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David Woodle, acting CEO, refused to address concerns raised by board members about Raykovitz's handling of information regarding the 2002 shower incident, saying to do so would be a distraction from the goal of helping serve children.
The board of directors of a children's charity is responsible for making sure that it operates under reasonable policies and procedures to protect children, according to Daniel Borochoff, president of Chicago-based Charity Watch. Individual board members can face lawsuits for failing in their oversight duties, and The Second Mile insures its board members against such claims.
The Second Mile has been named in two civil complaints, including one that seeks to preserve the charity's assets.
David Marshall, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who represents other accusers, said: "It may have been only Sandusky who laid his hands on these children, but it is clear that a number of other individuals and agencies placed the children in harm's way by knowingly taking actions that allowed the abuse to continue even after they became fully aware of it."
Raykovitz also is facing questions about his handling of the 2008 complaint.
Rosamilia, the Clinton County youth services chief, said he had informed Raykovitz's wife in November 2008 that his office was terminating its relationship with The Second Mile because of an abuse complaint. He said he had not identified the target of that complaint, but that Genovese eventually guessed correctly that it was Sandusky.
Rosamilia, who said he mentioned his conversation with Genovese to investigators working on the current prosecution, also recalled Genovese saying that a member of The Second Mile board planned to speak with Sandusky about staying away from Second Mile events involving children.
Raykovitz said Rosamilia's description of the conversation with his wife is incorrect. He would not elaborate. Attempts to reach Genovese were unsuccessful.
Raykovitz referred questions about what he did in 2008 to a prior statement, which said that when Sandusky told The Second Mile he was being investigated because of allegations made "by an adolescent male," the organization separated him from "all of our program activities involving children." The Second Mile statement makes no mention of the sexual nature of the 2008 complaint.
He said in the interview last week some staff at The Second Mile were informed in 2008 that the complaint was the reason Sandusky was not participating in programs serving children, but only on an "as-needed basis."
Bonnie Marshall, the charity's vice president for development, said Raykovitz described the 2008 complaint to her and other senior staff as a general abuse complaint, not one of a sexual nature.
She said Raykovitz explained that Sandusky would be taking a break from programs with children but would continue fundraising.
She said she also was unaware of Genovese's conversation with Rosamilia and was not aware that anyone at the charity had ever spoken to Sandusky about getting too close to The Second Mile children.
In 2009, when Sandusky left the charity's board, Raykovitz told the staff that child welfare officials had issued a finding of abuse against Sandusky, Marshall said. But, she added, Raykovitz described it only as a general complaint being pursued by an angry mother who had accused Sandusky of wrongdoing, not a complaint of sexual abuse.
"I thought he would have told me that this was something really bad," Marshall said. "And he didn't."
[Associated Press;
AP National Writer Jeff Donn and AP researchers Judith Ausuebel and Monika Mathur contributed to this report.
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate@ap.org.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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