Judge Who Freed Sandusky On Unsecured Bail Raised Campaign Funds From Board Members Of Sandusky's Charity

Wow. Leslie Dutchtot, the judge who let Jerry Sandusky out of jail on $100,000 bail, took money from several people involved with The Second Mile when she was running for district judge a few years ago.

The news that Dutchtot benefited from contributions from a campaign fundraiser hosted by Bob Poole, the chairperson of The Second Mile, was revealed yesterday by Pennsylvania Representative Mike Vereb, who posted two of Dutchtot's campaign finance reports from May and June of 2007. Poole appears on both of them. Could be two fundraisers. Or two checks cut to Dutchtot on different days. The documents don't specify. Regardless, Poole donated or raised $2,463.02.

But he's not the only one from The Second Mile who brought money into her campaign. Lance Shaner, a big businessman who served on The Second Mile board from 1998 through 2006, donated or raised $1,000 for Dutchtot in May 2007. And his son Mathias chipped in with $196.36. We should also note that Shaner was one of the biggest individual donors to Tom Corbett's 2010 campaign. Shaner gave the current governor $155,550.

And there's one more connection to The Second Mile in these documents. That'd be Daniel Hawbaker, who donated or raised $250 for Dutchtot. Hawbaker is the CEO of Glenn O Hawbaker, Inc., a State College excavation company that's not only a regular donor to The Second Mile but also has one of its vice presidents, Michael Hawbaker, sitting on the charity's central board. (For what it's worth, the Hawbakers have also given a lot of money to Corbett.)

Keep in mind that these are Dutchtot's campaign finance reports from only two months, released by Vereb because they have Poole's name on them. One can only guess what other Second Milers might appear on different reports. Vereb has issued a sternly worded letter to attorney general Linda Kelly requesting that she recuse herself from the case should she have ties to The Second Mile. All documents below:

Letter to AG

Dutchcot Campaign Docs

Dutchcot Campaign Docs 2