The newspaper reported that Scott Ritter was arrested in June 2001 for allegedly trying to lure a 16-year-old girl he met on the Internet to a fast-food restaurant.
The underage girl turned out to be an undercover police officer posing online as a minor as part of a sting operation. Ritter was charged with attempted endangerment of a child. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal and was subsequently sealed.
Two months before that arrest, Ritter allegedly tried to meet a 14-year-old girl he chatted with online and was instead met by police officers. The Albany Times Union reported that he was released without being charged.
The incidents are being reported by The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, WNYT-TV of Albany and the Times Union of Albany.
The Gazette says an Albany prosecutor had agreed to have charges dropped if Ritter stayed out of trouble for six months.
When contacted about the reports, Ritter told the paper, "Sorry, you must have the wrong person."
The 41-year-old former Marine served as a weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. He has been an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush's plans for war against Iraq.
Meanwhile, Tuesday, Ritter was calling on the Bush administration to seek peace instead of war.
That was his main message in San Diego, where he was discussing his book "Endgame: Solving the Iraq Crisis."
Ritter, a resident of Delmar, N.Y., an Albany suburb, says nearly all of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons were accounted for and destroyed four years ago.
He called last week's discovery of empty warheads in Iraq "minor." Ritter served as chief weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.
He resigned, partly because he said weapons inspectors were being used to justify the bombing campaign against Iraq. Ritter is scheduled to leave for Iraq late Tuesday.
Freudian slip?