Posted on 01/25/2003 3:07:17 PM PST by 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.
by AP
Feds Get Sealed Case of Ritter's Arrest
Feds Obtain Sealed Case of Former U.N. Chief Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter's Arrest
ALBANY, N.Y. Jan. 25 —
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.
[snip]
From the NY Daily News:
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Acting on a request from local federal prosecutors, state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi has directed that sealed Ritter case files be turned over to the feds, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Ritter, a vocal opponent of President Bush's Iraqi war preparations, was arrested by police in Colonie, an Albany suburb, in June 2001 on a misdemeanor charge of endangering an underage girl. Sources familiar with the case said Ritter, now 41, used the Internet handle "onexhibition" as he arranged a meeting with the teen - actually an undercover cop - and proposed that she watch him masturbate. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning that if he stayed out of trouble for six months, the charges would be erased and the case sealed. However, sources familiar with the case said the feds still could prosecute Ritter under federal law for allegedly trying to lure a minor into sexual activity. Ritter has confirmed the arrest but said that news reports about it surfaced in an attempt to silence his opposition to a war with Iraq. He has refused to discuss details of the case. Ritter and his attorney, Norah Murphy, did not return phone calls. Neither Teresi - who presided over the trial of four New York City cops acquitted in 2000 in the fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx in February 1999 - nor federal prosecutors could be reached for comment. "I'd like nothing more than to be a vocal opponent to this war, to being an effective voice to the anti-war movement," Ritter told Schenectady TV station WRGB after the scandal surfaced. |
OMG!!!!
A "What did the ex-ADA do and why did she do it?" bump.
THE GUARDIAN: Feds Get Sealed Case of Ritter's Arrest, Saturday January 25, 2003 11:00 PM
It's all over the net, the world, and for Ritter!!!!
I would imagine if they were related to US security/interests, yes.
CRIER; "I understand the Judge in this case, who sealed the file, actually worked for the President and has been working for Republicans for a very, very long time. Any sense somebody working at the courthouse actually passed this along to the press"?
Caught on tape, Howlin and she said awhole lot more...grins.
sw
Just found this on the web, more coverage:Good ! I hope they throw Ritter UNDER the jail, and throw away the key...Ritter files unsealed
Updated: 1/25/2003 8:03 PM
By: Capital News 9 web staff
Yesterday that cartoon wouldn't post and I couldn't get to their website (wait, wait, wait). It's working today. I guess they were having trouble due to the Internet disruptions yesterday?...
LOL (ick!)
The Daily News was the first non-local paper to pick up the story, I believe.
Sounds like they are actually have a reporter digging a bit and finding interesting details like this, (his "handle").
I wonder how Crier came to "understand" all this about the judge. Could it be Ritter, himself?
FReeRepublic: "WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE" ......EVERYTHING.... : )
(BTW, you're welcome for the posts/links....it's actually something I enjoy doing...when I have time; it's important, as you pointed out, to reference/gather/link/post as much as info as possible.)
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