Silent No More

by Aaron Fisher

  We took care of all the “nobodies” who would otherwise be lost in a system. Rosamilia and I had been doing this kind of work for years and years, and although this wasn’t unfamiliar territory for either of us, we had never dealt with anyone like Jerry Sandusky in terms of that level of celebrity and power. Most of our perpetrators are family members. Once there was a teacher, but nothing on the level of Sandusky. Within the confines of the state of Pennsylvania, this was like a kid saying that he was abused by the president of the United States. Sandusky had celebrity status, money, power, and resources way beyond what we had at CYS. But Rosamilia and I agreed that we would follow through on this no matter what. We both knew that the job fell to me as Aaron’s psychologist.

  The bottom line was that I was more than convinced that Aaron wasn’t the first of Sandusky’s victims. I was also determined that he would be the last.

  12

  Chains of Command

  Mike

  THE FIRST THING I DID AFTER THAT FIRST MEETING WITH AARON was talk to Dawn. I told her that we needed to move ahead with this and that I needed to see him the next day and quite intensively for a while. That was fine with her. She was grateful.

  Rosamilia and I hadn’t had our first heart-to-heart yet when I made my first call to the principal of Aaron’s school, Karen Probst. I told her who I was and what the situation was and stated that Jerry Sandusky was now under investigation for child abuse. I then stated in no uncertain terms that he could not be on the campus of her school. Under other circumstances, Jessica could have made that call. I made it personally, however, not because it was Jerry Sandusky but because the abuse was beyond the pale. It seemed to me that Mrs. Probst was taken aback, even though she knew that Aaron had been in her office that morning. She hesitated, then said, “Okay”—and that was the end of the conversation. It was what she didn’t say or ask that struck me. She didn’t ask what the nature of the abuse was. She didn’t ask for details. She didn’t ask if Aaron was all right or if he would be in school the next day. I also thought it was strange that she didn’t explain why she and the guidance counselor had sent the boy home and not taken his account more seriously. Was it because Aaron’s allegations were so inconceivable when it came to the man he accused?

  The entire scenario was altogether peculiar. Dawn was so distraught and said she had begged the school to call the police or some other agency, yet the school had refused and said to “sleep on it.” This was not the typical protocol with this kind of complaint from a child. Of course, when Aaron came in, I wasn’t concerned with protocol; I was simply concerned about the distress of the boy. Once I spoke to Mrs. Probst, the wheels were turning in my head that something was simply all wrong. I sat back in my chair and thought, What the hell is going on here?

  That was when I called Rosamilia. Jessica and I met with him, and then I met with Rosamilia alone. Little by little, conversation after conversation, more and more pieces started falling together—although, even then what we put together was only the tip of the iceberg. The problems we anticipated weren’t nearly as daunting as what was to come. In that first meeting with Rosamilia, although I suspected that Aaron wasn’t Sandusky’s only victim, I never anticipated the scope of it all.

  Most of all, we knew at that point that Sandusky was a celebrity, but the height and breadth of his popularity and his public presence still weren’t resonating with me. I didn’t quite have my head around the fact that Sandusky was just shy of being iconic. Yes, he was a big shot at Penn State. And yes, now there was a question in my mind as to why this man identified by this one boy as a pedophile had resigned in 1999 yet still ran a camp for kids. But I know now that I wasn’t up to date on Sandusky. Not even close.

  It was clear, based upon Dawn’s story and after my call with Karen Probst, that the school had a relationship with Sandusky as well. Why else would a school principal and a guidance counselor dissuade a mother—and dissuade her in front of the child—from taking any action? Why did they say that perhaps the allegations were wrong? Why didn’t they dig deeper?

  Nothing made sense. The more I thought about the school, the more upset and disgusted I became that they would argue in front of the boy and tell him to go home and sleep on it. It’s so hard to get a victim of any kind of abuse to come forward, and if you’re a guidance counselor or a principal you’re expected to be not only professional but empathetic. Given how distressed Aaron was and continued to be, how in the world could they question the authenticity of his statement? He didn’t give them details of sexual abuse; he just said that Sandusky had abused him. When they asked him if it was sexual, he said yes. I was extremely worked up by the time I hung up the phone with Karen Probst. I had been doing this kind of work for years and never seen anything like this. Even if a principal had some doubt about what a student was presenting, that’s a behind-closed-doors conversation and you are obligated under the law, particularly as a school faculty member or administrator, and no matter what your personal opinion is, to make an immediate report. It’s not your call to make in terms of veracity.

  Everything seemed backward. The school never even called me until after they learned that Dawn was bringing in Aaron. I knew now that the only reason they called was that Aaron had made a report to them of alleged abuse and the omission of a phone call to us would have looked really bad for them after the fact. They were covering their collective ass.

  My mind started going even further. You have a mother and child who are in such distress over this kind of allegation and there is no staff member from the school who drives them to CYS? There’s no call to either CYS or the police to say that this mother is far too upset to drive and we need assistance? I wrote up the report on Aaron and gave it to Jessica, who is required to file a CY104 form for sexual abuse that goes out to the state police. She also enacted what we call a “child line,” which means that she filed a verbal report with the state police that very afternoon of November 20; she then sent the written report the following day. The report was sent to the Lamar Barracks, which is the closest barracks to the town of Lock Haven and CYS. In Pennsylvania, state police stations (or barracks) are located throughout the Commonwealth, each typically providing coverage to a single county. I was a bit concerned because Lamar is the regional barracks and Aaron had already told me that the crimes committed against him were in various jurisdictions. He said that although most of them were committed while he was at Sandusky’s house, Sandusky had also traveled with him to Blanchard Dam, Philadelphia, and across state lines to Maryland. Crossing state lines with a minor was something else entirely.

  I was mulling things over to the point where I couldn’t sleep at night. It was shaking me up as I came to realize that yes, we were up against Sandusky, but Sandusky was part of a package and the package might include Penn State. When I was younger, in my twenties, I lived in Lancaster County, in southern Pennsylvania. That’s Amish country, about an hour west of Philadelphia and a three-hour drive from State College. I had friends who attended Penn State and I’d make that drive and visit them when there was a big game. I hadn’t thought about those days in years. Talk about school spirit. Going to a Penn State game and having a tailgater was the best. And Joe Paterno was, without question, the greatest football coach who ever lived. When I was in my twenties, it was really Paterno’s heyday. It was the mid-1980s and Penn State was winning national championships. Just about everyone I knew was a Penn State fan, with the exception of the occasional Notre Dame fan—and Notre Dame was Penn State’s biggest rival. Everything across the state of Pennsylvania was about Paterno and football—and getting tickets wasn’t easy. They were always promised to groups of alumni, and even they sometimes had trouble scoring tickets for the games at Beaver Stadium. People began talking about a new Penn State football season in the early summer, even before the preseason. Looking back on it, Penn State was like a mythical place, located right in the middle of what was affectionately called “the Happy Valley.” You could only get there by c
ar or bus, unless you were one of the lucky ones with a private jet or a helicopter. Even back in the 1980s, before it was built up like it is today, Penn State was like an island filled with bright, young, progressive people, and it seemed that every kid aspired to go there.

  Today, the main street that runs through the college is like the heart of some high-end town. People who attended and have moved away remain diehard fans, and the school is very well funded. How many campus towns have several jewelry stores? The fraternity houses have ballrooms and bar areas even though the majority of frat boys are under the drinking age of twenty-one.

  I was beginning to realize that Aaron and I (as his advocate) were not about to confront only Sandusky; we could very well be confronting Penn State, which might rally around the former coach. I knew I was getting ahead of myself, but something was instinctively bugging me.

  CYS and I had a meeting with the Pennsylvania State Police a few days after my first meeting with Aaron. We gave them the information we had gathered. This might be confusing, but here’s how it works: The local police can only cover the city limits of (in this case) the town of Lock Haven in Clinton County, where Aaron lived and went to school. Sandusky lived in State College, in Centre County, which required the meeting with state police since the alleged abuse occurred where Sandusky lived. I emphasized in my initial call to the state police how difficult it was for Aaron to talk about all of this and how it required great sensitivity on their part. Then we had to deal with the question of which district attorney would ultimately handle this case, since so many offenses occurred in Centre County.

  The state police responded by saying that they wanted to schedule an interview with Aaron for December 12, 2008. Typically under this kind of dire circumstance, the interview would have been within a week. The time period was delayed. At this point, I wasn’t fully aware of Sandusky’s impact. But something was off in my mind. I tried to be calm. It crossed my mind that there was the Thanksgiving holiday coming up and sometimes they’re short-staffed during holidays. I told myself that the interview was still within an acceptable time period, but I was eager to get going. It also crossed my mind that the delay might be because of whom we were dealing with as a perpetrator. I wondered if when the state police got the report it had gone through the normal channels. Did it go straight up the chain of command so that maybe someone in a higher position took over? If that was the case, did that person in a higher position take a pause to consider how they wanted to respond?

  I tried not to get ahead of myself.

  We had the police interview as scheduled on December 12 with no further delays. During that initial interview, the state police did not allow me to sit in with Aaron. The interview was held in Jessica’s office; Jessica, as the intake officer, was allowed to be present. However, the moment the interviewers came into the office, there was something unusual. There were two state troopers, not the usual single individual. In addition, CYS usually deals with a regular state trooper, Trooper Patterson, from the Lamar Barracks, who just happens to be a woman. We typically dealt with Trooper Patterson in situations of sex crimes. She’s terrific with the kids and families and we know her well. We trust her methods and integrity. Now, instead of Patterson, we had two male troopers—Trooper Cavanaugh from the Lamar Barracks and Trooper Akers from the Montoursville Barracks. They were big guys, middle-aged, and looked like former military. To say that my curiosity was piqued when it came to Patterson’s absence is an understatement.

  I took Jessica aside and asked if she knew about this. Did she know why there were two troopers and not one, and why Patterson wasn’t there? Jessica didn’t know. Neither she nor I was informed ahead of time to expect something different. All we had was a date and a time. There was no heads-up for us—these guys just walked in. True, Aaron was not comfortable talking about the abuse with a woman, but I was certain that Trooper Patterson could have worked around his discomfort. I had prepared Aaron as best I could for this interview, telling him of course that there would be one state trooper, that it would likely be Trooper Patterson, and he could trust her. His having to tell his story to these guys whom I didn’t know, and on top of that to two of them at once, made me nervous. Aaron was scared and didn’t want to tell his story, but we had talked about it extensively and he knew this was something he had to do. I felt terrible that I had prepared him for an interview with a certain state trooper, and I worried about how he would fare. I also wondered if his faith and trust in me would be shaken.

  Even more troubling for me was the presence of the trooper from the Montoursville Barracks. It flashed in my mind that maybe the delay in the interview was, in fact, deliberate because the state police were handling this case differently because of who the perpetrator was. Maybe they really were handling it more carefully. I wondered if these troopers were higher-ranking than Patterson, and had been sent in because Sandusky was a big fish, to be handled with kid gloves? Had they had an eye on him for years and now there was finally some evidence to support their suspicions?

  The prevailing feeling I had was that indeed, Sandusky could end up getting special treatment because of who he was. I was afraid that law enforcement would point to the fact that they sent in not one but two state troopers to investigate the matter, and that even though they gave it more manpower than usual, they didn’t find the kid to be credible and the kid didn’t give them enough to go on.

  Aaron was with the troopers and Jessica for roughly an hour with the door closed. This was all according to protocol. The fact that I was not sitting in as Aaron’s psychologist was also typical, so I had no problem with that other than worrying about Aaron. Since the Sandusky verdict, the state now has a designated center for sex crime interviews at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where they have alleged victims tell their story without having any parents or supporters present. The state insists that the child be with a stranger. I don’t agree with that policy at all. Does anyone realize how emotionally tenuous a child victim is?

  I was pacing around outside as Aaron was interviewed. I knew how reluctant Aaron had been to offer any information to me that first time and how reticent he remained. I was frustrated and thought that this was just another example of how callous and insensitive law enforcement can be in these situations, and how they don’t follow psychological recommendations on how to deal with children and adults who are abused, compromised psychologically, or have mental health issues. I was thinking that bureaucracy is so hung-up on chain of evidence and rules of interviews that they discount, minimize, and reject professional psychological opinions.

  After Cavanaugh and Akers completed the interview, they introduced themselves to me. I was expecting some dialogue, but then they just left. They didn’t offer me anything—such as we think he’s telling the truth or he gave us some valuable information. Trooper Patterson would have given me feedback. These guys were stone cold. They seemed pretty anxious to get going. All they said was they’d get back to me.

  Jessica and I talked for a while after the troopers left and Dawn picked up Aaron. Jessica said that Aaron was reticent, as we had expected. He didn’t want to talk about anything in detail and essentially just confirmed that there was sexual touching in terms of fondling and kissing on the lips, but he would not go any further even though it was obvious that more had occurred; the “more” that had occurred was written in my report and the troopers were privy to that. Had the troopers asked him about the “more,” as I had during my first interview when I asked if oral sex had taken place? Yes they had, but Jessica said that Aaron denied it. They could have asked him the proper questions in the right way to ascertain the extent of the abuse. Even though Aaron’s meeting with the state troopers was only three weeks into his therapy with me, my report clearly said that he admitted that oral sex occurred.

  There should have been no doubt whatsoever in the minds of those troopers that this boy was a sexual abuse victim. My report also stated clearly that Aaron said Sandusky had taken him to out-
of-state hotels where they spent the night in the same bed.

  No one from law enforcement got back to me until a few weeks later. Again, typically, I would have heard back sooner than a few weeks although I admit that it can be inconsistent. I made more excuses. I blamed that second delay on the fact that we were now running into the holidays. When they didn’t get back to me until sometime in January 2009, I had a sinking feeling in my gut that the chain of command was more like a barbed wire fence.

  If this had been any other child, abused by any other perpetrator under the same or similar conditions, the time from intake at CYS to arrest of the sex offender would typically be within two to three weeks. Jerry Sandusky wasn’t called in for an interview until January 15, 2009.

  All perpetrators are given an opportunity to dispute a victim’s allegations, and despite the depth and prolonged history of the abuses, Sandusky was no exception. This was according to CYS protocol. No special treatment. When we heard that Sandusky was coming with his lawyer, Joe Amendola, CYS called our lawyer, Mike Angelelli. We asked Angelelli to sit in on the interview, and Jessica would be there as well as per protocol. The alleged perpetrators in our demographic at CYS typically don’t have the means or wherewithal to engage an attorney. Something was already strikingly different about this case.

  Angelelli and Jessica filled me in after the meeting, and it became clear to me that Sandusky was a cool customer. Although he acknowledged some basic aspects of Aaron’s allegations, he was smug and dismissive. From what they told me, I pictured him swaggering. Sure, he admitted that he cracked Aaron’s back; he hugged him and kissed his forehead in the way that you would a son or grandson. He said there was horseplay, for sure, as anyone who was a father figure like him would do, but the notion that anything sexual occurred was ridiculous. He not only denied the fondling and kissing Aaron on the mouth, but he dismissed it categorically. Sandusky went so far as to assume a sympathetic bent to Aaron, saying that the charges were all trumped up and that Aaron was angry with him, although he didn’t know why since he’d done so much for the boy. He was disheartened that Aaron was making these false claims since they had enjoyed such a great relationship. Sandusky suggested that perhaps Aaron was angry and sullen because he, Sandusky, had started doing things and going places with other boys and maybe Aaron was jealous.