San Diego LGBT Pride’s board of directors issued an apology to about 500 spectators at the Spirit of Stonewall rally last Friday, acknowledging that they made mistakes prior to dismissing Pride volunteers who were discovered to be convicted sex offenders.

The volunteers were found to be registered under Megan’s Law, the state’s public registry for sex offenders. Numerous law enforcement officials, politicians, community organizations and entertainers slated to perform at the festival almost backed out of the parade and festival as Pride wrestled with whether they should dismiss the volunteers, saying their dilemma was over the men’s civil rights. Pride voted to retain the volunteers four times before finally backing down four days before the parade, dismissing the men and promising to establish new volunteer screening policies.

“Our supporters and detractors, ourselves and those at the heart of the storm, we say outright and with genuine humility, we misjudged our community and our zeal not to give in to gay baiting and not to trample on individual rights,” said Pride co-chair Debra Self at the rally. “We overlooked our community’s real fears and concerns for personal safety and psychological comfort.”

The controversy originated after anti-gay militant James Hartline and the Traditional Values Coalition, a right-wing extremist Christian group, ran criminal background checks on San Diego Pride volunteers and discovered that two of the volunteers were convicted sex offenders registered under Megan’s Law.

The initial volunteers in question were former supervisor Warren Patrick Derichsweiler, 39, and former set-up coordinator Daniel Joshua Rieger, also 39. Derichsweiler was convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years, with force,” and Rieger was convicted of “oral copulation with person under 16 years.”

After investigating further, the Gay & Lesbian Times confirmed that two others on Pride’s team were registered sex offenders. Former safety manager Shawn Renken, 34, was convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years,” and Gerald “Jerry” Garrett, 39, a full-time, paid staff member who served as a logistics coordinator, was convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years old.” Renken resigned his position a week prior to the information being made public, and Pride issued a statement on July 27 saying that “the board has decided, in collaboration with the individuals involved, to accept the resignations of the two members who have become the focus of this issue.”

The Gay & Lesbian Times was told that the statement should be amended to include Garrett’s resignation, though they did not reissue a corrected statement.

Garrett was spotted by a Gay & Lesbian Times staff member on site at the festival grounds on Friday helping with festival set-up.

Pride explained that Garrett’s resignation was official as of 12:00 noon on Saturday, and that Rieger and Derichsweiler’s resignations were effective immediately as of July 26. Rieger and Derichsweiler were never on site at the festival or parade, and Garrett was not present at the parade in any capacity, Pride said.

But they did confirm that Garrett ended up staying on festival grounds for “about an hour” past his official resignation on Saturday, finalizing electrical and equipment matters with contractors. Prior to that, before the gates opened, Garrett provided logistics information to other coordinators and volunteers.

Self told the Gay & Lesbian Times that key participants considering boycotting the parade, including Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins, Marci Bair of Family Matters and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, were informed either directly or through their offices that Garrett’s resignation would be effective as of end of day Friday.

The fact that Garrett’s work ran over an hour into the festival was strictly due to the critical nature of Garrett’s duties as logistics coordinator, Self said, which included putting up fencing and electrical, then inspecting all of it for safety reasons.

“I don’t know if we disclosed it to everyone,” she said of Garrett’s resignation date. “I can only tell you those I spoke to and those that other people [board members] have said that they spoke to; that was the message we had put out. Our goal was always clear to honor what we had heard from the communities and our supporters, and it’s just that logistics at the festival site took longer than expected and consequently Jerry had to remain on site longer than we anticipated.”

Self said, “I don’t think we misled anyone. I think we were pretty clear in the fact of the need for the different timing of the resignations.”

When told Garrett had worked until approximately 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at the festival, Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins told the Gay & Lesbian Times that it was her understanding that Garrett’s resignation would be effective Friday, and said she was “surprised” to learn that was not the case.

Bair told the Gay & Lesbian Times that she was not aware Garrett was still employed at the time of the Pride march, and was unsure what Family Matters would have done if they had known Garrett was still working on Saturday.

“It would have depended on the notice that we would have had,” she said. “Given the fact that we had many families with children all set to march, and it was not the children’s fault that any of this was going on, we would have probably still marched as not to disappoint our children and show the 150,000 in attendance, plus the media and TV watchers, that our families do exist and that our families matter,” she said.

Bair said she was “deeply saddened” by how Pride handled the situation, and realized Garrett was a critical component to the festival continuing smoothly. She said Family Matters felt confident that their children were safe, because all of the volunteers working in the Children’s Garden at the Pride festival had been screened and parents were present at all times.

“We have made great strides in trying to get society to accept our LGBT families, and the way this situation was handled set us back years…” Bair said. “Had this been handled when it was brought to the board’s attention, these individuals could have resigned quietly and without all of the publicity that will severely impact them for years to come.”

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said she was aware that Garrett’s resignation would be effective Friday, and that the participation of law enforcement officials “was contingent upon this agreement and the word of the Pride board.” She said she would not have marched if she had known Garrett was still working on Saturday.

“The Pride board gave their word to the entire community, including law enforcement,” Dumanis said. “All of us across the county, not just the gay community and not just law enforcement, are disappointed that Pride misled us. We took them at their word.”