Sandusky Update: Where Were The Psychological Reports?

A new Sara Ganim report in this morning's Patriot-News notes that the psychological reports referenced in yesterday's SWH post were never provided to the Department of Public Welfare investigator who ultimately decided to close the 1998 case against Jerry Sandusky. The DPW investigator was brought in due to a conflict of interest, as Centre County Children and Youth Services worked very closely with Jerry Sandusky's charity, The Second Mile.

Jerry Lauro, brought in to investigate the child abuse claims against Sandusky, said Wednesday that Penn State police never shared those conflicting reports with him before he closed the case. Lauro said he closed the case because he did not believe there was enough evidence based solely on interviews.

Lauro was interviewed by the state grand jury that recently brought 52 child sex abuse charges involving 10 boys against Sandusky, but he said he did not even know that psychologists had evaluated the boy, then 11, until a reporter who acquired the 100-page report approached Lauro and showed him the reports.

Penn State "Detective [Ron] Schreffler never shared any of these with me," Lauro said, referring to reports from psychologist John Seasock and a female psychologist. Seasock concluded that the boy was not sexually abused two days before the case was closed. The report of the female psychologist who evaluated the boy right after the incident found Sandusky was exhibiting signs of grooming a victim for sexual abuse.

Take a minute to read the whole story. The conflict of interest between Centre County Children and Youth Services and The Second Mile has to be examined further. Obviously, there's a question of whether anyone from outside the police hierarchy intentially hid the reports from Lauro or otherwise directed the Penn State police to close the case back in 1998, even after Sandusky's "I wish I were dead" quasi-admission in the living room of Victim #6.