(Denver) Radio host arrested in Internet sex sting

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5299847,00.html

A veteran Denver-area radio personality was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of using the Internet to lure a child into a sexual relationship.

Scott Eller Cortelyou, 53, of Conifer, was taken into custody at KRCN studios in Lakewood, where he co-hosts the morning "Business for Breakfast" show. The show features market information, interviews and analysis.

Radio station officials declined comment.

Cortelyou was arrested after an investigation by the Fort Collins Police Department and other agencies. He was taken to the Jefferson County Jail and booked under a $100,000 bail on suspicion of Internet luring and Internet sexual exploitation of a child, both felonies.

The arrest capped an investigation that began last summer, said Fort Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis.

[cloud75]

1. sounds like another repuke busted in a sex scandal! n/t

[MRDU]

3. Yep!

http://www.denverradio.net/newforum/index.php

"As to the hourly news on KOA, the rightward skew will be quite evident when the contract goes to Fox this summer, and for years local anchors John Emm and Scott Cortelyou have been openly disdainful of Democrats right in the middle of supposed straight newscasts."

Just someone's opinion on the internets, but still.

Pic - http://www.bizforbreakfast.com/biographies.html

[Big Pappa]

27. My thoughts

exactly. I bet Foley was jealous.

[SpiralHawk]

32. There's a VAST number of republicon sexual deviants

It must be their THING: to wag their fingers at the rest of the world, like Newt Gingrich, pretending that they are morally superior.

Then, eventually, it comes out that the republicon scolds are DEVIANTS.

Why are there so flipping many republicon sex deviants?

And can rush "anal cyst - Jeff Christie" Limbaugh get to the bottom of this for the American people?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Gee, it seems only yesterday when that Texas right-wing hate radio show host

was hustled off to prison for child molestation. Wait, it wasn't his fault, however. He has been battling alcoholism for years.

It never ends, does it?

[Judi Lynn]

4. Too bad there's not a right-wing show host frog march photo available.

Just draw some handcuffs on him mentally! An orange jumpsuit on that pink complexion is going to be interesting.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. I can't understand it

I often write against pedo frenzies and posts screaming hatred and calling for the blood of child molesters, but I can't understand why an adult would be attracted to a child. It's incomprehensible to me.

I mean, I even prefer "cute" to "gorgeous" in grown women's looks -- but I don't have any sexual response whatsoever to children. It's a completely alien experience. When I have love for a child, I want to protect, not have sex, with him or her.

You know, I even feel sorry for pedophiles -- right up until their first act of predation. But I don't understand it at all.

--p!

[Frank Cannon]

6. Attraction has nothing to do with it

It's a power trip thing; power over the weak and helpless. Which is why so many Republicans seem to be either pedophiles or protectors and defenders of pedophiles.

These are small, fearful men who feel like they need something to dominate.

[CanonRay]

7. He works at Repug station KOA

where all the boys like little girls.

[gratuitous]

8. I am not defending Mr. Cortelyou

Mr. Cortelyou was "booked . . . on suspicion of Internet luring and Internet sexual exploitation of a child." I am not a criminal law expert, and have had very little contact with the criminal side of our court system, but could someone explain what "Internet luring" and "Internet sexual exploitation of a child" are? I mean, it appears that the person being lured was Mr. Cortelyou, and I'm not sure a victim -- that is to say, the child who was allegedly sexually exploited -- can be produced for the second felony charge.

This is beginning to look more and more like the hysteria over recovered memories and child care sex rings from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[redqueen]

9. Child? Allegedly? Did you read the article?

"Cortelyou allegedly approached a female Fort Collins undercover detective posing as a 12-year-old girl in an Internet chat room and had "at least six sexually graphic conversations" with her between Aug. 8 and Jan. 15, Davis said.

He asked the "girl" not to tell her parents about the conversations, Davis said. "

There. You can stop worrying about the poor guy now.

[gratuitous]

12. Except . . .

There was in actual fact, no 12-year-old girl being sexually exploited. Unless the Fort Collins Police Department is now hiring prepubescent girls and making them detectives, and I don't think that's the case.

All I am saying is that in these instances, there isn't a child involved anywhere along the line. Someone is posing as a child, but that person isn't a child. I'm not defending Mr. Cortelyou as I said before, but the charge against him is that he sexually exploited a child. But there was no child involved here at all. If they wanted to charge him with being a creep or engaging in revolting conduct, I'd get behind that. But the charge is that he sexually exploited a child. Where is the child that was sexually exploited?

[redqueen]

13. I may be mistaken, but I think the fact that he thought it was a child,

and still pursued a sexual relationship, is enough.

[gratuitous]

14. And for that reason

I don't much like this law. Certainly Mr. Cortelyou set out for his rendezvous with the Fort Collins Police with nothing good or wholesome in mind, and he may have indeed actually had contact with underage girls he met online in the past. But to try him for sexually exploiting a child when the "child" existed nowhere but in Mr. Cortelyou's mind seems wrong.

[redqueen]

15. It may seem wrong to you.

But I would go so far as to say that for most, it does not.

What better way can you come up with to go about stopping these predators?

[pitohui]

16. but we don't know this guy is a predator

we know a highly trained and experienced person was able to persuade this man to talking to her in this manner and then finally to meet her

we do not know if any actual child could possibly entrap the man in such a way

the problem is...there are just too many such cases, and attraction to children is RARE and distasteful, it's hard to believe that ALL of these old coots sitting on a computer are genuine child predators

we know that it happens every day that people confess to crimes they didn't committ -- the central park joggers went to prison for horrific rapes they didn't commit, with an entire "wildiing" story being created out of mid-air

we know now this story was invented by skilled police interrogators, dna and the confession of the actual rapists tell us so

yet we don't seem to understand that trained, skilled interrogators and detectives can very easily make people do and say things they wouldn't normally do

why is that? by all means, lock up all the republicans, but when i see the same technique being used on a scott ritter, i start to have some questions

[redqueen]

17. Look, I'm gonna be honest and tell you I stopped reading

after you said "was able to persuade this man".

In my opinion, that statement is ludicrous on its face.

[pitohui]

18. well i'm part of the reality-based community and i believe scott ritter

everyone knows that trained, experienced detectives can people get to say and do things they would not otherwise say -- this is science, we have documented evidence, period

example -- we got the whole story of the gang who went "wilding" on the central park jogger -- dna and the real rapist confession showed the story wasn't true -- the confession and deals were coerced by skilled police officers

we know trained investigators can coerce actions and confessions

if you don't know this, your opinion is not worth anything because you are reacting based on emotion and a belief that YOU are so holy you could never be coerced or tricked

this is as may be but i don't believe thousands of men, including scott ritter, are child predators because a skilled investigator can trick them online

i believe you can and no doubt one day will be tricked online yourself -- the easiest person to fool is the person who believes she can't be fooled, because she is all-knowing she never has any reason to check her results

i think life will be v. hard for you and i'm sorry

[redqueen]

20. why are you conflating this with coerced confessions?

apples and oranges, friend.

as for being 'tricked' into trying to fuck a 12 year old... yeah, i'm in real danger of that. i'm glad you're there to feel pity for me.

:eyes:

[arikara]

22. Somehow I just doubt that anyone

who isn't looking for sex with children would be duped into having sexually graphic conversations with someone they believed to be 12 years old. 6 times plus "don't tell your parents".

Of course cops can and do rig investigations and set people up but it sure doesn't sound like it in this case.

[colorado_ufo]

29. Ding - ding! We have a winner!

Best explanation.

[gratuitous]

19. I don't know that I have another solution

But we do have laws on the books now against child molestation and exploitation; and whatever Mr. Cortelyou might be, I don't know that I've seen anything that proves him to be a predator. Again, is he a creep and does he have revolting fantasies involving children? It would seem so. Did he act on these thoughts when the opportunity was dangled in front of him? Again, apparently so. Was this the first time or the last time he'd ever done something like this? There are a lot of questions in my mind about this procedure.

In jurisdictions all over the country (as well as for ratings and money on the Dateline NBC program), men are being arrested and tried for a crime against children where no children are harmed. And the crime they're accused of is so heinous and so revolting to society that any protestation of innocence or entrapment are met with sneering contempt. After all, why did Mr. Cortelyou leave his home that night, get into his car, and drive to the meeting place? But would he have done any of that without the active participation of the Fort Collins Police?

It's a tough question. We all want to keep children safe from sexual predation. But where exactly should the line be drawn between thinking about doing something and actually doing it? All of us harbor thoughts that would land us in the pokey if we acted on them: "I coulda just killed that guy when he did thus-and-such!" But as a society we've generally agreed that thinking about killing someone isn't a crime, but that trying to kill someone or actually succeeding in killing someone is a crime. And what culpability would follow someone who hears another person say, "I could killed that SOB!" and eggs him on: "Well, why don't you? I mean, he really made you look like a fool. I'm starting to think you're really a pussy, and I've lost all respect for you if you don't go over there and pop a cap in that guy's ass right now."

I think we should punish actions (for the most part). And the police (and certainly not the media) shouldn't routinely be in the business of encouraging the commission of a criminal act that might not otherwise happen.

[redqueen]

21. I agree this shouldn't be routine.... not used for all kinds of crime.

But in this case, I support the tactic, simply because there is seemingly no other way to weed these monsters out of society.

Come up with a better way and I'm sure many would love to support it instead of this.

[gratuitous]

23. And are we weeding out monsters?

Or did the police create an artificial circumstance and calling the resultant arrestee a monster? I don't know.

Certainly the end (we want to protect children from sexual predators) is so indisputably good for society, we have decided to achieve it by any and all means. I'm not persuaded that it's good public policy though, and would be very skeptical of any attempts to extend it to other areas of criminal conduct.

[redqueen]

24. It's not a new method.

They use this same tactic to catch johns in prostitution stings.

I honestly don't see what the big deal is here. I mean, I could see the slippery slope argument having some merit, but they've been "trapping" johns that way for ages, and so far there hasn't been much sign that this method is going to be used for all sorts of things.

This is a special kind of crime... one in which the victims are powerless and easily coerced and manipulated. As such it requires a special way of dealing with it.

And yes, any man who would willingly have sexual conversations with what he believed to be a 12 year old, and encourage her to lie to her parents about his illegal acts with her, is a monster. Straight up.

[pokercat999]

31. What is the alternative? Try to catch him after he

molests a child? Use a real 12 year old? I'm not much in favor of draconian measures to trap/entrap people in what would be minor offenses. However child molestation is not MINOR, and is not a victimless crime like gambling or drug use. It may be argued that these perps are sick and need mental treatment, fine, but I think we must find them and lock them up until we are sure they are "cured".


The unfortunate part of this is that something so positive (the internet) that allows instant communication worldwide can be used/abused so well for such a crime.

[Tempest]

10. Part of the article that wasn't posted

Cortelyou allegedly approached a female Fort Collins undercover detective posing as a 12-year-old girl in an Internet chat room and had "at least six sexually graphic conversations" with her between Aug. 8 and Jan. 15, Davis said.

He asked the "girl" not to tell her parents about the conversations, Davis said.

[yellowcanine]

11. This bears no resemblence to "recovered memory" abuse cases.

To say otherwise sounds like an attempt at diversion, imo. The alleged perp initiated the sexually explicit conversations and encouraged the "12 year old girl" he thought he was talking to not to tell her parents. So how is Mr. Cortelyou the one being lured here?

On edit: On your point about whether the charge of internet exploitation of a child can be sustained, it the perp thinks it is a child he is talking to, he can be convicted on that charge.

[leftofthedial]

25. he's been the "business-y" reporter for a succession of RW talk stations

is there a repuke out there who is not a pedophile?

[Ferretherder]

26. OK. I may regret ever asking this question, but,...

...if the 'perp' in this particular case was a WOMAN, and she was trying to meet up with a 12 year old,...no, make that a 16 year old BOY, would this WOMAN be considered a 'MONSTER'?

Please realize that I am in NO WAY condoning this guy's behavior, and I DO understand the revulsion that most everyone feels at his apparent attempts to meet, what to him was, a REAL 12 year old child, allegedly for sexual contact. I only want to know if GENDER is, in any way, whatsoever, the deciding factor in assuming that this person is, without a doubt, a 'MONSTER', who needs to be 'eradicated' from society.

Look, the behavior in question, without a doubt, is not defensible. Nor is it my intention to attempt to defend such. I only question the 'kangaroo court' approach to most of these cases that seem to pop up in the news. And yes, if the guy is guilty, by all means, put his ass in prison - where he belongs. But consider this - would we be so ready to brand this person a 'MONSTER', if the gender roles were reversed? ...and even if it were a woman looking for a young girl?

To be totally honest, however, I WILL admit - this looks to be a pretty sure case.

There. I only wanted to ask............

...sorry.

[gtar100]

28. Answer -> Yes

She would be playing the part of a monster by corrupting the boy or girl. People shouldn't be using youth or innocence for their own kicks. The adult has no idea whether or not their actions will hurt this younger person and they obviously don't care either. Basic care of nature dictates that you don't open a flower when it's a bud or even just beginning to open just to see the pedals if you want the flower to bloom to its fullest potential. Our sexuality is no different.

Monster is a good, descriptive label for this kind of behavior whether it's from a man or woman. It needs to stop.

[colorado_ufo]

30. Yep.

Monster,
User,
Whatever.

At the most compassionate, in serious need of serious help.