I was in Albany today for the sentencing of Chris Ortloff — former Plattsburgh Assemblyman and state Parole Board member — to 12.5 years in Federal prison.<\/p>\n
He confessed to participating in lengthy on-line chat-room discussions involving child rape.\u00a0 He also attempted to arrange a sexual rendez-vous with two girls who he believe to be pre-teens.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the encounter was a ruse concocted by state police as part of a sting operation.<\/p>\n
We’ll have a full report during the 8 O’clock Hour Wednesday morning.\u00a0 In the meantime, here are some stray thoughts about today’s sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n
First, it was bizarre to hear Ortloff speak at length after so long.<\/p>\n
He’s a talented and practiced orator, a former TV anchorman and politician.\u00a0 He quoted at length from the Bible and Shakespeare and argued that his case might serve the public good by warning other people away from the more decadent temptations of the internet.<\/p>\n
Second, it was startling to hear Ortloff claim that he was completely cured of his “addiction” to child pornography and the desire to have sex with very young girls.<\/p>\n
He made this claim unambiguously and without qualification.\u00a0 “I sleep well and have healthy dreams,” he insisted.\u00a0 Most experts in the field of child-sex predators will tell you that it just doesn’t work that way.<\/p>\n
Thirdly, it was surreal when Ortloff’s defense attorney, Andrew Safranko, cited Ortloff’s involvement in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, going so far as to recall the famous, “Do you believe in miracles?” line that followed the US-Russia hockey game.<\/p>\n
Safranko told Judge Thomas McAvoy that Ortloff was hoping for a similar “miracle” in Tuesday’s sentencing.<\/p>\n
Finally, I was more than a little taken aback by Judge McAvoy’s relatively light sentence:\u00a0 Just 12.5 years, despite the fact that Ortloff was arrested in a hotel room where he was expecting to meet with and rape a pair of pre-teen girls.<\/p>\n
This decision followed the Judge’s brief comments describing Ortloff’s actions as among the most heinous and disturbing crimes possible.\u00a0 “Children can’t defend themselves,” Judge McAvoy noted.<\/p>\n
Yet he sentenced Ortlof to considerably less than the 15-19 years requested by Federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n