Kane to release Sandusky report Monday

HARRISBURG - Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane on Monday will release her long-awaited report into the investigation that led to the prosecution of serial child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky and top officials at Pennsylvania State University, her office announced Friday.

Sources told The Inquirer this month that the review found no evidence that then-Attorney General Tom Corbett delayed the investigation for political gain, but that it raised questions about the pace of the inquiry and some decisions by prosecutors.

Kane has declined to comment on those claims.

A pledge for a deeper look into the three-year Sandusky investigation was a cornerstone of Kane's 2012 campaign to become the state's top prosecutor. She contended that her predecessors - Corbett and his successors, William Ryan and Linda Kelly - wasted too much time by taking the case to a grand jury and allowed Sandusky, a serial predator, to remain free.

After taking office in January 2013, Kane commissioned a former federal prosecutor, H. Geoffrey Moulton, to lead the probe.

Moulton's inquiry included interviews with dozens of people, including Corbett and former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank G. Fina, who headed the investigation. Kane's office also recovered scores of internal e-mails her staff believed had been purged by her predecessors.

Those who have read the report said Moulton laid out an exhaustive timeline of the 33-month Sandusky investigation, which began in 2009 under Corbett, and examined the probe from the moment the first victim came forward to Sandusky's arrest in November 2011.

The report could have lingering impact - particularly as the Republican governor campaigns for a second term and as Kane, a Democrat, ponders her own political future.

It's also likely to be widely read by Penn State fans and supporters of Sandusky's onetime boss - the late Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno - who have challenged aspects of the case and its aftermath.

Sandusky is serving 30 to 60 years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting 10 boys. Former Penn State president Graham B. Spanier and two other former ranking administrators are awaiting trial on accusations that they covered up his conduct.