By Kevin Johnson
Courier Post
November 13, 2011
www.courierpostonline.com/article/20111113/NEWS05/311130025/-Victim-1-first-report-Penn-State-abuse
 |
HARRISBURG, PA. — For this boy, it started — as it allegedly did with most victims before him — with a barrage of gifts from former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
According to a state grand jury's report outlining alleged sexual abuses by Sandusky, there were trips to professional and college football games, a computer, clothes and cash. And then, the report says, Sandusky went from mentor to sexual predator, often attacking the boy in the basement bedroom of the coach's home or a school workout room long after coaches and other officials had gone.
In the cloaked parlance of the grand jury's report, the boy — who was at least 11 at the beginning of the attacks that would span nearly four years ending in 2009 — is known only as "Victim 1."
But Victim 1 was not actually Sandusky's first alleged victim. In the report, the boy is Victim 1 for a different reason: He spoke up, went to the police, and triggered the sex abuse investigation of Sandusky that has resulted in the removal of top Penn State officials and legendary football coach Joe Paterno.
The boy showed "courage" that others — including adults in positions of power at the university — did not in dealing with Sandusky, a revered former coach who still had access to campus facilities, said Michael Gillum, the victim's psychologist.
"We simply did what you are supposed to do," Gillum said in an interview with USA TODAY. "Had this individual not come forward, this investigation may not have happened. Who knows how many people he saved from abuse.
"He's a hero. That is the truth."
The adults who could have done more, Gillum suggests, include Paterno, who according to the grand jury report was told by a graduate assistant in 2002 that Sandusky had assaulted a different young boy in the showers of Penn State's football facility.
Paterno reported the incident to his bosses but did not notify police.
Sandusky — who met the boys through The Second Mile, a foundation he started in 1977 to help at-risk youths — is charged with sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years.
Former PSU athletics director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who was the school's senior vice president for business and finance, face perjury charges after telling grand jurors that the assistant's report to them about the 2002 incident did not mention sexual activity.
Late Wednesday night, the scandal's powerful aftershocks claimed the university's two most influential figures. The school's board of trustees voted to remove President Graham Spanier and Paterno, who presided over the Penn State program for nearly 50 years.
The scandal has raised questions over whether Penn State officials put the interests of the university and its celebrated football program over those of children who were victims of sexual abuse.
In his last hours as coach, Paterno lamented, "I wish I had done more."
Sandusky, 67, is charged with 40 counts of abuse while he was an assistant to Paterno and during his work with The Second Mile. If convicted, he would face a maximum term of life in prison.
Curley and Schultz each face one count of felony perjury and a misdemeanor charge of failing to report allegations of abuse to police after they were informed of the 2002 incident.
Joseph Amendola, the attorney for Sandusky, told CNN his client is innocent of the sex abuse charges against him. He said Sandusky is frustrated that he can't defend himself publicly and saddened that the scandal has brought down Paterno. Amendola said he is building his case to defend Sandusky, finding and interviewing witnesses.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said Paterno — who informed Curley of the 2002 incident after the coach learned of it from Michael McQueary, the graduate assistant — fulfilled his legal reporting obligation and is not a target of the continuing state grand jury investigation.
Yet the 23-page grand jury report is littered with instances in which university officials and other authorities failed to act, effectively allowing the list of victims to grow.
"Nothing stopped," Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said this week.
n 1998, the mother of a young boy designated by the grand jury as "Victim 6" became suspicious when her son and Sandusky showed up at her home with wet hair. The boy, according to the grand jury report, acknowledged that he had showered with Sandusky, prompting the mother to call Penn State University police.
In a later conversation with Sandusky — with two university detectives listening in — the coach allegedly admitted hugging the boy while both were naked in the shower, the grand jury reported. "I was wrong," Sandusky allegedly told the mother. "I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I were dead."
The case was referred to then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, who declined to prosecute the case in 1998, the grand jury found.
Another potential missed opportunity , according to the grand jury, occurred in 2000, when a janitor allegedly witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a boy in the Penn State locker room showers.
The emotionally shaken janitor, did not report the incident to authorities because he and others feared losing their jobs, the report says. He now suffers from dementia and was declared incompetent to testify before the grand jury.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.