Police Can't Confirm Ritter's Arrest (New Detail and Mug Photo)

WNYT-TV, Albany, NY ^ | January 20, 2003 | WNYT Staff

[Shermy]

ALBANY, NY, Jan. 20 - Scott Ritter of Delmar is well known internationally as an outspoken, former U.N. weapons inspector. Now more information is coming to light about Ritter's past and a disturbing arrest.

Police released this mugshot following
the arrest of William Ritter in June 2001.
Lindsay Cohen reports.

COLONIE POLICE CANNOT comment on whether or not they actually arrested Ritter on charges he solicited an underage girl over the Internet. They say this is because if an arrest was made, it was sealed due to court proceedings.

<....Snip...>

However, NewsChannel 13 reported in June 2001 about an arrest of a 39-year-old William Ritter of Delmar on charges he tried to lure a 16-year-old girl he met on the Internet to a Burger King in Menands. According to police, the intent of that meeting was so that she could watch him perform sexual acts on himself.

At that time police said William Ritter was arrested before doing anything, but was facing multiple misdemeanor charges for trying to solicit an underage girl for sexual reasons.<...snip...>

[Grampa Dave]

B&B or B&E (Bribery and Blackmail) or (Bribery and Extortion) have changed a lot of guys before Ritter and will long after he becomes a social leper.

[Howlin]

Exactly.

[cyncooper]

If there were records showing the problem was worse than what was caught in the sting, it would make no sense that it was hushed up.

I think one of the tantalizing aspects to the story is the DA being purportedly kept out of the loop.

The story goes that once he became aware last week of the case and the deal, he actually fired the ADA, Cynthia Preiser, involved.

Now, that seems like a huge consequence to me, and I'd like to know more about this aspect of the story.

[Howlin]

he was only counseling the girls and they misunderstood him.

He was doing research. You forgot that one.

[Inspectorette]

I wonder how many nay sayers will continue to say that this is a trick of the VRWC's.

I don't think they've caught on to it yet: I just snuck over to DU, and there's nothing so far. Of course, they'll accuse President Bush of ginning this story up. I don't know how they can get any traction on it, though - it happened BEFORE 9/11, and BEFORE Scotty-Boy started running his mouth against us.

[spokeshave]

poor choice of words in the circumstances....

[Catspaw]

From what you're saying there is nothing that unusual about a first-time offender getting his conviction quashed like this in such a case

Actually, no. The DPAs are used for non-violent crimes like criminal non-support and such like, at least in this county. They are NOT used--at least in this area--for crimes of violence (battery, domestic abuse), sex crimes and drug cases (possession of cocaine, etc.). If it's a first time offender, it may--and I stress MAY--be plea bargained down to a municipal violation, but it may mean a few days in jail (usually time served) and a hefty fine plus court costs.

It may be that this county does use DPAs for sex crime cases, but the DA's head--along with the heads of the judges in my county--would blow up this was done in any sex crimes case here.

[Catspaw]

I found a thread on this on DU. It's all the fault of the VRWC, you know.

[Grampa Dave]

Well, golly Miss Howlin, you seem to be enjoying this thread too much, yourself.

Time to turn you in for too much enjoyment on a thread where the rats get grilled by Freepers! Get a grip, this is series or something like that!

[HiTech RedNeck]

P.S. with respect to stings, I wonder if the Feds have set up child porn sites on the Internet and had them indexed by Google. It would be the perfect gotcha, for someone to find one of these sites by means of a search on something else, and the thumbnail in Google would not even reveal that it was porn, let alone child porn, but only that it was some kind of story. As soon as a curiosity seeker hits the site, bam their IP address is logged by the sting, and the FBI goes and gets a court order to have the ISP reveal the customer, who gets raided forthwith, probably with traces of the unexpectedly illegal material still on his or her PC. They probably get a plea bargain for some kind of misdemeanor because who's to believe the person when he or she says that the material was come across innocently?

[per loin]

The story goes that once he became aware last week of the case and the deal, he actually fired the ADA, Cynthia Preiser, involved.

Anybody care to speculate on the political affiliation of Cynthia Preiser?

[The Great Satan]

What do you think the charge would be in this case?

[BOBTHENAILER]

I found a thread on this on DU. It's all the fault of the VRWC, you know.

So the trolls are protecting their own, eh? They must have to take series showers constantly to get the scum off.

[Frank_Discussion]

Pre-FR time, Howlin. Don't run with that "other crowd" anymore.

[rolling_stone]

I agree the bigger story is why was the DA (a political position) not informed, Someone had to have a lot of guts or gain to not notify the boss.

As for unsealing of sealed records in NY it is dificult to do except in the interest of Justice..

Here is a little info on the statute & cases:
http://www.mcacp.org/issue28.htm

I would be interested in finding out what an application for Delmar Fire Dept asked in the way of criminal history, ie were you ever convicted of felony or misdemeanor etc...Information is that Scotty joined the FireDept after 9/11 and after this incident...anyone near Delmar able to get an application?...

[Lancey Howard]

Now that we know an actual underage girl was not involved, what could be the reason for keeping this case secret (if that would be a good enough reason in the first place)?

If I recall, Bill and Roger Clinton used to enjoy booze and cocaine parties with 14 year-old girls back in the Arkansas days. Maybe one or both of the Clintons have "partied" with Ritter.

[Inspectorette]

I found a thread on this on DU. It's all the fault of the VRWC, you know.

Yup - just saw it: top heading on "Latest" - it's all Karl Rove's doing, and they want to come up with anything on him (Rove) or his family to destroy him. Plus they're calling Scotty-Boy a Republican.

[SarahW]

"old wolf road"

ROFL, that's almost too good to be true

[debg]

Ritter's not the only one they got in the area:

"A 46-year-old Delmar man was indicted Friday on rape and other felony counts for allegedly having sex with a girl under 17 and taking pictures of naked girls at his home. A search of Smith's home turned up photographs of naked children and Internet pornography. (The Times Union (Albany, NY), 7/28/01, HEADLINE: Delmar man indicted on child sex charges; Albany Prosecutor says defendant raped, took pictures of teens)" http://www.safeplace.net/ccv/bulletin/2001-08-21.htm

I posted this on another thread yesterday, btw.

[Miss Marple]

If Karl Rove had that kind of power John McCain would have been trapped before he 2000 primaries. Ha!

I am still thinking about that child prison in Iraq. I cannot get that out of my mind. Why haven't we heard any more about it?