More details about Sandusky unfold in disturbed PSU scandal

Travis Kriens

There is so much still going on with the situation at Penn State that it is hard to keep track of it all, but one thing is clear: none of it looks good for Jerry Sandusky.

The first public allegations against Sandusky was in 1998 when he admitted to hugging a boy while showering with him. Since that time, he has made $456,000 from his charity. The Second Mile, a nonprofit organization that serves the youth of Pennsylvania, only stopped paying Sandusky his annual consulting fee of $57,000 in 2009 after they decided it wasn’t a good idea to have Sandusky camp out with young boys. He also continues to collect his monthly pension from Penn State of just under $59,000 a year since he retired in 1999 on top of the nearly $150,000 he received as a lump sum. This is unless he is convicted of these 40 charges.

The Second Mile’s president and CEO Jack Raykovitz, who has since resigned, was paid $1.3 million since 1998 and his wife, Katherine Genovese, who also worked for the charity, was paid just over $900,000.

The attorney that reviewed the 1998 incident on behalf of Penn State was also primary council to The Second Mile. Wendell Courtney is the man’s name and I will go out on a limb and say he was not impartial. He stayed with Penn State until last year and was still with the charity until early last week when he withdrew. I wonder why?

The lawyer representing Sandusky is 63-year-old Joe Amendola. When Amendola was in his late 40’s in the mid 1990’s, he impregnated a 17-year-old named Mary Iavasile. She gave birth right before her 18th birthday. The two later married in February 2003. Mary is now 32 years old. The age of consent in Pennsylvania is 16 years old. I can’t think of anybody better to represent Sandusky than someone that has a history of sexual contact with minors themselves.

When Sandusky was arraigned on Nov. 5, he was let go on $100,000 bail and is back at home like nothing ever happened.  The judge who made that decision was Leslie Dutchcot. She also volunteers for Sandusky’s charity. Prosecutors requested bail of $500,000 and that Sandusky be required to wear a leg monitor. A criminal attorney is quoted as saying that he has never had a client with Sandusky’s charges be released on unsecured bail.

You may have seen former Penn State player and current analyst Matt Millen cry when speaking about the situation on ESPN. This hits closer to home for Millen than most because of his connection with the school. Something you might not know is that Millen is a member of the board of directors for The Second Mile. You wouldn’t know that, however, because The Second Mile has removed the lists of all its board members from its website. Millen and his wife gave between $10,000 and $19,999 to the charity between September 1st, 2009 and August 31st, 2010.

It is said that you are innocent until proven guilty. I would like to throw that out the window. With so much information against Sandusky at this point, he is guilty until he can prove none of these incidents happened.Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini had it right when he said after Saturday’s game at Penn State “I didn’t think the game should’ve been played.”

Just watching the game, I can’t remember a time when the outcome of the game meant less. There were over 100,000 in attendance and how many of them could have had football be the number thing on their mind after all the transpired the previous week?

People were crying, but were they crying for the right reasons?

Were they crying because Joe Paterno wasn’t the head coach of Penn State anymore or because innocent kids were raped and the entire situation was covered up for at least a decade and probably more?

Just talking to college students in Brookings, seeing comments made on Twitter and hearing Penn State students being interviewed about the injustice of Paterno getting fired just don’t get it. This is bigger and more serious than coaching football or anything that resembles the game on the field.

Riot on the streets if you want. It won’t bring your football coach back. Pray for the victims too. But just know that won’t erase the life-long damage done to so many kids by one man for years.