Pennsylvania: Sex-sting trial begins for ex-U.N. weapons inspector Man denies he believed undercover cop in chat room was 15-year-old girl

By Michael Rubinkam Associated Press STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- No one disputes that former U.N. chief weapons inspector and prominent Iraq war critic Scott Ritter entered an adult chat room two years ago, traded sexually graphic messages and performed a sex act on himself in front of a webcam. What the jury in Ritter's online sex-sting trial must decide is whether he thought the person on the other end of the chat was a 15-year-old girl. A police detective testified Tuesday that Ritter initiated a sexually explicit conversation with him in a Yahoo chat room in February 2009, and that he told Ritter at the beginning of the conversation that he was a 15-year-old girl named Emily. Barrett Township police Detective Ryan Venneman told jurors that Ritter gave him his cellphone number and began masturbating on a video chat. Ritter briefly shut down the webcam after the detective repeated that he was 15, typing that he "didn't want any trouble," but soon restarted the camera and masturbated to completion, the detective testified. Prosecutors played an extremely graphic 20-minute video of the encounter for the jury. In his opening statement, defense attorney Gary Kohlman told the jury that Ritter, a former Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War, is a "decorated military hero" who didn't believe he was chatting with an underage girl. "There will not be a shred of evidence that Mr. Ritter in his entire life ever has had an inappropriate conversation with a minor," Kohlman said. "There is not a shred of evidence that he has ever had or looked at child pornography. ... Ritter at no stage in his chat with Officer Venneman ever once believed that he was doing anything other than speaking and chatting with an adult," Kohlman said. According to Venneman's testimony, Ritter called the exchange a "fantasy" after the detective identified himself as an undercover officer. "You know you're in a lot of trouble," Venneman typed, according to a transcript of the chat read in court. "Huh?" Ritter replied. "I'm an undercover police officer. You need to call me ASAP." Ritter immediately denied he had committed a crime, according to the transcript. "No one under 18 can access this chat room. ... I don't think you're 15. Never did. It was all fantasy ... As far as I know you're a 56-year-old housewife," he typed. Ritter, 49, of Delmar, N.Y., was the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector in Iraq following the Gulf War. He accused the United States and U.N. of failing to take action when Iraq blocked inspectors from suspected weapons sites and later became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, insisting the country had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. Ritter is charged with unlawful contact with a minor and other counts in the Pennsylvania case. A decade ago, Ritter was charged in New York with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. Those charges were later dismissed after he completed six months of probation. Ritter said in 2003 that he believed the case was designed to silence his war criticism. Monroe County prosecutors called to the stand a now-retired detective from Colonie, N.Y., who testified about two attempted meet-ups in April and June of 2001, the last of which resulted in Ritter's arrest. Kohlman said Ritter had been in a "dark period" in his life and used sexually explicit chats on the Internet as a way to handle his depression over being called unpatriotic for his criticism of American policy on Iraq. He said Ritter was aware that police were investigating him and that he drove to the meeting in New York in hopes of getting arrested. Ritter's wife, Marina, testified that she was at work on Feb. 7, 2009, while Ritter chatted with Venneman. She said Ritter told her about the incident that night and that he found it strange that an undercover officer would enter a chat room labeled adults only. Marina Ritter, who testified for the defense, said she considered her husband's actions to be "the self-destructive acts of a man who was depressed." Also testifying for the defense was Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author Seymour Hersh, who has known Ritter since his days as a weapons inspector. Hersh, known for uncovering the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War and for his reports on the planning for the war in Iraq and the alleged torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, said Ritter was held in high regard in national intelligence and military circles even after his 2001 arrest became known. "It was noted, but people who worked with him did not change their opinion," he said. Ritter is expected to testify in his own defense. Published: Thu, Apr 14, 2011