Former Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter Nabbed in Teen Sex Sting/ Scott Ritter trial rescheduled for July 7

Thursday, January 14, 2010
By Joshua Rhett Miller

Scott Ritter, a former chief United Nations weapons inspector allegedly caught in a sex sting, is seen in a 2002 file photo.



Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter was arrested in a Pennsylvania sex sting in November on a litany of charges involving a lewd Internet conversation with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

Ritter, 48, allegedly masturbated in front of a Web camera while he was engaged in conversation in an Internet chat room with an undercover cop posing as the teenage girl. He declined to discuss the charges Thursday when reporters visited his New York residence.

"I said there would be no comment," Ritter said, according to the Albany Times Union. "Why don't you guys just go away?"

The chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98 and harsh critic of the war in Iraq, Ritter is accused of contacting the "girl" while using the handle "delmarm4fun" last February.

Ritter, of Delmar, N.Y., allegedly told the girl, "Emily," that he was a 44-year-old man from Albany, N.Y., according to an affidavit of probable cause.

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The undercover officer then told Ritter he was a 15-year-old girl from the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, at which point Ritter asked for a picture in addition to one "Emily" had posted on her account, according to the affidavit prepared by Barrett Township Police Det. Ryan Venneman.

Ritter then sent a link to his Web camera and began to masturbate while it was focused on his genitals, according to the affidavit. The former U.N. official then allegedly provided his cell phone number.

"He then continued to masturbate on web cam and he again asked how old I was," the affidavit continued. "He was advised again that I was 15 years old. He said he didn't realize that I was 15 years old and turned off his web camera. He stated that he didn't want to get in trouble."

Ritter then allegedly told the "girl" that he fantasized about having sex with her, to which the officer replied, "guess u turned it off [no problem]."

Ritter then asked the girl if she "want[ed] to see it finish" before reactivating his Web camera and ejaculating, the affidavit read.

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The conversation with the girl allegedly took place on Feb. 7, 2009, but the police investigation investigation lasted until November. Ritter was arrested on Nov. 9 and charged with unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation.

Ritter appeared for his preliminary hearing on Dec. 17 and waived the felony charge of unlawful contact with a minor. He remains free on $25,000 bail.

Ritter's attorney, Todd Henry, of Philadelphia, did not return several calls seeking comment Thursday.

Ritter — born William Scott Ritter Jr. — is a former Marine who reportedly met his second wife, Marina, while working as a counterintelligence officer in the former Soviet Union.

"I came to Delmar ... to put roots down, to raise a family and live a normal middle-class American life," Ritter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2002.

A press conference on the matter to be held by the Barrett Township Police Department is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday. Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Michael Rakaczewski will prosecute the case.

A press release issued in November by the Barrett Township police noted that the incident wasn't the first time Ritter had been arrested on similar charges, but that he had not been formally charged.

Ritter was reportedly charged in a June 2001 sex sting in New York, but the case was dismissed. He had been charged with attempted child endangerment after arranging to meet a person he thought was a 16-year-old girl at a fast-food restaurant. The girl was actually an undercover police officer.

The New York Post reported Ritter was caught in a similar case in April 2001 involving a 14-year-old girl, but he was never charged.

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Seems to me it doesn't matter who you are..this crime seems to take hold of the young, old, rich or people you would NEVER suspect.

Former U.N. weapons inspector allegedly had explicit Internet chat with cop posing as teen girl

By CHRISTEN GOWAN, Staff writer
First published in print: Friday, January 15, 2010

BETHLEHEM -- Once a preeminent weapons inspector for the United Nations, Scott Ritter on Thursday again found himself in the spotlight for a darker reason: allegations he had inappropriate contact with a teen.

Police in Barrett Township, Pa., said Ritter last year contacted a detective there posing as a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, engaged in a sexual conversation and showed himself masturbating on a Web camera.

He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge he faces.

"I said there would be no comment," Ritter told reporters gathered outside his Bethlehem home. "Why don't you guys just go away?"

The scene was similar to the events of 2003, when news of an arrest under similar circumstances two years earlier surfaced in Colonie.

In 2001, Ritter was allegedly caught in a similar Internet sex-sting operation after he tried to lure a 16-year-old girl to a Burger King in Menands, sources familiar with the investigation told the Times Union at the time. The teenager actually was an undercover investigator posing online as a minor as part of the Colonie Police Department's investigation of Internet sex crime. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal and later sealed.

That arrest went unnoticed by the media until 2003, when a news report about Ritter's arrest and the sealed court case appeared in the Daily Gazette of Schenectady. At the time, Ritter -- a chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98 -- was an outspoken critic of the war and the Bush Administration's insistence that weapons of mass destruction were hidden in that country. Ritter refused to discuss the specifics of his earlier court case with reporters, arguing the file was sealed. Amid the arrest and subsequent media coverage, his prominence as a war critic diminished.

On Thursday, reporters responding to news of Ritter's latest arrest, first reported in the Pocono Record of Stroudsburg, Pa., were back at his Bethlehem home.

Ritter, 47, opened the front door several times, but refused to talk about his arrest.

He surrendered to Barrett police on Nov. 9 after they said he sent an undercover cop posing as a 15-year-old girl a link to his Web camera as he proceeded to masturbate on camera, according to a police affidavit. Barrett police said their undercover investigation started on Feb. 7. (A reporter for the Pocono Record said the newspaper didn't learn of Ritter's arrest until recently while reporting a broader story on Internet stings.)

Barrett police said Ritter had a sexually graphic conversation with a detective who posed as a 15-year-old girl named "Emily." Ritter, using the screen name "delmarm4fun," aimed the Web camera at his groin while he masturbated, police wrote in a court affidavit.

The cyber-detective, who could not be seen by Ritter, said he initially told Ritter he was a 15-year-old, but Ritter later asked the age again and claimed he didn't realize the person was 15, the affidavit says. He then allegedly turned off the camera and made coarse remarks about sex. When the undercover officer asked him about turning off the camera, Ritter allegedly asked, "You want to see it finish?" He then sent his link and could once again be seen masturbating, the affidavit alleges.

Police have charged him with felony unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of a crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation.

Ritter was formally arraigned in Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas on Monday.

Ritter has remained in Bethlehem since the earlier arrest. He is also a first fire lieutenant for the Delmar Fire Department, according to the fire company's Web site.

In 2001, Ritter was caught in a similar Internet sex-sting operation after he allegedly tried to lure a teen to Burger King.

At the time of the Colonie arrest, police charged Ritter with attempted endangerment of a child. Prosecutors agreed to drop the charge if Ritter stayed out of legal trouble for six months. The case was later dismissed. The U.S. Attorney's office in Albany reviewed the case, but never filed charges.

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This jerk was more than a little lucky to have the charges dropped against him in 2001.They gave him a second chance to stay out of trouble and he does it again!! I hope they throw the book at him this time before he physically harms a child.

Why do they let adults off the first time they do this? I don't understand that logic.

Q Are you being investigated for espionage?
A I've been called a spy of Israel since 1996, and since I made my documentary film in 2000 the FBI has investigated me as an agent of Iraq. The FBI has also opened up an investigation into my wife calling her a KGB spy. So there is this form of harassment taking place.

Q Did you write a report, at the time you were doing inspections in Votkinsk in the Soviet Union in 1988 that said the group your wife worked for was full of spies?
A No. I indicated that given past models of Soviet penetration techniques that these young girls, of which my wife was one, who were brought in by the Soviets to carry out translation services had been used in the past to attempt sexual compromise.

Scott's wife is KHATIASHVILI, MARINA B (age 44)

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Raised on military bases in Hawaii, Germany and Turkey, Ritter joined the Marines in 1981 and later served as an arms inspector in the Soviet Union. There he befriended Marina Khatiashvili, a Russian translator. After his six-year marriage to his college sweetheart fell apart, Ritter married Marina in 1991. The couple now live with their 9-year-old twins (and Marina's father, Bidzina, 71) in a four-bedroom home in Delmar, N.Y., near Albany, where Ritter plays lots of golf and serves as a volunteer fireman. "Scott is not hotheaded," insists Marina, 37, an administrative assistant, "but no one would call him a diplomat."

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This is very sad. He has 17 yr old twins.

OH-OH He's doind that thing Nancy Grace talks about. Pointing at someone with 4 fingers pointed back at himself. :roll:

Thanks for the updates and docs, BJ.

Now, I am certain that nary a person would ever suspect a UN Weapons Inspector of something so outrageous. It just goes to show you that this crime knows no bounds. Anyone from any class or rank is capable of having this dirty secret.

Ritter, 48, is accused of having a sexually explicit chat over the Internet last Feb. 7 with someone whom he believed to be a 15-year-old girl named Emily, and then using a Web camera to show the "girl" live video images of himself masturbating.
"Fantasizing about f***ing you," Ritter allegedly wrote Emily -- who actually was a cop from the Barrett Township (Pa.) Police Department conducting a sting of computer perverts.



Ritter, a resident of upstate Delmar, surrendered on Nov. 9 in Pennsylvania to face a charge of unlawful contact of a minor -- a felony that could land him up to seven years -- and other charges, including corruption of minors, indecent exposure and criminal solicitation. He was freed on $25,000 bail and is due in court Feb. 23.
"I told you guys there'd be no comment, so why don't you guys just go away," Ritter told reporters outside his house yesterday.
Ritter, who has twin 16-year-old daughters, was nabbed in a similar case in April 2001 but was not criminally charged.
Two months later, in June 20001 he was arrested for allegedly arranging to meet a person he believed to be a 16-year-old girl in an upstate fast-food restaurant. She turned out to be an undercover cop.
That second case was dismissed after Ritter stayed out of trouble for six months.

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The trial for former United Nations chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Internet-related sexual offense charges has been rescheduled, with jury selection slated for July 7.

Ritter, 48, who lives near Albany, N.Y., contacted what he thought was a 15-year-old girl in an online chat room in February 2009, starting a sexually based conversation, police said. The "girl" turned out to be a Barrett Township police officer working undercover.

Ritter wasn't charged until November because of a lengthy police investigation that involved obtaining court orders for computer and cell phone records.

Ritter, a former U.S. Marine, served as the U.N. chief weapons inspector for seven years, resigning in 1998. He became a harsh critic of the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter faced similar charges in 2001 in New York, but he said in 2003 that those charges were made public to silence his Iraq war criticism. The charges were dismissed.

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Wow. This is the first that I read about this case. I can't help but wonder, what do the cops watching this get out of it? I know it's a necessary evil to catch these perps, but still...