#30 Posted: 3/25/2012 2:43:12 PM Report: Sandusky called 'likely pedophile' in '98
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — A psychologist who looked into a 1998
allegation against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry
Sandusky told police at the time that his behavior fit the profile of a
likely pedophile, NBC News reported Saturday. Yet Sandusky was not
criminally charged nor placed on a state registry of suspected child
abusers, and prosecutors say he continued assaulting boys for more than a
decade until his arrest in November. NBC obtained a copy of the
campus police department's investigatory report on an encounter in which
Sandusky was accused of having inappropriate contact with an
11-year-old boy with whom he had showered naked on the Penn State
campus. The police file includes the report of State College
psychologist Alycia Chambers, who interviewed and provided counseling to
the boy. "My consultants agree that the incidents meet all of our
definitions, based on experience and education, of a likely pedophile's
pattern of building trust and gradual introduction of physical touch,
within a context of a 'loving,' 'special' relationship," Chambers wrote. However,
a second psychologist, John Seasock, concluded that Sandusky had
neither assaulted the boy nor fit the profile of a pedophile. Chambers and Seasock did not immediately return phone messages left at their offices Saturday. Centre
County prosecutors ultimately decided not to charge Sandusky, and the
case was closed until a statewide grand jury accused the retired
defensive coordinator of abusing the boy and nine others over a 15-year
period. Sandusky, who faces more than 50 counts of child sex abuse, has
pleaded innocent and awaits trial. Chambers' warning to
authorities raises new questions about the university's failure to stop
Sandusky. Eight of the 10 boys were attacked on campus, prosecutors
allege. In 2002, four years after the 1998 investigation,
prosecutors say then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary caught Sandusky
sexually assaulting a boy in the football showers. McQueary reported
what he saw to coach Joe Paterno, who, in turn, reported the allegation
to university officials. But no police investigation was ever done. A
lawyer for the then 11-year-old boy said in a statement Saturday that
details of the 1998 campus police investigation point to "a conspiracy
of silence" surrounding Sandusky's behavior. Howard Janet
questioned why the university did not take further action when Chambers'
told campus police that Sandusky fit the profile of a likely pedophile.
Janet also challenged Seasock's objectivity, saying that Seasock
apparently had ties to an agency that certified Sandusky as a foster
parent. Penn State said in a statement Saturday that it would not comment, citing ongoing investigations. Sandusky's
attorney, Joseph Amendola, told The Associated Press on Saturday that
Seasock's report was "exculpable" and that the 1998 incident was not as
clear-cut as Chambers made it out to be. "We could get five
psychologists, child psychologists, who specialize maybe in sexual
dysfunctions or pedophilia look at the same case and talk to the same
people and come up with five different conclusions," he said in a phone
interview. The 1998 allegation was the first known complaint made
to authorities about Sandusky. A woman called the Penn State police
department, saying she was troubled after her 11-year-old son told her
he had showered naked with Sandusky on campus. Prosecutors say
Sandusky lathered up the boy — known as Victim 6 in the state's current
criminal case — bear-hugged him naked from behind, and picked him up and
put his head under the shower. Detectives say that later, with police
secretly listening in, Sandusky told the boy's mother the joint shower
had been a mistake, and blurted: "I wish I were dead." The woman's
complaint triggered a separate review by the state Department of Public
Welfare, which found no indication of abuse by Sandusky. But
state welfare department investigator Jerry Lauro told AP in December
that he didn't have access to the criminal investigative file. On
Wednesday, he told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg that he never would
have closed the case had he seen the reports from Chambers and the
second psychologist, Seasock. "The course of history could have
been changed," Lauro told the newspaper, which first reported the
existence of the twin psychological reports. "The conclusions
(Chambers) had drawn in her report were pretty damaging," Lauro told the
paper. "I would have made a different decision. ... It's unbelievable,
and it gets my blood pressure going when I think about it." Seasock,
who worked with Centre County Office of Children and Youth Services,
interviewed the boy for an hour and wrote in his report — also included
in the police file obtained by NBC — that he did not find any evidence
of "grooming" or "inappropriate sexual behavior" by Sandusky. "All
the interactions reported by (the boy) can be typically defined as
normal between a healthy adult and a young adolescent male," Seasock
wrote. Seasock, however, did not review Chambers' report or prior
interviews with the boy before submitting his own report, the police
report indicates, nor did he elicit key details, including the fact that
Sandusky had kissed the boy and told him he loved him. Amendola said that Chambers has refused to talk to the defense, but that he would try anew in light of the NBC report. "Any
argument the commonwealth had about privilege is out the window," said
Amendola. He said he found the timing of the NBC report curious because
it came several days after a judge ordered the attorney general to turn
over the psychological reports to the defense unless prosecutors could
persuade the court they are not subject to disclosure. Chambers
told NBC in an interview that she was horrified to learn that Sandusky
allegedly continued assaulting boys long after she warned Penn State
authorities about him. "I was horrified to know that there were so
many other innocent boys who had been subject to this, who had their
hearts and minds confused, their bodies violated. It's unspeakable," she
said. Chambers told NBC her 1998 investigation found "behavior that was consistent with a predator, a male predator, a pedophile."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hrDZ6NwduGEMqjNdpgBjpCen6tyw?docId=94c3fd7327d545c386b753bd8677a488
|