueary told university officials, including Curley and Penn State’s legendary head football coach, Joe Paterno, that he saw Sandusky sodomizing a young boy in the campus showers.

Later that month, McQueary told a grand jury, Curley told him that he’d informed Second Mile of the allegations and that he’d taken away Sandusky’s key to the locker room. McQueary said Curley told him that Sandusky had been banned from campus — with then-president Graham Spanier’s knowledge.

The sex-abuse scandal has so far claimed the jobs of Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Finance Director Gary Schulz.


Last week, I wrote about the Penn State Board of Trustees and their involvement or lack thereof of the matter.  I'm convinced as the digging continues, there will be more jobs lost.  And as far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier.  Maybe then,  the children who've suffered for the these past years can feel some sort of justice being served.  And most importantly, let this entire issue serve as a lesson for any other insititution  thinking they are bigger than life.  The scary thing is, who's going to be next!!

Thanks for reading,

John

DOES PENN STATE COVERUP LEAD TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES?

"Where there is smoke, there's usually fire".....but in the matter of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal, it's far more than that, it's a firestorm.  To understand that further, the definition of a firestorm is a conflagration  which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system.  In this case, let's call it alot of hot air. 

The finger pointing is going to become very interesting.  All of that will be part of the who knew what, when investigation.  And we're just getting started.

Here are a couple of recent curious happenings:

The judge who ignored a prosecutor’s request and ordered Jerry Sandusky released on $100,000 bail has worked for the charity of the former Penn State assistant coach, who’s accused of child sex abuse, sports website Deadspin said.

District judge Leslie Dutchcot ruled that the 67-year-old could pay nothing unless he failed to attend a court hearing, the website said.  Prosecutors had asked for Sandusky’s bail to be set at $500,000.  A profile of the judge on her former law firm’s Internet site said she was a volunteer for Sandusky’s foundation, The Second Mile, Deadspin said.

For me, I have to wonder what Judge Dutchcot was thinking.  How in the world can she justify not giving Sandusky the $500,000 bail prosecutors were asking?  How can she give any child abuse victim in the world a comfort level that the legal proceedings of this despicable event will be handled properly...right from the very beginning?  Which begs the question.....judge, how much and how long have you known of this Sandusky travesty?  It would appear that we are trying to prosecute the case without any impartial person at the helm.  Unbelievable.  But let's go a step further.  And here's where it might get ugly as all hell.
  
At a crowded press conference last Wednesday night following a Penn State Board of Trustees meeting, Board chair Steve Garban made this announcement: “The Board has asked John Surma to head up all Board activities on the current matters.”  Trustees lack confidence in Garban’s ability to lead the university out of this mess given his close relationships with Curley, Schultz and university President Graham Spanier, sources said.  That source, probably a trustee, left one and maybe as many as 20, out of that mix.

Who is Steve Garban you ask?  Garban is or was (I'm not sure right now what he is) the chair of the Penn State Board of Trustees.  He graduated from Penn State in 1959 with  a B.S. in Business.  As an undergraduate, he was captain of the football team among several other honors.   Let me restate that again.  HE WAS CAPTAIN OF THE FOOTBALL TEAM. 

Okay, let's review.  The Board of Trustees has asked John Surma to lead the board.  Could it be that Garban, having been fully connected to the football program from every different imaginable angle, looked the other way?.  Was he so loyally blind and deaf that he protected Joe Paterno and the football program at all costs? 

Last week I reported of a column by Pittsburgh sports radio host, Mark Madden. written on April 3rd of this year.  In Madden's writings, he was spot on of his assessment of the Penn State Secret on Jerry Sandusky's doings.  That information came out seven months ago.  Are you telling me, no one asked the questions to the Board of Trustees and it's chairman....what's going on here?  Is there any truth to these allegations?  And if so, how will we lead the investigation into these matters?   Garban led by doing nothing....and it makes one wonder why.

Garban was elected to the Board of Trustees by the alumni for a three-year term beginning July 1, 1998 and was re-elected for succeeding terms.  He was elected vice chair of the Board from 2007 through 2009 and was elected chair in 2010.

Trustees at fault too?  How far reaching is this cover up?

From my perspective, no one gets a pass here.  Not ONE person....and that includes the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, who sits on the Penn State board.  Are we on the brink of a firestorm?  I hope so.  The victims have had to endure this cover up far, far too long.

Maybe, just maybe, we'll see justice served like we've never seen before.  And it begins with having Judge Durchcot removed from the case and then Garban is charged, and then, and then.....

Thanks for reading,

John


UPDATE:  "The president of the charity linked to the Penn State child sex-abuse scandal has resigned, saying he hopes his departure after 28 years as the group's CEO would help restore faith in its mission.  The Second Mile's board of directors said in a statement Monday that it had accepted the resignation of Dr. Jack Raykovitz."  I'll reserve comment on that.

MARK MADDEN AHEAD OF THE PENN STATE TRAVESTY

The Penn State sexual abuse situation has been the focus of the news in our world for the last week.  And well it should.  But did you know there was rumor and innuendos flying around well before that?  Well there was.  It was a secret on the Penn State campus, that's for sure.  Or was it?

On April 3rd of this year, Mark Madden, a sports radio talk show host in Pittsburgh, wrote the following story for the Beaver County Times.  As you read this, wonder if you will......why didn't these accusations prompt the Board of Trustees to ask some down right pointed questions to the entire Penn State administration?  Or maybe the question should be.....why wasn't the Board doing their job?  I'm beginning to come to the conclusion they have some share of this travesty.  

Troublemaker??  Or Messenger???

SANDUSKY A STATE SECRET

The Jerry Sandusky situation seems a matter of failure to connect certain dots, or perhaps unwillingness in that regard.   Lots of people besides the former Penn State defensive coordinator have some explaining to do.

Allegations of improper conduct with an underage male first surfaced in 1998, while Sandusky was still employed by Penn State. That incident allegedly occurred in a shower at Penn State's on-campus football facility. No charges were filed.  Sandusky retired the next year, in 1999. He was 55, prime age for a coach. Odd, to say the least - especially with Joe Paterno thought even then to be ready to quit and Sandusky a likely, openly-discussed successor.

It seems logical to ask: What did Paterno know, and when did he know it? What did Penn State's administration know, and when did they know it?  Best-case scenario: Charges are never brought, and Sandusky walks away with his reputation permanently scarred. The rumors, the jokes, the sideways glances - they won't ever stop. Paterno and Penn State do the great escape.

Worst-case scenario: Sandusky is charged. Then it seems reasonable to wonder: Did Penn State not make an issue of Sandusky's alleged behavior in 1998 in exchange for him walking away from the program at an age premature for most coaches?  Did Penn State's considerable influence help get Sandusky off the hook?
Don't kid yourself. That could happen.  Don't underestimate the power of Paterno and Penn State in central Pennsylvania when it comes to politicians, the police and the media.

In 1999, Penn State was rid of Sandusky. His rep was unblemished, which allowed him to continue running a charitable foundation that gave him access to underage males. To be a volunteer assistant with a high school football team, thus gaining access to underage males.  If Paterno and Penn State knew, but didn't act, instead facilitating Sandusky's untroubled retirement - are Paterno and Penn State responsible for untoward acts since committed by Sandusky?  This is far from an outrageous hypothesis, especially given the convenient timeline.

Initially accused in 1998. Retires in 1999. Never coaches college football again. Sandusky was very successful at what he did. The architect of Linebacker U. Helped win national championships in 1982 and 1986. Recognized as college football's top assistant in 1986 and 1999.  Never any stories about Sandusky being pursued for a high-profile job. Never any rumors about him coming out of retirement. But there's no shortage of stories and rumors about Penn State football sweeping problems under the rug, is there?

Why did college football let an accomplished coach like Sandusky walk away at 55? Why did he disappear into relative anonymity?  A grand jury, spurred by a complaint made by a 15-year-old boy in 2009, has been investigating Sandusky for 18 months. Witnesses include Paterno and Penn State athletic director Tim Curley. Interviewing Paterno about a subject like this had to have been one of the single most uncomfortable acts in the history of jurisprudence.

Plenty of questions remain yet unanswered. Potentially among them: What's more important, Penn State football or the welfare of a few kids?

You might not want to hear the answer.

Yesterday, November 10th, Madden appeared on The Dennis and Callahan Show, a Boston sports talk radio program.  During his appearance, he reported a rumor being investigated by two prominent columnists that Sandusky and his Second Mile children's charity may have been "pimping out young boys to rich donors.

Is there some truth to this?  Any truth.  At this point, I think we should all have ours ears perked to what Mark Madden is saying.  He's well ahead of us. 

Thanks for reading,

John