In an article published today — just one day shy of a month since Ryan Skipper was murdered — Donna Wood, a spokesperson for Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, tells Express Gay News that initial statements implying that Skipper was involved in illegal activities with his alleged killers were wrong:

“There is no indication that Ryan Skipper was involved in any illegal activity…” Wood also said that the two suspects “gave conflicting stories about time and events.”

The sheriff’s office also acknowledged for the first time that the scenario of events leading up to the murder as laid out by Sheriff Judd for the media on March 16 or 17 was based entirely on the self-serving statements of the alleged killers:

In some media accounts, it sounded as if Skipper was involved in check forgery with [accused killers William] Brown and [Joe] Bearden. But police have since clarified the statement, pointing out that they were just recounting what the suspects had told them. They have not found any evidence that Skipper was involved in any kind of check forging scheme with the two suspects.

The check-copying charge was just one of several allegations Sheriff Judd made about Skipper’s behavior. He also told reporters that Skipper picked up Joe Bearden, a stranger, and took him back to his house where they smoked pot and then conspired to forge checks. In media reports, the sheriff did not acknowledge that this version of events was based on the alleged killer’s statements. No one in the local media questioned him about the sourcing, apparently.

Stephanie Strickland, Skipper’s close friend for over a decade and the mother of his godchild, said, “Ryan wasn’t like that at all. Ryan wouldn’t pick up people off the side of the road.” Skipper’s roommate, Kelly Evans, was home that night and has said Ryan came home from work at 10:30 p.m. but left the house a few minutes later and never returned. Evans has also said Skipper would not pick up a stranger.

It is extremely unusual for the arrest record of a murder victim to be released, but when Bearden and Brown were arrested, Sheriff Judd announced that Ryan Skipper had been arrested twice as a juvenile on minor marijuana charges. Conversely, he glossed over the alleged killers’ records, describing them as nonviolent. If he had been more forthcoming, it would have been clear that these two young men have been up to no good for a while. Joe Bearden, 21, has seven prior arrests in Polk County, including one for grand theft auto. William Brown, 20, had been arrested just six days before the murder on cyberstalking charges. He has at least four prior arrests in Polk County.

Finally, Sheriff Judd suggested that while no one deserved to be murdered, Ryan Skipper had it coming. He told the Lakeland Ledger, “What we do know is that Ryan was looking for someone to pick up that evening. And unfortunately for Ryan, he picked up the wrong person.”

Leaving aside the cynicism and rank insensitivity toward Skipper’s family in this assertion, it’s now clear that this information came from the killers and is completely false.

Sheriff Judd should acknowledge that all the charges he made against Ryan are false. He should also apologize to the Skipper family and to his constituents. In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel just a few days after Skipper was murdered, Judd said he avoids trashing crime victims:

I don’t intentionally say anything that will impugn anyone other than a real criminal, and then I’m not too concerned about that…

God is No. 1 in my life. And I make no big decisions for this organization without first praying about it.

In fact, Sheriff Judd did “intentionally” impugn Ryan Skipper.

(Oddly, in this interview on March 18, just one day after the arrests of Bearden and Brown, the Orlando Sentinel did not ask the sheriff about the Skipper case, nor did Sheriff Judd bring it up.)

Earlier this month, a reader contacted the editor of the Lakeland Ledger to complain about discrepancies in the paper’s coverage of the Skipper case. Lenore Devore, the managing editor of the newspaper, responded by saying that the paper would only print what the sheriff says officially:

Everything we printed that you dispute has come from the Sheriff’s Office. If they change what they think happened at some point, we’ll report on that. But for now, that’s its official report.

Now that the sheriff’s office has recanted at least one of his false assertions, it remains to be seen whether the Ledger will report the change in his story, as Devore said they would. (An expression of journalistic skepticism — or even good ol’ common sense — about the sheriff’s other statements about Ryan Skipper would not hurt.)

The Ledger has also not covered the vigils in Ryan Skipper’s memory scheduled in Polk County and a dozen or so other locations tomorrow.

The “gay panic” defense can work if a jury has a low opinion of the victim. Apologies and corrections might not help if the jury pool in Polk County has been tainted by a false depiction of Ryan Skipper.

Still, apologies and corrections would be a good start.