Thought I’d pass along this letter to the editor of a local paper in Polk County, Fla., from a couple who’d recently seen the documentary, Accessory to Murder, about the death in the county a year ago last month of Ryan Skipper:
“We are calling for the public apology to both the community and his family by Sheriff Grady Judd for his derogatory comments toward the victim, which were proved to be totally untrue.”
– Letter to editor of Polk County paper

Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sheriff Judd Should Apologize

Monday night we had the privilege of viewing [Accessory to Murder] the documentary of the brutal murder of Ryan Skipper.

We are calling for the public apology to both the community and his family by Sheriff Grady Judd for his derogatory comments toward the victim, which were proved to be totally untrue.

We expect him to be accountable for his homophobic statements.

[Names Were Published in Newspaper But Are Withheld Here]
Lakeland

As Trish (who was interviewed in the documentary), Buck and I dug into the hate-crime murder of Ryan Skipper last spring, the people we encountered in Polk County, Fla., were all intelligent, engaged and kind-hearted — this was especially so among Ryan’s family and friends.

However, these good folks appear to be overwhelmingly out-numbered by yahoos who support Sheriff Grady Judd, a Christian ideologue who loves media attention and who thought nothing of smearing Ryan, who was killed because he was gay, within hours of his murder.

Judd made news lately by releasing the infamous cheerleader beating video (and other evidence) to the world, and thus risking the outcome of the trial in the matter.

We’ve been waiting for over a year now for Grady Judd to apologize to Ryan’s family — or to be held accountable by his constituents for his callous and unprofessional statements. Maybe it will happen some day.