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What crime happened here? Ritter went to a Burger King where an ADULT woman waited for him. Did he think she was underage? Well, acting is hard, I say. While the intent of the police was to appear as if they were a "14 year old", there are many nuances even in an on-line chat that could have consicously or sub-consciously clued Ritter in to the idea he was actually engaging with and adult. Furthermore the police are consciously engaged in trapping behaviour and that colors the play-acting conversation as well.

Those are factual objections which is why we have trials. My sense of the decoy is that she must have looked convincingly underage. As to the content of the chat, that could be inspected as well, but again, I suspect that the cops were careful not to be ambiguous or hint at anything other than the mindset of a 14 year old. If the cops did their job well then those defenses wouldn't succeed. And presumably Ritter saw the young girl in the restaurant and continued to proceed with his actions.

Again, there was no 14 year old involved, and no 16 year old involved. Ever. He is accused of attempting to commit an illegal act with a non existant person. The only people involved in this sting were old enough cops.

>>And presumably Ritter saw the young girl in the restaurant and continued to proceed with his actions. <<

There was no young girl there, only an of age cop (probably over 21).

Did he cop to it, sure. Just the charge is enough to destroy a reputation of a public figure. Did he probably want to do it? Sure. Does the state have the evidence to show he wanted to do that act with a 21 year old police officer? Yes. Is that act illegal? No.

DK