The Second Mile Took No Action After Being Informed Of Sandusky's 2001 Shower Incident

In a statement in November, the Second Mile attempted to address what they had known about Jerry Sandusky and when they had known it. Executive director Jack Raykovitz said he was informed only that an unidentified individual reported being "uncomfortable about seeing Jerry Sandusky in the locker room shower with a youth." Today's Freeh report indicates Second Mile execs might have been aware of a lot more than that.

On February 9, 2001, Mike McQueary witnessed Jerry Sandusky in the shower with Victim 2. The next day, he reported what he saw to Joe Paterno. He didn't describe it in "very much detail," but he said it involved "rough positioning" and was "extremely sexual in nature." Paterno, as he later explained to a Grand Jury, understood the actions were of "a sexual nature."

When Spanier, Curley and Schultz were informed (and as we now know, were well aware of a similar shower incident in 1998), they held a meeting and reached two initial agreements. First, that Curley should inform Sandusky never to bring children into the showers again (they had told him the same thing three years earlier), and second, that they should inform the Second Mile executives. On March 19, Curley met with Jack Raykovitz.

Raykovitz would not speak with Freeh's investigators, but an attorney for the Second Mile did.

He also told counsel that during the executive director's meeting with Curley that Curley related that an unidentified person saw Sandusky in the locker room shower on campus with a boy and felt uncomfortable with the situation and that Curley had discussed the issue with Sandusky and concluded that nothing inappropriate occurred. According to Counsel for the Second Mile, Curley told the executive director, that "to avoid publicity issues," the University would not permit Sandusky to bring kids on campus.

Raykovitz told two Second Mile trustees, and they concluded that they were dealing with a "non-incident" and "there was no need to do anything further." Raykovitz spoke with Sandusky about not bringing Second Mile kids on campus, but Sandusky quickly pointed out that the prohibition only extended to the showers.

The cover of the Second Mile's 2003 annual report featured a photo of a child playing in the pool with Jerry Sandusky.

Spanier told Freeh's investigators Curley told him he had spoken with Raykovitz, "that those discussions had gone well and our directive accepted, and that the matter was closed."

Last November, Raykovitz resigned from the Second Mile, though the organization maintains it was not aware of sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky until 2008. That squares with what Curley told the Grand Jury, although he's been indicted for perjury for his testimony. But it's a lot to believe, especially considering Wendell Courtney, Penn State's outside general counsel who reviewed both the 1998 and 2001 incidents, was also counsel for the Second Mile, and his wife sat on the Second Mile board. There are two interpretations here. One has Raykovitz and the Second Mile lying about what they knew to protect themselves from prosecution. The other has Penn State executives so committed to keeping their own noses clean that they kept what they knew from the charity that supplied Jerry Sandusky children to groom and abuse.

Read all our coverage of the Freeh report here.