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| Fifth Column |
| FUROR ERUPTS OVER U.N. ’PERVY’ PROBER |
| 2003-01-22 |
| Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter shouldn't have gotten a free pass after he was arrested for soliciting an underage girl in a police Internet sting, says the district attorney whose office muffed the case by dropping the charge. "Given the nature of the offense, an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal is not an appropriate way to handle this type of case," Albany County DA Paul Clyne told The Post. Ritter, the 41-year-old father of young twin daughters, Somebody, please check on these girls, please! was arrested by police in the Albany suburb of Colonie in June 2001 after luring a 16-year-old girl he met on the Internet to a Burger King, sources said. That was just two months after he was caught in a similar undercover operation involving a 14-year-old girl but was released without being charged. His intent in the June case, sources said, was to have the teen watch while he masturbated. Ughuuuuuuuuu! Cops say the sick scheme reportedly failed because Ritter unwittingly had set up the tryst with an undercover investigator posing as a minor, and he ended up charged with attempted child endangerment, a misdemeanor. But there's no longer an official record of the charge - the ex-Marine's arrest record was sealed after an assistant DA, Ritter's lawyer and a town court judge worked out a deal to have the case adjourned in contemplation of dismissal (ACOD). When that happens, a case is put on hold for six months and if the defendant keeps out of trouble, the charge is dismissed and the record is sealed. According to an upstate TV station, Ritter, who led the weapons inspection team in Iraq in the 1990s, underwent court-ordered sex-offender counseling as part of the deal. The case was kept under wraps so well that even DA Clyne didn't hear about it until late last week - when it was reported in an upstate newspaper. Clyne was so "shocked and angered" that he hadn't been told about the case, he fired Cynthia Preiser, the Queens-born assistant DA who had handled it. His action came as reports of the earlier Ritter run-in with undercover cops surfaced. In that case, in April 2001, Ritter allegedly arranged to hook up with a 14-year- old girl he met in an Internet chat site but found detectives waiting for him instead. After being questioned, Ritter was released without being charged - reportedly because his conversation with the "girl" had been too vague. If they had known about this first case, he would have been busted the second time, maybe. Ritter, reached by phone last night, refused to comment on either case. His lawyer, Norah Murphy, acknowledged that Ritter was arrested in June but wouldn't comment further. Axed ADA Preiser called the Ritter arrest "a sad case," during a brief interview outside her suburban Albany home. Of her dismissal by Clyne, she said "That was his decision. Of course I'm not happy about it, but I respect his decision." Her father, Peter Preiser, an Albany Law School professor who counts Clyne among his former students, agreed, while pointing out that the ACOD had been "approved by a judge." "The case never ever should have been dismissed," said child advocate Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredKids.org, a nonprofit Internet safety and health group. "The problem is that people have trouble seeing white, middle-class, well-educated men as potential child molesters - not just ADAs, but judges and juries as well," she said. Ritter is toast, no one is going to go anywhere near him or publish his views on Saddam now. Talk on DailyPundit is that they think he may soon "eat his gun". |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 is it possible he was working for the US government? Sacrifice comes in all forms. that way: 1 the message was controlled, a vacuum filled 2 he spoke from the seat of government in Irag, demonstrating to Iraqis what freedom is about 3 he's busted this week!? credibility gone, can fade away... |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-01-22 18:09:25 |
| #2 Fixed it... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-01-22 16:29:37 |
| #1 Sorry for double post, computer hiccuped. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-01-22 15:48:33 |