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.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks Meek. I can always count on you to keep me informed.

[cake_crumb]

"The Bush administration had been warned by the CIA months before September 11th of Al Qaida terrorists and plans to hijack airplanes."

Geeez, Pitt's a psychotic moron...no wonder he gets along so well with Scuddy.

[cyncooper]

Nope...he's a Republican.

Thanks for that. Well, how was the case presented to him by fired ADA Cynthia Preiser is the question, then.

[TLBSHOW]

I intend to challenge, at every opportunity Pitt said,

so why did he take his whole site down?

I will tell you why

because Scott Ritters co author William Rivers Pitt was making threats against the President.

[eddie willers]

Well, how was the case presented to him by fired ADA Cynthia Preiser is the question, then

Yes it is.
Why would a Republican go with so light a sentence on so serious a charge?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

ROFLOL!! Scott "Kitty" Ritter BUMP!!

You know about kitty ritter, right? Things look alright on the surface, but don't go digging around.

[nicmarlo]

William Rivers Pitt was making threats against the President.

Those are serious charges, TLB....when/where/how?

[cake_crumb]

"Flip a coin: trust Iraq?/trust the U.N.?"

We'll be safer to trust neither. You're right: if the guy was truly looking for the UN to protect him, he's dead...and if he was an Iraqi agent, he STILL should have been held for questioning.

Either way they shouldn't have given him back to the Iraqis. THEY should know this too...I mean...a no-brainer must be somewhere around the UN's speed. So the question is: why DIDN'T they keep him (improper facilities doesn't cut it, since he could have been turned over to coalition forces)??

[aristeides]

Not the same person.

But maybe the people claiming that Judge Crummey worked for Bush in FL did so because they confused the two Peter Crummeys.

[nicmarlo]

So the question is: why DIDN'T they keep him

PRECISELY!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

NYSlimes has yet to print ONE word about these arrests of Scott Ritter.

The obligatory: "I'm shocked!"

[TLBSHOW]

He had to take the whole site down because it was filled with his madness about Bush! He new he was in trouble if he kept it up.
http://www.willpitt.com/WillPitt.htm

[cake_crumb]

"I never bought Crier's assertion to begin with, that it was the judge, motivated politically on behalf of GWB for several reasons."

I'm leaning in the direction of the judge, just a local judge who spends most of his time writing sentences for DUIs and advising on local juvanile court, was a tas overwhelmed when faced with a former UN weapons inspector. I suspect the judge was worried he'd cause some kind of international incident, because Ritter played the international importance of the UN, the Chief Weapons Inspector and Gulf War Veteran angles for all they were worth. MAYBE. Or maybe Ritter bought him off. If he's a Republican, I hope not...but if he did, he deserves what he gets too.

The Assistant DA...now there's another story. He somehow bought her off.

[nicmarlo]

The obligatory: "I'm shocked!"

Okay.....I'm shocked, I tell ya, just SHOCKED!! (not)

[Howlin]

It was Catherine Crier and the judge on this case is NOT the one who worked for Bush in Florida, NOR is the other Crummey. That is the incorrect name. She lied.

[cake_crumb]

"Am I wrong about this, or was Crier completely wrong about which judge it was that was on the Ritter case?"

Geeez, I hope so...the whole gang is beginning to get on my nerves. If she was going on about the guy in Florida, she is...this is what happens when goofballs get all their important info from the DU.

[ned13]

I doubt Crummey could be bought off. He was involved in a sensitive case a couple of years back and could not afford more bad press.

[woofie]

Whats with the "Scotts" of the world? They think they will get off Scott free?

[aristeides]

I wonder why the news of the feds getting this material has been publicized. You'd think it would be kept quiet unless and until there is an indictment. I wonder if the squeeze is being put on Ritter to make him tell the feds what he knows.

[Enterprise]

I clicked on your link and I got this:

http://www.geocities.com/wavs03/rimshot.wav

If you intended me to see an image it wasn't there. Sorry.