January 28, 03
Dear President Basil,
I am writing in order to express my outrage, dismay and disgust over the Schenectady Community College Board's decision to pay Mr. Scott Ritter $4,000 from a special student-faculty fund and to speak about a possible war with Iraq.
This individual was arrested for allegedly trying to lure a 16-year-old girl to a Menands fast-food restaurant on June 15, 2001. He was charged with a class B misdemeanor for allegedly using the Internet to set up a sexual rendezvous with a person he thought was a 16-year-old girl that he wanted to watch him masturbate! The authorities have the evidence that this was his intent when he set up the meeting. The person Mr. Ritter was corresponding with was actually a Colonie police detective conducting an undercover investigation. Mr. Ritter went to the location and he was arrested for the crime. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning the charges would be dropped and the records sealed if Ritter stayed out of trouble for six months. Ritter has acknowledged the arrest, but he has declined to discuss details. Were he innocent, according to the law he is free to clear his name and set the record straight. This he is unwilling to do because he did the deed!
Sir, this matter is not over, last week federal authorities obtained the sealed records for review in a possible federal prosecution on Internet crime charges. This is the man you want to address your students!
It does not matter what the students think of Mr. Ritter, or his stand on Iraq, you and your college board are suppose to be the ADULTS running the school. Adults do not allow alleged pedophiles under federal investigation to come onto campus and address a student body about anything, period! You and your board should be ashamed. If I had a student at Schenectady Community College, I would be looking for another institution to send my son or daughter to for their education and those responsible for giving Mr. Ritter a platform should be fired.
As for Mr. Ritter's new-found pro-Saddam position on Iraq, blackmail has a habit of radically changing one's position. Having served as a Chaplain within a large prison facility for over 5 years I know one thing, it is not a one time deal, child molesters make it a habit of taking sexual advantage of under age girls and boys. I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Ritter's lust for little girls was learned by Iraq's regime and that he was set up, captured on film and threatened with exposure if he didn't "cooperate." This, along with the $400,000 he received the Iraqi government goes along way towards explaining his amazing change in position.
I have forwarded copies of this letter to the appropriate news organizations.
G. S., Ph.D.
cc Press and Radio