A former Bethlehem-area middle school teacher accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy shot himself in the head right before jury selection for his trial began.
Gregory G. Ritter, 45, who taught at the East Hills Middle School was found dead next to a picnic table at his apartment complex in the Poconos Thursday morning with a gunshot wound to the head, reports the Morning Call.
Ritter was scheduled to plead guilty to involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, indecent sexual assault and corruption of minors in Pike County court Thursday morning, according to prosecutors. Though, Ritter’s attorney Mark Powell said he didn’t know whether or not his client was going to plead guilty.
The 14-year-old boy testified at a preliminary hearing last March that he met Ritter at a Boy Scout Camp in the Poconos, where Ritter showed him pornographic videos and photos of Russian boys, lesbians and gay men, reports the Morning Call.
The boys said that Ritter might have drugged him before sexually assaulting him. He said that the assaults happened on a few occasions, and police were not notified until the boy’s mother allegedly intercepted lewd text messages from Ritter to the boy.
Powell said that when he spoke to Ritter Wednesday, the accused teacher was disheartened by the upcoming trial.
"He was under a tremendous amount of pressure," Powell told the Express Times. "He was questioning whether a jury would believe him over this young boy. But he gave no indications to me that he was in any way under the type of pressure to take his own life."
Ritter, who won the Disney American Teacher Award in 2000, was a longtime Boy Scout volunteer and a 20-year National Guardsman.
Police have yet to determine time of death.
