Corbett Approved Grant for Sandusky Charity: $3M OK'd Despite Abuse Investigation

[Divernan]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Corbett approved grant for Sandusky charity
$3M OK'd despite abuse investigation
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Gov. Tom Corbett this summer approved a $3 million state grant to The Second Mile, the charity founded by suspected child molester Jerry Sandusky, despite knowing about the sex abuse investigation that later resulted in charges against Mr. Sandusky.

A grant agreement was not completed before Mr. Corbett took office in January, and the administration decided to review that and other grants that were pending in the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, Mr. Zogby wrote.

"The Office of the Budget has completed its review of The Second Mile Learning Center project and I am pleased to inform you that Governor Corbett has approved the Commonwealth's commitment of $3,000,000 in RACP funding for this project," he wrote in a July 20 letter to Jack Raykovitz, Second Mile CEO until he resigned Monday.

Mr. Corbett as attorney general supervised an investigation that began in 2008 when a 15-year-old Clinton County boy came forward with complaints that Mr. Sandusky had sexually abused him. The governor spoke about the case in a live radio interview on Tuesday but was not questioned about the grant. He could not be reached to comment about it later.




Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11320/1190145-455.stm#ixzz1dsQkOUle

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For you out-of-staters, GOP Governor Tom Corbett is Big Oil/Fracking's favorite bought and paid for politician.

AS AG, he was so busy investigating and prosecuting Democratic politicians on campaign practices that he never assigned sufficient staff to timely investigate Sandusky - dragged the investigation and charges out until he was elected Governor. Didn't want to upset all the Penn State alumni.

[Divernan]

1. When he was Attorney General, Corbett assigned ONE state policeman to investigate Sandusky.

(This post was by DUer JPZenger in the Pennsylvania forum)

Sandusky Case Was Sent to Corbett to be Handled in March 2009!

Edited on Mon Nov-14-11 11:50 AM by JPZenger
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/report%3...

According to the attached link, the Centre County District Attorney forwarded the Sandusky case for handling by Attorney General Corbett in MARCH 2009 - 2.5 years before Sandusky was finally arrested. This was after a mother went to authorities.

(The District Attorney forwarded responsibility for the case to the AG because of a conflict of interest.)

According to one source mentioned din the article, at one point, the only person handling the case for the State was one State Police investigator. I guess Tom was a little distracted with political fundraisers.

I still theorize that it is significant that the case took off and was expanded when a new female AG took over in JANUARY 2011. Generally, women are much less willing to look the other way on these types of cases, even if it threatens a powerful good ol' boy network.
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The following brand new article from the Harrisburg paper includes many details that were not reported elsewhere, including the fact that the number of investigators working on the case was dramatically increased in JANUARY 2011. It also lists the many mistakes in the State's investigation, including waiting 2.5 years to search Sandusky's house - giving him plenty of time to destroy evidence.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/spec...

[AlinPA]

4. He is squirming trying to explain his delay.

[Demit]

14. Corbett convened the GJ in 2009. His AG office began supervising the case in Fall of 2010.

That's when they discovered the 1998 report in the files of Penn State police demonstrating Sandusky had been accused of child sex abuse before. Until then, they only had one alleged victim and one set of incidents of abuse. So I don't know if Corbett dragged his heels on the case at first or not, but it was through his office that the investigation expanded.

And the person who increased the number of investigators was the State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan, who took office in January 2011: five from the state police and three from the attorney general’s office.

I've been reading Sara Ganim's stories at the Patriot News (pennlive.com). She's been on this story for a long time.

[Demit]

15. Your links aren't working for me. The fox one says Bad Request, & the pennlive one is incomplete

[Divernan]

18. I copied this whole reply from another DUer, as I indicated.

Sorry the links don't work.

[HopeHoops]

2. Corbett's head is so far up his ass he needs a window in his belly to look out.

:grr:

[melissaf]

3. Surprise, surprise

Corbett probably didn't want to upset Penn State because he wanted the heavily Republican Centre County to vote for him for governor. You'd think he wouldn't want to trumpet his own part in revealing the cover-up when he was part of the cover-up himself.

[Divernan]

6. All criminal/civil cases re Sandusky should get change of venue OUT of Centre County

Centre County is totally dominated by Penn State as prime employer.

Try those suckers in Phillie or Pittsburgh - we'll give them justice!

[Kingofalldems]

16. Kick this one to the top

[Stuart G]

5. Oh my...say it ain't so..........

Looks like the governor is involved?
What do you think???
maybe he knew long long long ago..................................

:popcorn:

[Township75]

7. This issue is bigger according to the article.

"
According to correspondence from Mr. Corbett's budget secretary, Charles B. Zogby, the $3 million was first budgeted by the Legislature in 2010 and approved for release by former Gov. Ed Rendell a year ago."

Ed Rendell was the previous Democratic gov. Is this gonna make us look bad, or will it stay with Corbett?

[mopinko]

8. when is he up for re-election? does penn have recall?

i firmly believe that it was the botched sex abuse case that sunk martha coakley. i think the voters would like to make an example of this asshole.

[LynneSin]

9. I always suspected Governor Fracker was dirty in this - remember he's on the PSU Board of Trustees

All Governors are assigned to the Board of Trustees.

I wonder if Corbett ever told former Governor Ed Rendell what was happening or if he kept it hushed.

[Kingofalldems]

10. Repubs at it again.

[blue neen]

11. Oh my.

We are in such a mess here in Pennsylvania. How sad for all of us, especially the victims and their families.

[joanbarnes]

12. Yet another way to give the People's money to criminals.

[Kingofalldems]

13. Internet 'bad news about Democrats' trumpeters won't like this one

This might need a Special Prosecutor. :shrug:

[msanthrope]

17. JoePa sold his house to his wife for $1 in July. Makes you wonder. nt

[alp227]

19. Does anyone know if Sandusky was involved in GOP politics?

I know that Paterno addressed the '88 convention but am unsure about Sandusky, and politics might have influenced Corbett handling the Sandusky case with kid gloves. (As well as Republican campaigns, Paterno donated to Obama's 2008 campaign as well as Democrat Joe Sestak's failed 2010 Senate campaign.)