Jerry Sandusky's Charity Preparing To Shut Down?
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky insists child sexual abuse charges against him are false, but the charity he founded for underprivileged youth over three decades ago appears to be planning to fold amid the scandal.
David Woodle, the interim chief executive of The Second Mile, told The New York Times Friday that the non-profit organization founded in 1977 was seeking to transfer its programs to other nonprofit organizations.
Woodle went on to say that he was in touch with donors to see if it was possible to save the organization in some form and if not he would then move to shutter it in a way that would keep at least some of the programs going.
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“We’re working hard to figure out how the programs can survive this event,” he was quoted as saying. “We aren’t protective of this organization that it survives at all costs.”
The charity says it serves as many as 100,000 at-risk children annually. In 1990, President George W. Bush praised it as a “shining example” of charity work.
The hint of the charity’s possible folding comes days after 67-year-old Sandusky denied allegations during his first public interview since he was arrested on charges of 40 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period in early November. “I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact,” he said.
Sandusky was arraigned and released on $100,000 bail. “This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” the Pennsylvania attorney general said in a statement at the time of his charging.
On Nov. 13, the board of directors of The Second Mile accepted the resignation of Dr. Jack Raykovitz, the charity’s CEO for 28 years, and gave Woodle, its vice chairman, the charge for day-to-day operations.
“Although the allegations against Jerry Sandusky and the alleged incidents occurred outside Second Mile programs and events, this does not change the fact that the alleged sexual abuse involved Second Mile program children, nor does it lessen the terrible impact of sexual abuse on its victims,” the board said in a statement a day later.
The board also assured that they would continue to “cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation by the Attorney General’s office,” which has said that Sandusky met each of the eight boys who accused him of raping or otherwise assaulting through the foundation.
The board also approved the hiring of the law firm Archer & Greiner, including partner Lynne M. Abraham, to conduct an independent investigation into the charity.
The report by Thirty-Third Statewide Investigating Grand Jury earlier this month stated that Sandusky singled out eight boys for sexual advances or sexual assaults between 1994 and 2009. All of the accusers first encountered him through activities related to the charity, it said.
