Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Belated Response to the New Rochelle Blog

When Googling my name a friend discovered as the first "hit" a misinformed commentary on my testimony at a federal trial. I thought it wise to publish a response, albeit belated.

Some time in March of 2009, I testified in federal court regarding a defendant I had worked for prior to my arrival on September 8th, 1999 to New Rochelle as Principal of Columbus School. The New Rochelle Blog suggested erroneously that I continued to work for this man after being hired as principal and should therefore be sanctioned. This assertion was neither true nor based on fact.

Below, please find the message I had written to the New Rochelle School Community:

Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:36:54 -0400
Subject: Fwd: Yesterday's News Article

Please share with anyone in your departments who may have concerns.

You may have seen or heard of an anxiety-provoking article in yesterday’s Journal News that refers to my testimony for the prosecution in a federal trial brought against a businessman and a former Commissioner in Mt. Vernon’s City Hall, who dealt with each other between 1998 and 2005. I did not know what they were accused of until reading that same article, but I had to testify about my working for this man and one of his companies between the summer of 1998 and the summer of 1999. I was not accused of any wrongdoing; my role was in developing several proposals, which were to my knowledge not adopted, for addressing the Y2K problem.

In hindsight, I am extremely blessed to have extricated myself from involvement in this venture by seeking a position in New Rochelle some time around May of 1999; I was subsequently hired as Principal of Columbus School at the end of that summer. Fortunately, I had no dealings thereafter with this businessman, Mt. Vernon or the company and commissioner under indictment.

I would like to thank all of you who worried on my behalf and understand why some of you might have been disconcerted by the article.

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