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 Sandusky was convicted in 2012 of molesting 10 boys over 15 years
and is serving a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years.
The report, compiled by former federal prosecutor Geoffrey Moulton,
said there were “inexplicable delays in bringing a serial child
molester to justice."
Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who released the report, has argued
criminal charges should have been brought sooner and that Corbett
failed to protect children for more than two years.
Two boys became new victims of Sandusky in 2009, months after the
attorney general began to investigate, she said at a news
conference. They were not among the 10 boys Sandusky stood trial for
abusing, nor were they mentioned in the report.
“There was a lack of urgency on the part of leadership,” she said.
In a separate development on Monday, an independent hearing examiner
recommended that Sandusky should be allowed to keep his state
pension of roughly $60,000 a year despite his 45 child sex abuse
convictions,
 Finding that state rules for forfeiting pensions due to sex crimes
took effect in 2004 - and that Sandusky was not a Penn State
employee at that time having retired in 1999 - the examiner said the
former assistant football should have his pension reinstated.
The report released by Kane said an assistant attorney general
prepared charging documents based on grand jury testimony of a
single victim against Sandusky as early as March 2010, more than a
year and a half before he was arrested.
Her supervisors in the attorney general's office overruled her,
believing testimony of a lone victim would be “insufficient against
a community icon like Sandusky” and that a failed prosecution would
make it difficult to proceed if other victims came forward, it said.
They wanted investigators to find more victims, despite fears that a
delay could allow Sandusky to continue, it said.
Randy Feathers, a former regional director for the attorney general
who oversaw the Sandusky investigators, was skeptical of Kane's
claim and said added victims would have figured prominently in the
review, given its concern over urgency.
"Nobody involved in the investigation has any knowledge of a
credible victim who was molested during that time," Feathers said.
"We have no idea what she is talking about."
The report said the investigation was delayed also by difficulty
getting documents from The Second Mile, a charity for troubled youth
that Sandusky ran and found some victims, and Penn State, which did
not turn over a police report involving a 1998 child sex abuse
incident.
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Investigators say finding that report led to the discovery of four
more victims.
Sandusky's arrest rocked the world of college football and led to
accusations that Corbett, who was attorney general when the
investigation began, slowed the case to avoid alienating potential
campaign donors.
The governor, in a statement, said the report "reaffirmed the
integrity" of prosecutors.
“As I have said many times, this investigation was conducted
appropriately and timely," he said. "As made clear by the Moulton
report, this investigation was never about politics. It was always
about the people victimized by this man."
Sandusky worked from 1969 through 1999 under legendary longtime Penn
State football coach Joe Paterno, who was fired in the wake of the
scandal and who died in January 2012.
Several Pennsylvania prosecutors said the review reeked of politics.
“To us, career professionals who investigated and prosecuted this
case, the report was clearly born of political opportunism and
posturing,” they wrote in an addendum.
Corbett, a Republican, has struggled with poor approval ratings and
is seen as a highly vulnerable incumbent.
Penn State's former president, former athletic director and former
vice president face charges including endangering the welfare of
children, obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy.
(Additional reporting by David DeKok; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst,
Bill Trott, Jim Loney and Cynthia Osterman)
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