Self-described "Child Prostitute" Connects Jerry Sandusky to Poly Prep Sex Abuse Scandal and Coach Phil Foglietta
By Christian Red
A Philadelphia man who claims to have been paid to have sex with former Poly Prep football coach Phil Foglietta in 1979 as part of an alleged pedophile ring that included Jerry Sandusky sent an email to several Poly Prep officials on Monday - including current headmaster David Harman - detailing the explosive allegation. Greg Bucceroni, 48, also sent the email to Kevin Mulhearn, the Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney who represents 12 men who sued the school, alleging Poly Prep officials knew that Foglietta was a sexual predator but covered it up for decades in order to protect the elite institution's reputation and fund-raising efforts. Bucceroni says he was a teenager when he said he met Foglietta at a Second Mile fund-raiser near State College, Pa. The Second Mile organization, which helped at-risk youths, was founded in 1977 by Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach who was convicted on 45 counts of sexual abuse of minors in June. Sandusky, who is scheduled to be sentenced next month, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. In the email to Poly Prep, Bucceroni said he was "a child prostitute" and was associated with a pedophile ring that included Sandusky, Foglietta, now-deceased Philadelphia businessman Ed Savitz and former Wharton School of Business professor Lawrence Scott Ward, who is serving a lengthy prison sentence for trafficking in child porn and smuggling photos and videos of himself having sex with a teenage Brazilian boy. "(Between) 1977-1980 I was a child prostitute associated with a tri-state (NYC-NJ-PA) pedophile ring. (During the) summer of 1979 I was brought to the State College area by Ed Savitz for the purpose of child prostitution with Jerry Sandusky at a Second Mile fundraiser," Bucceroni wrote in the email. "Due to time constraints, Sandusky became unavailable and I was introduced to Phil Foglietta by Ed Savitz & Jerry Sandusky. Foglietta was introduced to us as Coach Phil who coached youth football in NYC. Foglietta agreed to pay $200.00 for child sex and followed us back to a Philadelphia hotel, myself (sic)ad another child prostitute then engaged coach Phil in child sex." A spokeswoman for the school said Poly Prep had no comment on Bucceroni's email. In a series of interviews, Bucceroni told the Daily News that Savitz and Sandusky knew each other through Second Mile, political fund-raising and sports events.
Bucceroni said his stepfather completed paperwork for the boy, then 16, to be enrolled in Second Mile in 1980 and that Bucceroni and Savitz delivered it to Sandusky, but that an altercation between Bucceroni and Savitz that same year destroyed any chances of him being accepted. Bucceroni claims to have been abused by Savitz over several years in the late '70s. Savitz was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse in 1992 in the horrific case, but died of AIDS before his trial was to begin in 1993. More than 2,500 photos of Savitz's alleged victims were seized by authorities who raided his homes, including an apartment near Philadelphia's posh Rittenhouse Square. Lynne Abraham, the former Philadelphia district attorney who prosecuted the Savitz case, told The News that she was unaware of any connection between Savitz, Sandusky and Ward. "I know nothing about this," she said.
At a hearing on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block - who is overseeing the Poly Prep sexual abuse lawsuit filed by 10 former students and two day campers - urged the plaintiffs and the school's lawyers to reach a settlement. A source familiar with the case said no settlement has yet been reached, but that there have been several settlement conferences before a magistrate judge. The lawsuit filed by Mulhearn in 2009, which seeks $20 million for each of the plaintiffs who say they were assaulted by Foglietta, claims that Foglietta may have abused hundreds of other boys. According to the suit, a plaintiff identified as John Doe III says he found hundreds of photos of naked boys, apparently taken with a Kodak Instamatic in Foglietta's apartment, when he opened a dresser drawer in the coach's bedroom in 1971. Foglietta died in 1998. According to a source familiar with the coach, he claimed that he had been offered a job on several occasions to serve on Joe Paterno's Penn State football staff at Penn State. But Foglietta chose to stay at the Dyker Heights school because, according to the source, "he wanted to be big fish in a small pond." Mulhearn declined to comment Bucceroni's email. Bucceroni told The News that he was contacted by authorities on Wednesday to discuss Foglietta, and in the email to Poly Prep, he says that he has cooperated with the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspectors. With Michael O'Keeffe
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