An Accusation Is Made... Against Julie Swetnick

#BelieveAllVictims?

So this is a letter now published on the Senate Judiciary Committee's server, which is titled "Signed Ketterer Statement."

I believe this purports to be a letter from Dennis Ketterer, because it says he won an Emmy (or EMMY, as he says). There is a Dennis Ketterer who won a regional Emmy for his weathercasting back in 1995.

I don't know if this is actually written by him and of course can't say if it's true or not.

But it's... well, it's something.

I'll jump to the bits about Julie Swetnick.

I first met Julie Setnick in 1993 at a Washington, D.C., bar near Wisconsin Circle. I was at a going-away party...

As I sat alone at the end of the bar, Julie approached me. She was alone, quite beautiful, well-dressed and no drink in hand. Consequently, my initial thought was that she might be a high-end call girl because at the tine I weighed 350 lbs so what would a girl like her want with me?

But, there was no conversation about exchanging sex for money so decided to talk with her for a few minutes. I had never been hit on in a bar before.

I didn't leave with her that night, although we talked about getting together. Over the next couple of weeks we met at what I believed and still believe was Julie's place. From the beginning Julie knew I was married and that I was having marital problems.

As we shared conversations, my lasting impression of Julie was that she was smart, fun, and funny. But she was also an opportunist. I felt she only had an interest in me because I was on television and well known.

Although we were not emotionally involved there was physical contact. We never had sex despite the fact that she was aggressive with me. I'm not implying I didn't like her advances, I just wasn't ready to make the jump. It came to a head so we talked about sex.

During a conversation about our sexual preferences, things go derailed when Julie told me that she liked to have sex with more than one guy at a time. In fact sometimes several at one time. She wanted to know if that would be okay in our relationship.

I asked her if this was just a fantasy of hers. She responded that she first tried sex with multiple guys while in high school and still liked it from time-to time. She brought it up because she wanted to know if I would be interested in that.

A.I.D.S. was a huge issue at the tie. And I had children. Due to her having a directly stated penchant for group sex, I decided not to see her anymore. It put my head on straight. That was the last conversation we had.

Julie never said anything about being sexually assaulted, raped, gang-raped or having sex against her will. She never mentioned Brett Kavanaugh in any capcity.

In 1996 I decided to run again for Congress in Maryland's 8th district as a democrat. I thought Julie could help my primary campaign in some way because of her personality, great smile, and good looks. Also, in the course of our past conversations, she told me that she too was a Democrat.

Because I had lost Julie's number I called her father to get it. When I talked to him about possibly bringing her on to help with my campaign, he told me she had psychological and other problems at the time. When I asked he would not go into detail and said that I wouldn't want her to work on my campaign. His response was rather abrupt. He hung up on me.

The rest of the letter is about him wrestling with the question of whether or not to tell this story, consulting with a pastor, etc. He eventually told his new wife what had happened, and she told him that if he didn't do the right thing, he couldn't live with himself.

#Basta.

Update: This story had been a bus crash.

Then it devolved into the crash of a bus filled with clowns.

Now it has entered a new phase: A bus full of circus clowns crashing into a school for blind children and even worse the clowns were doing their "Gasoline Comedy" act that day and now all the blind children are on fire and the clowns are trying to squirt water on them with their stupid lapel-flowers but the flowers are just squirting out more gas and the children are crying tears of fire out of their Unseeing Dead Eyes and holy shit a couple of the clowns look like they have boners and they're chasing around the fiery blind children trying to rub up on them with these bobbling clown-boners with big red bulbs on their tips.

Thanks to weft-cut loop for reminding me of the clown bus joke.

Update: Ketterer alluded to his own troubles in his letter. This old WaPo piece discusses those.

He had been fired from his tv station and then lodged a wrongful termination suit for $12 million against them.

According to the suit, Ketterer, who joined the station as a part-time weather reporter in October 1992, had sought counseling for depression on several occasions following the death of his wife in January 1986 and the death of his father this past January . . .

On or about Feb. 15 of this year, the suit claims, Ketterer was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as suffering from a manic-depressive illness known as bipolar II disorder, for which treatment with lithium was prescribed . . .

Ketterer that same day notified Wordlaw of his "treatable" illness. The news director's "demeanor," according to the suit, "immediately changed from one of caring concern to a reaction of repugnance," and the notification caused a "definite and noticeable change" in Wordlaw's treatment and attitude toward Ketterer . . .

Nevertheless, Ketterer continued as lead meteorologist and weathercaster for the station . . .

A month later, in response to an ongoing request that employees submit ideas and proposals for news stories and series to be aired by the station, Ketterer sent a memo to Wordlaw through the WJLA computer with three story ideas, including one for a three-part series on manic-depressive illness. Ketterer reiterated in the memo, which is attached to the suit, that he had been diagnosed with the illness. In the memo, Ketterer makes no mention of sharing his personal experience with viewers. . .

He also proposed a series on UFOs and a weekly segment on gardening . . .

On March 24, two days after Ketterer had sent the e-mail memo, Wordlaw read it and, according to the suit, ordered him to attend a noon meeting the next day, at which time he was told his employment was terminated, effective June 30 . . .

Depression, especially after an inarguably depressing event, like the death of a wife and later a father, isn't much of a knock on one's credibility. But there you go.

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:07 PM

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