A Shower Of Lies: Spanier, Sandusky And The Mess At Penn State

Editor's Note: Frederick Crews, essayist, literary critic and English professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkley, reviews In the Lions' Den: The Penn State Scandal and a Rush to Judgment by Graham Spanier. More than a decade later, the Penn State cover up is still going strong. Because the media can't admit they blew the story, this article was rejected for publication by six different magazines.

By Frederick Crews

for BigTrial.net

You remember Jerry Sandusky, right? 

He’s the former Penn State assistant football coach and pedophilic monster who started a foundation, The Second Mile, in order to gain sexual access to prepubescent boys, hundreds of whom he molested, until eight heroic ones stepped forward to tell a jury about their ordeals in 2012, resulting in the sixty-eight-year-old Sandusky’s thirty-to-sixty-year prison term.

If you recall anything else about the case, it is probably the wrenching story of the ten-year-old “little boy in the shower,” who, on February 9, 2001, was seen being raped by Sandusky in a Penn State athletic facility. For some reason the witness, a hulking former quarterback named Mike McQueary, didn’t intervene, but on the next morning he did go straight to the legendary football coach Joe Paterno and tell him about the sodomy. 

Paterno conferred with the university’s athletic director, Tim Curley, who then involved a vice president, Gary Schultz, and the president, Graham Spanier. Instead of reporting the crime to the police, however, the three officials conspired to cover it up, thus sparing scandal to their all-important football program. As for the rape victim, he couldn’t appear in person at Sandusky’s trial, because nobody knew who he was.

But there’s a problem with what you remember. It’s sheer folklore. True, Sandusky took a shower with a boy. That’s what he often did, quite openly, after a workout together, and the showers typically included innocent horseplay. That behavior had been commonplace in the recreation center where Sandusky was raised. 

As for the incident in question, Mike McQueary initially misremembered its date by more than a year, and then probably misdated it again; he wasn’t at all sure he had glimpsed a sex act, and that’s why he had done nothing to stop it; he evidently didn’t mention it to Paterno until weeks later, and then only in passing; and his subsequent inaction and cordiality toward Sandusky indicated that he had reconsidered his initial concern.

11

Jerry Sandusky The Jailhouse Lawyer Targets Andrew Shubin

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

In a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, Jerry Sandusky, acting as his own jailhouse lawyer, accuses attorney Andrew Shubin of using the quack science of recovered memory therapy to manufacture tainted testimony against him by alleging sex abuse that never really happened.

When the Penn State sex abuse scandal hit, "Shubin went into action advertising for and identifying accusers," Sandusky writes in an affidavit accompanying his motion for a new trial. "He [Shubin] collaborated with therapist Cynthia McNabb to create a group contagion."

"In the words of some of their clients, buried memories were retrieved," Sandusky wrote. "Seeds of incrimination were planted in the minds of susceptible individuals, as revealed in the newly discovered evidence, and tainted, unreliable testimony was created."

On his website, Shubin, of State College, who did not respond to a request for comment, brags that he led "the charge to hold Penn State accountable for its role in the devastating sexual abuse of young boys."

In the process, Shubin hit the lottery for both his clients and himself, racking up more than $32 million in civil settlements for six alleged victims of abuse. Four of the six alleged victims represented by Shubin initially claimed that Sandusky had never abused them. And then, the four alleged victims underwent recovered memory therapy. 

Through the use of highly suggestive and leading questions, Sandusky charges, the alleged victims supposedly recovered hidden memories of abuse that in the criminal courts, helped convict Sandusky; and in the civil courts enabled the alleged victims to cash in.

After they changed their stories, Jason Simcisko collected $7.25 million; Dustin Struble, $3.25 million; Frankie Probst, $9 million; and Matt Sandusky, Sandusky's adopted son, $325,000. A fifth alleged victim, Alan Myers, allegedly the infamous "boy in the showers," initially insisted to a private investigator that Sandusky had never abused him and even wrote a letter to a local newspaper, defending Sandusky. But after he retained Shubin and flipped on Sandusky, Myers collected $6.9 million.

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'Mayor Of Maple Avenue' Told A.G. He Wasn't A Victim Of Abuse

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

On the tenth anniversary of the Penn State sex abuse scandal, Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter Sara Ganim is hosting a podcast where she claims that Shawn Sinisi, a previously unknown alleged victim of Jerry Sandusky's, was the first  alleged Sandusky victim to die as a result of that alleged abuse. 

"In so many ways, Shawn Sinisi was a textbook abuse victim: he was ashamed, confused, angry, unable to admit or discuss what had happened," Ganim says on the new podcast, The Mayor of Maple Avenue, which was Shawn Sinisi's nickmame. "He was a child who seemingly overnight went from a happy go lucky and outgoing kid to a quiet, distant, and then troubled young man."

"He began to escape his pain and bury his memories of abuse with drugs and alcohol," Ganim said. "He became an addict. And when his addiction led him down a darker path, he was given yet another label: criminal."

There's only one problem with Ganim's tragic story of abuse. Shawn Sinisi, who grew up in Altoona, PA, isn't around to speak for himself; in 2018, he died of an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl, at 26. But "during his lifetime," wrote Don Litman, a civil lawyer for Sandusky, to lawyers for the Sinisi family, Shawn Sinisi "unequivocally stated that he was not sexually abused by Mr. Sandusky."

So did Josh Sinisi, Shawn's older brother, who attended the Second Mile camps with his brother, and claimed that they stayed together overnight at Sandusky's house.

That's the story told in a trio of contemporaneous police reports from 2011 and 2012 emanating from the state attorney general's office that are marked "confidential." That's why Litman, who's defending Sandusky against a civil suit filed by the Sinisi family on March 12, 2021, has told the Sinisis, who are the featured guests on the Ganim podcast, that they are engaged in "publishing false and misleading information." So Sandusky's lawyer has called on the parents of Shawn Sinisi to cease and desist.

Litman, who referred a request for comment to Sandusky's criminal layers, has demanded that the Sinisi family take the podcast series off the internet "or we shall bring this to the attention of the Court and seek injunctive relief along with further consequences for such blatant misconduct."

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Free Jerry Sandusky!

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

Ten years after an illegal grand jury leak set off the media firestorm known as the Penn State sex abuse scandal, the evidence of official misconduct in this case is so pervasive and egregious that Jerry Sandusky deserves to walk out of prison today as a free man.

Since 2017, Big Trial has reviewed thousands of pages of court transcripts and legal proceedings in the case, along with hundreds of pages of confidential documents that are still under a judge's seal.

Taken together, those records tell a clear story -- the case against Sandusky is fatally flawed from top to bottom. A decade later, records show, the actions of many of the principal actors in this case, including prosecutors, judges, and FBI Director Louis Freeh, who led the civil investigation at Penn State, are irredeemably tainted by misconduct, incompetence, unethical behavior, conflict of interest, collusion and/or corruption. 

In addition, psychologists in the case used scientifically discredited recovered memory therapy to elicit suspect testimony from many of the alleged victims, whose improbable and constantly evolving stories to this day have never been vetted by anyone. Finally, the defendants' own medical records cast doubt on whether Sandusky was physically capable of performing the acts he was accused of.

Based on the evidence that I will present here, there's no longer any reason for any sane person to believe in the findings of both the civil and the criminal investigations conducted at Penn State. A decade later, the prevailing story line in the Penn State sex scandal about the man who's supposed to be the most notorious pedophile in America amounts to an X-rated fractured fairy tale that, when viewed from multiple angles, makes no freaking sense. 

There's a looming shadow that's cast over the entire Penn State scandal, and that's the egregious conduct of an overzealous prosecutor on a rampage, former Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina, who was the lead prosecutor at Penn State.

Amelia Kittredge, the counsel for the state Supreme Court's disciplinary board who ran the investigation that resulted in Fina losing his license to practice law, memorably described Fina to the state's highest court as "someone who cannot or will not separate right from wrong."

A decade later, Fina's fingerprints are all over this travesty of a case, particularly when it comes to illegal grand jury leaks. But when we're talking about bad actors in the Sandusky case, Fina's got plenty of company. 

The tragedy of all this is if the state gets its wish, Sandusky, who at 77, still professes his innocence, may die in prison before the truth about the scandal behind the scandal at Penn State is finally known. 

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One More Time: Sandusky's Lawyers Again Target Frank Fina

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net 

Jerry Sandusky's lawyers are back in court again seeking an evidentiary hearing so they can question former chief deputy attorney general Frank Fina about multiple grand jury leaks and highly credible evidence of collusion. 

The allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against noted bad actor Fina and the A.G.'s office are highly credible because they are documented in an extremely unusual source -- a 79-page diary written contemporaneously in 2011 and 2012 by decorated former FBI Agent Kathleen McChesney, who's famous for her work in capturing serial killer Ted Bundy. 

But in the Sandusky case, his lawyers want to question McChesney about her role as co-leader of the civil investigation at Penn State led by former FBI director Louis Freeh. Sandusky's lawyers also want McChesney to testify in court so that she can authenticate her diary.

The requests from Sandusky's lawyers are outlined in a 28-page motion for a new trial filed Monday in state Superior Court that's based on new evidence discovered post-trial after Sandusky's 2012 conviction. The appeals court is already familiar with the McChesney diary, as it was the basis for a previous motion for a new trial filed on May 9, 2020 by Sandusky's lawyers, along with a request for an evidentiary hearing. 

But a year later, on May 13, 2021, the state Superior Court denied that motion, ruling that Sandusky's lawyers did not file their appeal in a timely fashion. Instead, the state Superior Court ripped Sandusky's lawyers, saying that they "dithered for one-half a year" before bringing the newly discovered evidence to the court's attention.

Undaunted, Sandusky's lawyers, Philip Lauer of Easton and Alexander Lindsay of Butler, have filed a new application to reargue their appeal in state Superior Court. In their motion for a new trial filed Monday, Sandusky's lawyers are also asking the state Superior Court to once again remand their request for an evidentiary hearing to the Centre County Common Pleas Court. 

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Josh Shapiro Seeks Death Penalty For Graham Spanier

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro wants to send former Penn State President Graham Spanier to jail because of a 2017 conviction on a single misdemeanor count, a move that Spanier's lawyers say may amount to a death sentence.

A hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas in Harrisburg before Judge John Bocabella, the same biased jurist who presided over Spanier's farce of a trial, where Spanier was convicted on a single count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, for allegedly having failed to prevent convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky from preying on other children. 

"The Commonwealth has asked this Court to immediately send to prison Graham Spanier, a 72 year-old, non-violent, first-time offender with serious, life-threatening health conditions, in the midst of the worst pandemic in more than a century," wrote lawyers Samuel Silver and Bruce Merenstein on Jan. 8th in an 11-page answer to the attorney general's motion to enforce a sentencing order against Spanier.

Spanier had open-heart surgery two years ago to replace his aortic valve; he also suffers from advanced and metastasized prostate cancer. 

"Because [sending Spanier to jail] presents a substantial risk to Dr. Spanier’s health, the Court should deny the Commonwealth’s request and instead require Dr. Spanier to serve his four-month custodial sentence on house arrest with electronic monitoring," Spanier's lawyers wrote.

If Judge Bocabella puts Spanier in jail, it would be the finishing touch on a complete travesty of justice.

For starters, the misdemeanor charge that Spanier was convicted of not only exceeded the statute of limitations, it was also the product of bad case law manufactured by a corrupt D.A. And, as a federal magistrate has previously ruled, Spanier's conviction was unconstitutional as well. 

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In Court, AG Seeks To Cover Up Collusion, Leaks, In Sandusky Case

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

The ethically-challenged state attorney general's office has argued in state Superior Court that a secret diary compiled by a former FBI agent that documents rampant collusion and multiple grand jury leaks by the AG's office during the Jerry Sandusky investigation amounts to "purely speculation."

Sandusky's lawyers are seeking an evidentiary hearing where Kathleen McChesney, the decorated former FBI agent who's the author of the diary, would be brought in for questioning. Sandusky's lawyers also want to question former deputy attorney general Frank Fina, a noted bad actor in this case who also happens to be the alleged leaker repeatedly fingered by McChesney in her diary.

But rather than take on the facts as posed in newly discovered evidence, Jennifer Buck, the senior deputy attorney general in charge of the AG's appeals and legal services division, argued Wednesday before a panel of three judges that such an evidentiary hearing would amount to a "fishing expedition," and that's why Sandusky's appeal for a new trial should be dismissed on procedural grounds.

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Former FBI Agent's Diary Poses Ethics Problem For Attorney General

Former FBI Agent McChesney

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The state attorney general's office is lamely trying to discredit a decorated former FBI agent's diary that documents rampant collusion and illegal grand jury leaks committed by the AG's office during the criminal investigation of Jerry Sandusky.

The 79-page diary was written in 2011 and 2012 by former FBI Special Agent Kathleen McChesney, when she was acting as co-leader of a supposedly independent civil investigation of Penn State being led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

In a 24-page brief filed Aug. 6th in opposition to Sandusky's motion for a new trial, the state attorney general's office argues that the McChesney diary "has never been produced or authenticated," and that any excerpts from it amount to hearsay.

But in a 17-page reply brief filed Aug. 20th, Sandusky's lawyers argue that there's a simple solution to that problem of authenticity -- bring McChesney in for an evidentiary hearing, so she testify as to the "truth and accuracy" of her diary.

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Sandusky's Lawyer Seeks To Depose Bad Actors In PSU Travesty

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

An appeals lawyer for Jerry Sandusky has asked the state Superior Court to either dismiss the charges against his client, or grant him a new trial. 

And if the Superior Court won't go along with that request, Sandusky's lawyer seeks to have the case  remanded back to Centre County Common Pleas Court. Why? For the purposes of an evidentiary hearing that would feature the questioning under oath of many of the bad actors in this ongoing travesty of justice.

In a 46-page brief filed July 6th, but only disclosed yesterday, Philip D. Lauer, an Easton lawyer, argues that Sandusky is the victim of a corrupt "de facto joint investigation" conducted by both the state Attorney General's office, and former FBI Director Louis Freeh. The joint investigation was marked by collusion and illegal grand jury leaks that not only tainted the jury that convicted Sandusky, Lauer writes, but may have also tainted the trial judge.

Freeh, Lauer writes, was hired for $8.3 million to "perform an independent, full and complete investigation" of the sex abuse allegations against Sandusky, and the alleged failure of Penn State personnel "to report such sexual abuse to appropriate police and government authorities."

But in a secret 79-page diary, Lauer wrote, the co-leader of Freeh's investigation, former FBI Agent Kathleen McChesney, "summarized daily briefings and other highlights from the ongoing investigation, including contact with other agencies, including the office of Attorney General."

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Lubrano Speaks Out About PSU Cover-Up, Lack Of Due Process

Anthony Lubrano, an outspoken Penn State trustee, opened up about the inner workings of that board during the so-called Penn State sex abuse scandal.

Lubrano did his talking on the latest episode of Search Warrant, a podcast hosted by three former cops, and joined by your humble Big Trial correspondent. 

During a two hour interview, Lubrano talked about the lack of due process at every stage of the scandal and the ongoing cover up that the board has engaged in until today. 

Lubrano, who left the board in 2018, when his term was up, but was reelected again and returns as a trustee today, also outlined some unfinished business that he wants to pursue -- a proposed resolution  to go to court and sue former FBI Director Louis Freeh, to recoup the $8.3 million that the university paid for a "fact-free report."

The entire two-hour podcast can be heard here.  But Lubrano wasn't done downloading on Penn State. Part II of the Lubrano interview can also be heard here.

0

Inside The Frank Fina Dirty Tricks Playbook

On the latest Search Warrant podcast, John Zimmerman, a former White House aide, gives some insights into the Frank Fina Dirty Tricks Playbook.

Zimmerman has seen Fina's act up close. In 2009, he was indicted and subsequently cleared by the state attorney general's office in the so-called Computergate scandal in Harrisburg. 

Zimmerman believes the indictment was issued to keep him from appearing as a witness in the case, and giving testimony that did not jibe with the attorney general's story line. When Fina got a chance to interview Zimmerman, his first question concerned the location of a so-called "sex room" in the state Capitol building.

"It seems like he was obsessed with sex," Zimmerman said. Zimmerman also sees some interesting parallels between Computergate and the so-called Penn State sex abuse scandal. The episode of the cop-hosted podcast can be heard here.

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Superior Court To Hear Sandusky's Argument For A New Trial

Kathleen McChesney

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

The state Superior Court on Friday decided to hear arguments on Jerry Sandusky's bid for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence.

The court Friday gave Sandusky's lawyers 21 days to file a brief. The state Attorney General's office has 21 days after the Sandusky filing to file their response. "No extensions will be granted," the court declared in a docket entry.

"The motion for new trial on the ground of after-discovered evidence," along with a motion to dismiss the case against Sandusky are "DEFERRED for disposition to the panel of this Court to be assigned to decide the merits of the appeal," the court stated in a docket entry.

The motion for a new trial is based on newly discovered evidence that includes a 79-page diary kept by former FBI Special Agent Kathleen McChesney back in 2011 and 2012, when she was the co-leader of a supposedly independent investigation of the Penn State sex abuse scandal as led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

6

Sure Sign Of The Apocalypse: Truth Leaking Out At Penn State

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The mainstream media doesn't think it's a story yet but the Penn State sex abuse scandal is about to blow wide open.

So far, during the entire sordid 10-year-history of this case, the corrupt Pennsylvania judiciary has been remarkably single-minded as well as highly successful in its desire to keep Jerry Sandusky rotting in prison for the rest of his days. And that corrupt judiciary has been even more remarkable -- and similarly successful -- in circling the wagons over the years to deny any and all appeals. That's despite overwhelming evidence of rampant official misconduct and wholesale trampling of constitutional rights that pervades the entire case.

But on Feb. 5, 2019, state Superior Court Judge Carolyn Nichols wrote a 70-page opinion denying Sandusky a new trial, an opinion she foolishly staked to the credibility of former Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina.

In her opinion, the Hon. Judge Nichols bought former Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Eshbach's argument that she and Fina had set an "internal trap" for the person in their office who was leaking grand jury secrets to reporter Sara Ganim. The gullible Judge Nichols also bought the argument that Fina couldn't have been the leaker because he had previously asked the grand jury judge to investigate those same leaks.

"It is a fact of human nature that one engaged in or aware of misconduct he does not wish to have exposed does not ask an outside source to investigate it," Judge Nichols opined. She didn't mention this in her 70-page opinion, but she's probably also convinced that O.J. Simpson is still out looking for the real killers. That's how laughable Judge Nichols's opinion is right now after Frank Fina has been completely outed as an overzealous and unprincipled prosecutor with a demonstrated track record for leaking grand jury secrets.

13

Big Trial Explains Sandusky's Motion For A New Trial

On the latest "Search Warrant" podcast, Ralph Cipriano of bigtrial.net explains Jerry Sandusky's motion for a new trial to the three cops hosting the show.

The motion is based more than 100 pages of newly discovered evidence, formerly confidential documents that show rampant collusion and grand jury leaking going on between the state attorney general's office and the supposedly independent investigation conducted by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Sandusky's lawyers are in state Superior Court seeking an evidentiary hearing so they can depose Freeh and former deputy attorney general Frank Fina, among many others, to learn the depth of the collusion, corruption and illegal grand jury leaks.

The podcast can be heard here.

0

What Juror In Sandusky Case Told Louis Freeh's Investigators

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

In their motion for a new trial, lawyers for Jerry Sandusky question whether one of the jurors who convicted him gave truthful answers in court when asked about her previous dealings with Louis Freeh's investigators.

Had the defense known the extent of what the juror told Freeh's investigators, Sandusky's lawyers said in their motion for a new trial, she would have been stricken as a potential juror.

During jury selection on June 6, 2012, the juror in question, identified in the motion for a new trial as "Juror 0990," was asked by Joseph Amendola, Sandusky's trial lawyer, what she told Freeh's investigators. In an April 19, 2011 summary of that interview, the juror is identified by Freeh's investigators as Laura Pauley, a professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, who could not be reached for comment.

"It was focused more on how the board of trustees interacts with the president," Pauley told Amendola, as well as "how faculty are interacting with the president and the board of trustees . . ."

In a summary of Pauley's interview, however, Sandusky's lawyers say, "it is apparent that the interview . . . included something more than how the Penn State faculty interacted with the president and the board of trustees."

5

Sandusky Seeks New Trial Based On Fina-Freeh Collusion, Leaks

Kathleen McChesney

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky have filed a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that documents rampant collusion between the criminal investigation of the Penn State sex scandal conducted by the state attorney general's office and the supposedly independent $8 million civil investigation of PSU presided over by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Throughout the Freeh investigation, which was the legal basis for the NCAA's unprecedented sanctions imposed against Penn State that included a record $60 million fine, there were "substantial communications" between the AG's office and Freeh's investigators, the motion states. Those communications included a steady stream of leaks to Freeh's investigators emanating from the supposedly secret grand jury probe overseen by former Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina, a noted bad actor in this case.

The collusion and leaks between the AG's office and the Freeh Group are documented in three sets of confidential records filed under seal by Sandusky's lawyers; all those records, however, were previously disclosed on Big Trial. The records include a private 79-page diary kept by former FBI Special Agent Kathleen McChesney, the co-leader of the Freeh investigation, in 2011 and 2012; a seven-page "Executive Summary of Findings" of a 2017 confidential review of the Freeh Report conducted by seven Penn State trustees; and a 25-page synopsis of the evidence gleaned by the trustees in 2017 after a review of the so-called "source materials" for the Freeh Report still under judicial seal.

In documents filed Saturday in state Superior Court, Sandusky's lawyers argued in their motion for a new trial that the collusion that existed between the AG and Freeh amounted to a "de facto joint investigation" that not only violated state law regarding grand jury secrecy, but also tainted one of the jurors who convicted Sandusky.

4

Louie Freeh 'Sold Penn State Down The River'; Then Vultures Attacked

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Dr. John Nichols, a professor emeritus of communications at Penn State, is the founder of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, a national alliance created to give college faculty a voice on sports issues.

He's testified before Congress on how to reform the NCAA; he's served as chair of the university's faculty senate. He also was a member of the search committee that hired Bill O'Brien to replace Joe Paterno as Penn State football coach.

Last week, Nichols appeared on Search Warrant, the cop-hosted podcast, to air his longstanding grievances with the 2012 Freeh Report on the sex scandal at Penn State. Nichols also decried the ongoing coverup of the scandal behind the scandal by Penn State's stonewalling board of trustees.

In an episode entitled A Smoking Gun? Part 1, Nichols charged that rather than serve Penn State, the client that paid him $8 million to investigate the sex scandal, former FBI Director Louis Freeh's main motivation was to "ingratiate himself with the NCAA," so he could become their "go-to investigator" for future collegiate scandals.

"He [Freeh] sold his client Penn State down the river in anticipation of making big bucks in the form of further business from the NCAA," Nichols said. Then, after the Freeh Report issued its faulty conclusions on Penn State based on nonexistent facts, Nichols said, "the vultures . . . swooped down on this sad case to make political hay out of this case, or to make big bucks out of the case."

4

Former FBI Agent's Diary Documents Illegal Leaks in PSU Probe

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

In "Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,"  former FBI Special Agent Kathleen McChesney revealed on camera how the federal investigation of the serial killer got started. A woman called and said, "I'm concerned about my boyfriend -- his name is Ted Bundy."

The girlfriend proceeded to detail Bundy's suspicious behavior that included following women around at night, hiding a knife in his car and keeping a bag of women's underwear in his apartment.

McChesney, who was on the task force that arrested Bundy, rose to become the only female FBI agent appointed to be the bureau's executive assistant director. Her credibility was such that in 2002, in the wake of the widespread sex abuse scandal involving the Catholic clergy, the U.S. Conference of Bishops hired McChesney to establish and lead its Office of Child and Youth Protection. She's also the author of a 2011 book, "Pick Up Your Own Brass: Leadership the FBI Way."

But now the decorated former FBI special agent is drawing unwanted attention for another book she wrote -- an unpublished, confidential 79-page diary written in 2011 and 2012, back when McChesney was a private investigator working for her old boss, former FBI Director Louis Freeh. At the time, Freeh was getting paid $8 million by Penn State to probe another notorious sex scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

According to Sandusky's lawyer, McChesney's diary may constitute newly discovered evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, because it documents how the Pennsylvania state Attorney General's Office was repeatedly violating state law by leaking grand jury secrets to Freeh's investigators.

16

Where Football Meets Fraud: Dick Anderson On Jerry Sandusky

Former Penn State assistant football coach Dick Anderson appeared on the new "Search Warrant" podcast to talk about his former teammate, fellow coach and longtime friend, Jerry Sandusky.

During the hour-long interview, Anderson answered questions from hosts John Snedden, a former NCIS special agent; Anna Mydlarz, a former undercover Buffalo detective; and Tom Purcell, a former Canadian Pacific police captain.

Anderson has been an inside witness to the travesty known as the Penn State sex abuse scandal. He talks about what he's seen on the podcast headlined "Football Meets Fraud" that can be heard here.

0

A Man Without Civil Rights

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The man in the mustard-colored prison jumpsuit apologized in court to the judge for not being able to show remorse for his crimes. But the most notorious pedophile in America had a good reason for not playing along with the well-worn script in his case -- "because it's something that I didn't do," the inmate told the judge.

Jerry Sandusky, still protesting his innocence, was back in court last week to be re-sentenced after the latest official screwup in this ongoing travesty of a case. An appeals court had ruled that the trial judge hadn't properly applied mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines when he put Sandusky away the first time back in 2012 for 30 to 60 years.

But in the grand tradition of the Pennsylvania judiciary, circling the wagons, a new judge, the Honorable Maureen Skerda, gave Sandusky the exact same sentence that he got the first time around -- 30 to 60 years in jail. The message from the Pennsylvania judiciary was unmistakable -- we may have screwed up the details, but when it comes to Jerry Sandusky and the rest of the defendants in the so-called Penn State sex scandal, the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply, and neither does the Bill of Rights. Lock 'em up and throw away the key.

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