Letter to the Editor 9-12

In support of Pat Ryan for Congress

I write in support of Pat Ryan for Congress. As a West Point graduate, Pat embraces that Academy’s honor code, with its emphasis on honesty and integrity. His campaign focuses on, among other things, the importance of voting rights and other civil rights such as a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.

Pat’s opponent’s values and views are in sharp contrast to Pat’s. Alison Esposito views Donald Trump’s endorsement as “a signature milestone in her campaign.” Clearly, Esposito is undisturbed by Trump’s blatant disrespect for women and, although she now — like Trump — states that she is opposed to a nationwide abortion ban, in 2022 during her unsuccessful campaign for Lt. Governor, she stated that she would vote for legislation “to protect innocent human life from conception ...” I think that we can trust her word on the subject of abortion rights just about as much as we can trust Trump’s.

Esposito’s honesty and integrity are open to serious question. A recent article in the Poughkeepsie Journal (Aug. 26, ‘24) disclosed that in 2019 New York City agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that then­–police officer Esposito abused and maliciously arrested a 16-year-old girl whose family’s apartment Esposito and fellow officers barged into without a warrant. The complaint against Esposito stated, among other things, that she had dragged the girl by her hair while she was handcuffed. While Esposito denied the allegations, the City agreed to pay the girl $25,000 to settle the lawsuit. In my experience as a lawyer and mediator who handled civil rights cases in Manhattan federal court, the City does not pay — especially to the tune of $25,000 — for meritless lawsuits against police officers.

Voters have a choice: an honorable Congressional representative who supports civil rights or a challenger whose personal record of civil rights bears a shameful stain.

Amy Rothstein

Pine Plains