AG Kane: Porn being passed around was not for the faint of heart
Dozens of state officials in Pennsylvania, many who worked to bring down infamous child molester Jerry Sandusky, have been caught exchanging crude pornographic e-mails written on state e-mail accounts, state computers, and on state time, according to the state’s attorney general.
In all, more than four thousand sexually explicit e-mails were circulated between about 50 people, many state employees, over a four-year period starting in 2008. Some of them at the very same time that the very same people were building a child sex abuse case against Sandusky.
The porn being passed around was not for the faint of heart. PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane, said, “When I saw them, they literally took my breath away. They are deplorable; hard core, graphic, sometimes violent e-mails that had a string of videos and pictures depicting sometimes children, old women. Some of them involved violent sexual acts against women.”
The e-mails were discovered by AG Kane, who ran for office on the promise that she would investigate why it took three years to charge Sandusky after his first victim came forward.
While looking into that, her office uncovered the pornographic e-mails. Those involved in the scandal include some of the biggest names in Pennsylvania’s justice system; State Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan, and one of the main Sandusky investigators, Prosecutor Randy Feathers.
The e-mails are so graphic, the chief justice of the state supreme court wrote that they are “clearly obscene and may violate the crimes code section on obscenity.” However, now incredibly, Kane says she can’t do a thing about it, can’t investigate further, and can’t name any names that haven’t already been made public.
(But are you investigating this right now?) Kane replied, “We are not investigating. I cannot investigate.” (Why not?) “I am being stopped from doing my duties as attorney general. My office is being stopped from certain investigations, and we are being stopped from even telling why,” said Kane.
(So, I’m hearing you say that your hands are tied. Why are your hands tied?) “My hands are tied-and this will be frustrating for you, because it’s just as frustrating for me. My hands are tied, because there are court orders that don’t allow us to say certain things, which I believe the public needs to know,” said Kane.
To understand why, you have to go back to a public, bitter feud between AG Kane and the main prosecutor in the Sandusky case, Frank Fina, which started with her criticism of how Fina handled Sandusky. The two have been lobbing allegations at each other about whether several cases have been handled correctly.
As a result, Kane is now being investigated about whether she improperly leaked a memo about a case from 2009 that Fina handled; and according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, a gag order in that case is keeping Kane from moving forward on the porn e-mails.
(As the state’s top prosecutor, you’re saying that there’s a court order that’s keeping you from investigating a case that you think, and the chief justice on the state Supreme Court thinks, might be illegal.) Kane replied, “That is correct.”
Kane says she believes she did the right thing. Fina didn’t comment for this story.
(Do you feel that the system is being abused to protect certain people?) “I knew that I was walking into public corruption, which again is why I ran, but I will tell you this, even I am shocked at the level of public corruption, I am shocked at how deep it goes, and I am shocked at how powerful it is. I have never seen anything like this. It’s breathtaking. It has been described by the people familiar with what is happening as shameful.”
Most of the state employees who have been publicly shamed have lost their jobs, either resigning or being forced out, but the Police Commissioner Noonan still has his job because, according to published reports, the Pennsylvania Governor says there was no proof he opened the e-mails.
As for AG Kane, sources tell us that that gag order that she says is preventing her from investigating the e-mails, it doesn’t actually mention any names; it’s vague. However, she says she’s not taking any chances. ..Source.. by Sara Ganim
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