Psychologist Alycia Chambers warned Penn State police about Jerry Sandusky's behavior in 1998, telling them Sandusky had showered naked with an 11-year-old boy and bear-hugged him. NBC News has obtained the internal Penn State police file on the investigation.
"This was behavior that is consistent with a male predator, a pedophile," Chambers told NBC reporter Michael Isikoff.
The little boy, now known as Victim No. 6, was Chambers' client. She interviewed him the day after the alleged incident and then warned Penn State police that Sandusky's behavior fit a likely pedophile's pattern.
"I wish you could see the precious little face and the tiny little boy who appeared before me," Chambers said. She is speaking for the first time with the family's permission.
"After they finished lifting weights and they were sitting, I was told that Mr. Sandusky kissed him on the head and said 'I love you,'" Chambers recalled.
She wrote a report for police, and during their investigation, Penn State police hid in a bedroom and listened as the little boy's mother confronted Sandusky, asking him if he'd touched her son's private parts. According to court documents, Sandusky said he didn't think so, but wasn't sure. She asked him if he'd done the same thing with other boys and Sandusky said, 'Yes' and that he wished he could get forgiveness. "I wish I were dead," he told her, according to court records.
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But authorities brought in a second psychologist and he concluded there was no evidence of a sexual offense. Sandusky's lawyer has said that he hopes to use that information in the trial -- that this psychologist said he had not heard of a 52-year old man becoming a pedophile.
Walter Cohen, a former Pennsylvania Attorney General, told Isikoff that Sandusky should have been put on a watch list of suspected child abusers, but that instead, the case was closed.
Chambers said she was stunned when police contacted her again last year before prosecutors charged the former Penn State assistant football coach with more than 50 counts of child sex abuse involving 10 boys.
"I was horrified. . .that so many other innocent boys who had been subject to this; who had had their hearts and minds confused; their bodies violated. It's unspeakable," Chambers said.
Penn State told NBC News it could not comment, citing the pending investigation.
Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, issued a statement in response to NBC's report, which read, in part, "We are very troubled by the fact we now can confirm the 1998 Penn State police investigation into allegations related to Accuser 6 apparently resulted in a 90 page investigative report which contained psychological reports prepared not only by Dr. Chambers but also by Dr. John Seasock who apparently concluded Jerry did not sexually abuse Accuser 6. The Attorney General has provided us to date with only a small fraction of that police report and has refused to give us copies of Dr. Chambers' and Dr. Seasock's reports, both of which we believe are relevant and critical to the preparation of Jerry's defense. We now are left to speculate on what other critical information the Attorney General has failed to provide to the defense team.
"We are also troubled and disappointed by NBC's failure in its article to provide more information about Dr. Seasock's 1998 report in which he apparently determined Jerry did not abuse Accuser 6. Dr. Chambers' NBC interview today has generated a new series of defense questions which will be formulated into additional discovery requests we will submit to the Attorney General in the near future, hopefully, for disposition at the April 5th hearing on Jerry's motions. We will continue to seek information from the Attorney General which we believe we have a right to obtain and which is pertinent to Jerry's defense."
