Feds obtain sealed case of Ritter's arrest

AP | 1/25/03

[kattracks]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Federal authorities have obtained the sealed records in the alleged Internet sex sting of former U.N. chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter to review for possible federal charges.

State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi signed an order Thursday requiring police and Albany County prosecutors to provide records and any evidence to the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office.

Federal authorities filed a motion earlier in the week to obtain the records to determine whether federal laws were violated, the Daily Gazette of Schenectady and the Times Union of Albany reported in Saturday editions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak refused to comment to the newspapers. A message to his office by The Associated Press was not immediately returned Saturday.

Ritter, 41, a critic of the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq, acknowledged his June 2001 arrest this week in national television appearances but said he was prohibited from discussing details because the charges had been dismissed and the records sealed.

Ritter has suggested recent news reports about the arrest were an attempt to silence him. He said the publicity has forced him to cancel a recent trip to Baghdad, where he said he would have offered an alternative to military action.

Broadcast reports when he was arrested and recent newspaper reports have indicated Ritter was caught in an Internet sex sting, something he did not admit.

At the time of the arrest, NBC station WNYT-TV of Albany reported that William Scott Ritter Jr. -- Ritter's full name -- was charged with trying to lure an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl to a restaurant.

WNYT broadcast Ritter's mug shot but did not make the connection to his role as the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq during most of the 1990s.

He was charged with attempted endangerment of a child, a misdemeanor that carries up to 90 days in jail, reports said. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning that if he stayed out of trouble for six months, the charges would disappear and the file would be sealed.

[Howlin]

I've heard stuff like that about Pardek before. :-) (In fact, HE is the one spreading it.)

[Howlin]

Were you with us the other day on that Ritter thread when we watched Catherine Crier on Court TV saying the judge in this case had worked for Bush in the recount in Florida and "maybe" he had leaked the information as a favor to Bush?

[TLBSHOW]

Yep...the only problem is that conservatives are tired of being accused of things we aren't doing and never have done...we're not going to shut up until we're ready to shut up.

Which'll be the second Tuesday of next week.


YOU HAVE THAT RIGHT
BUMP

[eddie willers]

Nope...he's a Republican.

http://www.coloniegop.com/officials.php

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Soooooo, Ritter thought because they dismissed and sealed his case that it just didn't exist any more - WRONG!!!!

Not unlike his performance in Iraq? E.g. Ritter thought because the Iraqis said their WMD's were gone means they didn't exist any more. Marvelous.

[cake_crumb]

"That's pretty funny. If only I had so much power. I'm just a guy with a keyboard, a brain, and the ability to send CNN a cut and paste of Pitt's own words."

LOL...no wonder they're in awe of you over there!

[aristeides]

He reached out across state lines through the channels of interstate commerce to hunt jailbait.

Across state lines? Wasn't it all inside New York State?

[Mo1]

No I wasn't there

The Judge that handled Ritter's case leaked the information??

It's possible but I would doubt it, because it would leave the Judge open to all kinds of questions

It could have been anyone that leaked this info .. Ritter in the past couple weeks has done a really good job in pissing folks off about the war with Iraq

[cake_crumb]

"Look! Catherine Crier is on with Geraldo! Talking Peterson"

I missed it. The TV isn't on. Hubby's in bed after spending the day fixing his mom's frozen/broken water pipe...bed's where I should be but I just LUUUV these Ritter threads!

[Howlin]

She said he probably did it as payback to Bush. It was infuriating.

[nicmarlo]

they were probably checking right after the story broke on the NBC affiliate in Albany...days before the national news even started to bother with it.

Oh, I bet they knew about this before it broke national news....

[ned13]

Yes it was Peter G? Crummey that oversaw the Ritter case. Obviously I recognize his picture. I know he's been a judge in the Albany for the past couple of years and although he may hold a license to practice in FL, as a judge he was not there during the election fiasco.

[cake_crumb]

"For goodness sake, do NOT feed the monkey."

LOL...sorry <G>

[Uncle George]

No one had to leak this info. His mug and story of arrest was shown on TV the week it happened. Some viewer called the media and "The feline was out of the container".

[TLBSHOW]

HERE IS THE ONE WHERE HE GOES AFTER JOHN ASHCROFT please notice the link to his site he took the whole site down that had more threats againt the US GOVT and BUSH and ASHCROFT

John Ashcroft, American Fascist
"Never forget that it was Ashcroft, in the earliest iteration of the Anti-Terrorism bill, who advocated the suspension of habeas corpus. If there is a beating heart within the body of laws that protect our freedoms, habeas corpus is it. That alone should be enough to rouse us all.
I intend to challenge, at every opportunity, the assertion by Mr. Ashcroft that dissention is equal to terrorism. I intend to continue my questioning of his contra-Constitutional program of restrictions until they are stopped. I beg you to do the same.

I offer you the opportunity to add your name and voice to this fight. Send me an email here, and I will place your name on a list to appear on this website. By giving me your name, you sign a document that states your opposition to Ashcroft's Constitutional revisions while denouncing him for daring to call you a terrorist.

You are an American patriot. Stand up and be counted as one." So writes William Rivers Pitt.

http://www.willpitt.com/WillPitt.htm

....demdailynews, 12/11

[Mo1]

A payback??

OK .. let me go read the thread .. I'm confused

[cyncooper]

I'm thinking we demand a retraction by Ms. Crier herself.

If this is documented and shows how very wrong she was---absolutely. She must!

[ned13]

Then he recently switched sides. I know he did a lot of work for the DNC and still runs with the same crowds.

[cake_crumb]

"or titled when has a democrat ever been right about anything?"

Good point...they never have.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Something transpired to turn him against his own country.

Bennedict Ritter. Got a ring to it.