Sutter Says:
That he left his job in 1990 due to a physical disability.
"I get $335/month from SSDI, when my doctors pulled me from my $29,000/yr job in 1990 I was doing a whole lot better ! I would give my left leg to work again."
(source)
The Truth:
Sutter was forced to resign his job with the
Better Business Bureau over seriously improper conduct. As a BBB agent, he
lied about the subject of an investigation and told a court that he had received
death threats, including having to fight off a knife-wielding attacker earlier
in the year.
He was actually suspected of mailing the phony death threat to himself. He was only caught when he claimed that the subject's wife had been following him in a car that was later shown as being inoperable at the time. Source (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/13/1990 & 9/25/1990).
On September 17, 1990, Sutter pled guilty to making false accusations (on which another person was wrongfully arrested) and was sentenced to 60 days house detention and three years probation. (source)
Sutter's false accusations embarrassed the agency and resulted in an $18 million lawsuit. Source (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12/5/1990). This is apparently only one of at least two lawsuits in which Sutter managed to involve his employer in his brief time with the BBB.
(In 2008, Sutter repeated his "attacker with a knife" hoax at a church in Middleburg Heights, OH, where the attention-starved Phony Rev claimed to have fought off yet another armed - yet equally imaginary - adversary).