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	Former Youth Minister Convicted of Sex Crimes with Teens Associated Press, carried in KOMO July 12, 2007 http://www.komotv.com/news/local/8477912.html Spokane, Wash. (AP) - A former Lutheran youth minister was convicted Thursday of multiple sex crimes involving two teen-age girls. James D. Ritter sat quietly while Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly found him guilty of six counts of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes and one count of sexual exploitation with a minor. The six misconduct counts stem from occasions when Ritter had sex with a 16-year-old girl after youth group gatherings in fall 2004. The two met every Tuesday to have sex at different locations, according to court documents. In 2005, Ritter chatted over the Internet with a 14-year-old girl from his youth group and asked her to strip and perform acts in front of a Webcam. She did so but later told her mother. Defense lawyer Chris Bugbee argued that a live Webcam doesn't count as photography, a key element of the exploitation charge. But the judge disagreed. Sentencing was set for Aug. 24, but there will be another hearing to determine whether Ritter's supervisory role over the girls should count as an aggravating circumstance, which could affect his sentence. Rielly said Thursday that Ritter did abuse his supervisory position and went well beyond that. "This was clearly the pattern of a predator grooming his victim," the judge said of the man's relationship with the 14-year-old girl. The families of the victims hugged and thanked each other outside the courtroom.
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