Silent No More

by Aaron Fisher

  All in all, Sandusky acted as though he was totally mystified by the entire situation.

  I wasn’t at the meeting, but when I got the report on Sandusky’s interview, I was floored. In all my years I’d never seen someone flip anything around the way that Sandusky did. Basically, he just said that Aaron was a screwed-up kid, and rather than act angry the way other perpetrators do when faced with these kinds of allegations, he just lawyered up and denied everything, seeming almost sorry for Aaron and this fantasy he had evidently created. I knew in my gut that this would be trouble: Sandusky had an attitude, an attorney, and all the power to assassinate Aaron’s character and dismiss the allegations. Sandusky struck me as sickeningly arrogant.

  I have a private practice as well, but I am the only psychologist for Clinton County. I supervise our employees and intake officers and oversee the various cases where our counselors physically go, for example, into the homes of current and prospective foster parents to make sure that things are going smoothly. We also go into homes where there are cases of suspected child or domestic abuse. In other words, we run the gamut. Once the counselors make their reports, I meet with families and personally do the psychological evaluations to determine whether a situation can be remedied through therapy. I determine whether an individual offender can be rehabilitated. In all my years and in all the situations, I had never encountered an attitude quite like Sandusky’s. It was alarming.

  It wasn’t until later in the case that I learned something about Joe Amendola as well. At the time, I thought it was disturbing and questioned its veracity, but it turned out to be true. I was told that when Amendola was forty-nine years old, he represented a sixteen-year-old girl when she filed an emancipation petition in September 1996. The petition stated that the girl had graduated from high school in two years with a high grade-point average and worked in Amendola’s office. When the girl was seventeen, she and Amendola married and she gave birth to his child. After having a second child together, the two separated and then divorced. This certainly compromised Amendola’s character in my eyes. There it was again—a power differential: an older and successful man taking advantage of, in this case, a young woman in a sexual nature. Three years later, when NBC’s Bob Costas asked Amendola if he would leave his own children in the care of Jerry Sandusky, Amendola said he would—without hesitation. His ex-wife then posted a comment on her Facebook page that read, “Did Joe Amendola just say that he would allow my kids to be alone with Jerry Sandusky?”

  Despite Sandusky’s nonemotional dismissal of the allegations, despite his arrogance and his explanations that this was just an angry and jealous boy, another letter went out to Sandusky stating that he was indicated for alleged child abuse. The first letter was more of a warning and the second was the real thing. He received that first letter on January 2, 2009. After his interview on January 15, he was indicated for real: As an agency, we found him guilty. He appealed, but in February 2009 his appeal was turned down.

  The wheels had been set in motion.

  13

  All the State’s Men and Women

  Mike

  IT WAS A STATE TROOPER LEAR WHO GOT BACK TO ME AT THE END of February 2009. I was dumbfounded. What happened to Cavanaugh and Akers? Lear was a completely new player. Again, I wondered what the hell was going on and now I also wondered where it was all coming from. Who was calling the shots? I wanted there to be one consistent state trooper right from the start so Aaron didn’t have to keep reexplaining things. The only saving grace was that I was now permitted to sit in on all the interviews, though I still wasn’t allowed to speak for Aaron. I understood that, and the state police understood that my presence was necessary because Aaron was so fragile.

  I’d spent quite a bit of time with Aaron after the initial state troopers, Cavanaugh and Akers, had their interview with him. There was a lot of damage control that had to be done. Aaron was absolutely convinced that Cavanaugh and Akers doubted him to the point of total disbelief. I gathered, based upon their demeanor and Jessica’s take during the interview, that they pushed Aaron too far and yet not far enough. As reluctant as he was to talk about the situation, his reluctance was magnified tenfold. I needed to reassure Aaron once again with the coming of Trooper Lear. Although I was surprised that we were about to be faced with a new state trooper, I didn’t let on to Aaron. I assured Aaron that this time not only would there be a single trooper assigned to interview him, but I would be there as well. Of course, I had told him before Cavanaugh and Akers’s arrival that there would be one trooper and that it would be Patterson. I was concerned about my credibility with Aaron. I also didn’t let on to Aaron that having yet another new trooper assigned to a case was totally in contradiction to protocol.

  When I asked Lear who he was, remarking that we’d already had an interview with Troopers Cavanaugh and Akers, he said that it was decided that he would be the trooper assigned to the case. I didn’t question at the time who had done the decision making. He went on to say that since I was pretty vocal about there being a single trooper assigned to the case, he would follow the case from beginning to end and take Aaron’s story from the top. Again, I said that Aaron had already been interviewed by two other guys, and I explained that Aaron was extremely delicate emotionally and psychologically. Why did Aaron have to take his story from the top? Lear seemed prepared for the question and explained that more detail and information were needed. I have to admit that made sense to me. Lear went on to say that he would meet with Aaron at the end of the month or at the beginning of March, and in some ways I thought the more time we had, the better. Maybe as time went by, Aaron would be more forthcoming. If what Lear said was true, that they needed more details and information, maybe by the time of Lear’s interview Aaron would not only have revealed more details to me but would be more comfortable revealing them to someone else as well.

  When I mentioned to Lear that usually we dealt with Trooper Patterson, he made no comment other than to say that he, Lear, was now the one permanently assigned. Without further discussion or explanation, it was clear, he was directing me off the topic. He actually gave me a little speech about his take on pursuing Jerry Sandusky.

  “I don’t care who Sandusky is,” Lear said. “I’ll put the cuffs on anybody.”

  He had me convinced that Sandusky wasn’t going to get any special treatment and I felt good about that, but Lear’s enthusiastic pursuit of Sandusky despite “who he was” didn’t overrule the need for Aaron to have support in the room. Lear’s speech, with all his bravado about justice, didn’t throw me off course. I stipulated again that I had to be in the room with Aaron. He agreed as long as I wasn’t coaching or prompting.

  In the meantime, there was the question of which district attorney would handle the case, since so many of the offenses occurred in State College, within Centre County and where Sandusky’s house was located. Aaron lived in Clinton County. It was similar to the jurisdictional question we had with the state police as opposed to the local police. We decided to contact the DA’s office in Centre County but hit a wall. Upon hearing and reading the complaint, the DA recused himself. I never learned the exact reason for the recusal. There was talk along the lines of “He knew someone who knew someone who knew Sandusky,” indicating a conflict of interest. The reasons were vague, but there was an implication that the DA felt that he could not be objective. Honestly, there was a moment when I wondered whether he just wanted nothing to do with this case because it might prove to be a prescription for professional disaster.

  As it turned out, the DA didn’t matter. Shortly after a lengthy conversation with Lear on March 12 in which I further emphasized Aaron’s fragile state of mind, CYS was informed that the state attorney general’s office would be handling the case. That call came in on March 12 as well—the same day that Trooper Lear contacted me. It was all happening so fast: The DA recused himself, we had a new trooper in Lear, and then the attorney general’s office stepped in. My attorney general contact was Jonelle
Eshbach. She introduced herself as senior deputy attorney general, just a step down from the state attorney general, Tom Corbett, who at the time was in the midst of campaigning for governor of Pennsylvania. Jonelle made it clear that neither DA, in Clinton or Centre County, would be handling the case and this would be a state matter. When I asked her why the case had been bumped up to the attorney general’s office, she stated that she couldn’t get into it, but there were a number of reasons why. She said again that she would be the individual who would follow through with the investigation. Jonelle was matter-of-fact and said she’d get back to me shortly. No frills. All business.

  If I ever had any doubts before that this was a high-profile case, they were diminished now. Still, I had no warning when Jonelle personally called me. Typically, my dealings are limited to the Pennsylvania State Police, municipal police, and a local district attorney or just an assistant district attorney. Suddenly I was dealing with the senior deputy attorney general for the state of Pennsylvania. When I hung up the phone, I thought, Holy crap, this is even bigger than I thought. I went right over to Rosamilia’s office and he had the same reaction. Rosamilia was trying to analyze why the case wouldn’t just be tried in Centre County, but then we quickly concluded that when the state got wind of the situation, they wanted to be certain there were no missteps. The magnitude of the case was undeniable: The state attorney general’s office was usually focused on corruption and investigation of police officers, gambling, vice, organized crime. This was the big time.

  By the time Lear came into CYS on March 19, 2009, for the interview with Aaron, I was hoping that I’d gotten Aaron to the point where his skin was a little thicker. I assured him again that Trooper Lear was going to be on his side. I didn’t mention what Lear said about putting the cuffs on Sandusky because I thought the vision might upset Aaron, who was still afraid of repercussions from Sandusky or his “people.” All I told Aaron was that Lear was on the side of justice.

  Lear was a younger guy, younger than Akers and Cavanaugh, and pretty animated. Unlike the other troopers, he didn’t quite fit the stereotypical physical profile of a state trooper. He was rather slight, was not tall, and hardly had that military demeanor of the other two guys. I was hopeful that maybe because he was younger and less physically overpowering, Aaron could relate better to him. I had also told Lear before he sat down with Aaron how carefully the boy needed to be handled. I tried to impress upon Lear that I realized the importance of eliciting information and details from Aaron, but that he needed to get the information in such a way that was not only gentler but also preserved Aaron’s dignity. And Aaron needed to feel that Lear could be trusted.

  In retrospect, I should have mentioned leaving out the cuffs line. To my chagrin, it was one of the first things that Lear said. Although it was intended to bolster Aaron’s faith in Lear, it seemed to make Aaron retreat. His eyes got real wide and he became very quiet. Lear was trying a little too hard to convince Aaron that he was on his side and went on to say that he didn’t care who Sandusky was, if he was guilty, they’d get him, because Lear’s sole purpose was to help Aaron.

  Despite my pep talk to Aaron, he still had a tough time coming forth in that interview. He was nodding his head yes or no as Lear asked him pointed questions about the nature of the sexual abuse. We needed verbal answers for the record, and it was hard to keep asking him to state his answers out loud. Aaron gave one- or two-word answers about where he was touched and what happened to him, and when it got to the more graphic details of oral sex, Aaron was still reluctant to state any detail in words. He just kept nodding to indicate that abuse—and particularly, that oral sex—had happened, and then he looked down at the floor as though he was ashamed. The interview lasted an hour. Then Lear shook our hands and left. Even though it was a grueling interview just because the subject matter was so brutal, Lear was a bit of a breath of fresh air for the simple reason that he wasn’t the standard macho state trooper. He showed compassion to Aaron and kept reassuring him that this case would not be handled with kid gloves because it was Jerry Sandusky and that he personally would seek justice on Aaron’s behalf.

  Aaron and I both felt a sense of relief after Lear left—relief that the interview was over and a hope that things would proceed the way they should going forward. Since the initial interview with the two other state troopers, there had been a significant lag in time, which concerned us both, and Aaron kept asking me when Jerry would get arrested and put in jail. Although there was a conflict when he heard the “cuffs” remark from Lear, it appeared that Aaron’s concern for harm coming to himself or his family was finally trumping Jerry’s arrest and the notion of Jerry in handcuffs.

  Aaron’s fear of harm emanated from a new understanding that a perpetrator like Sandusky was not a rational person. In any situation, a kid fears his perpetrator both during the commission of the crime and after he has identified the perpetrator. In this case, I believed that even though Sandusky’s social, political, and financial power was not fully known by Aaron, instinctively, his fear was augmented. Since my discussion with Jonelle and then the analysis with Rosamilia, I knew his fear was justified.

  This was not a typical case of abuse. I tried to rein in my own apprehension, what with the appearance of Jonelle, the conversations with Rosamilia, Sandusky’s interview with a lawyer present, and Patterson’s absence. It was now impossible not to acknowledge the vast power of Jerry Sandusky. When the attorney general’s office stepped in, I thought about Sandusky’s contacts. About the tons of friends he had in high places, not to mention his connection to Paterno—and his connection to the Second Mile, which meant he’d had access to children for decades. I’d thought about all this before, but this time I felt sick to my stomach. Even now, did I really know who we were dealing with? Even more than before, this time deep in my gut, I felt it: There have to be other victims. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how big the victim pool could really be.

  Little did I know that this was just the beginning. I was terribly concerned about the power differential between Sandusky and CYS. For sure, we didn’t have the influence and power of Sandusky, and here I have this extremely fragile fifteen-year-old boy whom I can barely get to talk to me about the details of the sexual abuse because he’s not only traumatized but also scared to death that Sandusky is going to kill him, even by going so far as to hire a hit man.

  How would we even have the ability to prosecute a case like this? I knew that if the case came to fruition, it might well escalate into a criminal trial. How would Aaron handle that? He was so intimidated by Sandusky. That’s when it really hit me hard that there was a strong probability—not just the possibility I’d entertained weeks before—that we could easily be going up against Penn State as an institution. As I began to anticipate the pushback, I felt extremely small and powerless.

  14

  Defense Tactics

  Mike

  I TOLD MYSELF THAT IT WAS A GOOD SIGN THAT THE CASE WAS bumped up to the attorney general’s office. The fact that it had gone that far up the hierarchy made it evident to me that my thoughts of other victims—as well as my notion of Sandusky as a serial pedophile—were not off base.

  Just days after I spoke with Jonelle, she called again and asked to meet me at the Lamar Barracks, on April 3, 2009. She said that Trooper Lear would be there as well. I was there early, and I got antsy in the waiting room so I walked outside. When she drove up in a white state-issued sedan, I knew it was her and walked over to introduce myself. Just moments later, Lear came outside as well. Later, Jonelle would tell me that she was put off by him. My take on him was that he was just younger than a lot of the other troopers and lacked experience. Jonelle was an experienced prosecutor, and for whatever reason, Lear just rubbed her the wrong way.

  The three of us went into a private room inside the barracks and I explained what I thought had happened with Aaron. I told Jonelle precisely what he told me as well as my psychological take on his state of mind, w
hich bore witness to the emotional hallmarks of sexual abuse of a child. Jonelle reviewed everything that I said with Lear, who concurred based upon his interview with Aaron.

  Jonelle was intrigued and I also perceived her as visibly shaken by the details and the psychological aspects of the case, but then she deftly switched gears and became totally professional and all business. She explained that the attorney general’s office would be in charge of the prosecution. She also said that as time went on, they might involve other agents from their office. She needed us to keep her apprised of everything that was going on in the case and everything had to be kept absolutely confidential. She wanted me to give her any new information that came from Aaron going forward. She hoped he would become more comfortable and discuss in greater depth the details that were relevant to the case. She made it very clear that the standard of evidence required by the attorney general’s office before they could even begin to prosecute the crimes inflicted on Aaron had to be far more comprehensive. In that initial meeting, she said that they couldn’t prosecute at their level if all we had was Aaron’s complaint—especially if Aaron was reluctant to discuss details. So then why were they investigating the case at that juncture?