warning, triggers below
There's a must-watch interview on tonight's edition of 20/20. Aaron Fisher, the young man who started the chain of events that eventually sent Jerry Sandusky to prison is speaking publicly for the first time.
A clip of the interview aired on Good Morning America this morning. Watch it here (sorry, it won't embed).
Back in the spring of 2008, Aaron Fisher, previously known as "Victim 1," reported that Sandusky had been molesting him since he was 12. For those who don't know, Fisher met Sandusky through the Second Mile. By the time Aaron was a freshman at Central Mountain High School near Williamsport, Sandusky--who was a volunteer football coach there--was frequently pulling him out of class and calling him numerous times at home. Sandusky even followed Aaron home at least once.
Finally, Aaron could take no more and told his mother that Sandusky had been molesting him. But when he and his mother, Dawn Daniels, told school principal Karen Probst about it, Probst's reaction left them gobsmacked.
"They said that Jerry has a heart of gold and that he wouldn't do those type of things," Daniels said "They tell me to go home and think about it."
Daniels did not follow their advice. Instead she says she told Probst that she would be notifying Clinton County Children and Youth Services of the allegations directly.
Daniels and Fisher later learned that Central Mountain High School officials did call CYS, but they say the call only came after the mother and son left the principal's office. School officials are legally mandated to report all allegations of child sex abuse and have said that the allegations were reported immediately.
For Fisher, the initial suggestion that those meant to protect him did not believe his story was crushing.
It later emerged that Central Mountain's head football coach, Steve Turchetta, had been suspicious about the nature of Sandusky's relationship with Aaron, but continued to allow Sandusky to take him out of class. Daniels says no one ever told her about how often Sandusky pulled Aaron out of class. If I were Probst or Turchetta, I'd be updating my resume. And if I were Turchetta, I'd also have a lawyer on speed dial.
For Aaron, the drawn-out investigation was almost as chilling as school officials' response (or lack thereof). As most people following this case now know, Tom Corbett, who was state attorney general at the time, has faced a good deal of heat for his handling of the investigation. For the first 15 months after Aaron reported the abuse, only two investigators were assigned to the case, and those investigators had no experience dealing with child molestation. More seriously, he amassed enough evidence to arrest Sandusky well before November 2011.
Aaron asked Corbett's office on numerous occasions why Sandusky wasn't in jail, and got the same answer every time--they needed to find more victims before filing charges. It almost drove Aaron to the breaking point.
To Fisher, it meant his suffering was not enough.
Fisher said every delay in the case caused him to grow increasingly desperate and drove him to contemplate suicide.
"I thought maybe it would be easier to take myself out of the equation," he said. "Let somebody else deal with it."
Happy now, Governor? Your dragging out of this affair--which, to my mind, borders on dereliction of duty--almost resulted in someone killing himself.
Aaron has retained a lawyer to file civil suits against both Sandusky and Penn State. He's also written a book about his experiences, Silent No More: Victim 1's Fight for Justice Against Jerry Sandusky. It will be in bookstores this coming Tuesday, and will also be available for both Kindle and Nook. I know I'm snagging a copy.