Ohio Judge Shows Leniency For Child Molesting Cop

Sandusky County Common Pleas Judge Barbara Ansted sentenced former Ohio Patrol trooper Ricky Vitte Jr. to six months in jail on Monday, and credited him for acknowledging his wrongdoing against a boy he masturbated with while watching porn.

“You took responsibility by pleading no contest,” Ansted told Vitte during his sentencing hearing on Monday. “This is the first step to healing.”

The boy’s mother, however, didn’t see it quite the same way.

“I don’t feel this was an appropriate outcome,” she told the Register after Vitte was sentenced.

Ansted technically handed down the harshest sentence possible for the one misdemeanor charge he was convicted on, but she told Vitte he could go on house arrest after serving 30 days in jail.

Sandusky County Common Pleas Judge Barbara Ansted

Ansted ruled Vitte could serve the remaining five months of his sentence at his home, wearing an ankle bracelet.

Vitte was never required to acknowledge what happened between himself and the boy in the plea deal he reached with Sandusky County Prosecutor Tom Stierwalt to drop a felony charge of disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile if he pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor on the same charge.

Ansted approved the deal in November.

During the hearing Vitte spoke to the boy’s mother, but again he did not acknowledge any specific wrongdoing.

“I apologize to you for any issues we have had,” he told her.

Stierwalt never wanted to charge Vitte in the first place, deciding in January 2014 to drop the investigation because he said Vitte could argue a defense he was teaching the boy to masturbate.

He was forced to reconsider, however, after a firestorm of criticism erupted when the Register reported his decision to drop the investigation.

But it doesn’t appear Stierwalt, or Sandusky County sheriff’s detective Sean O’Connell, ever investigated the sexual misconduct that occurred between Vitte and the boy.

Vitte was never interviewed by O’Connell, and he initially fled in his patrol cruiser when O’Connell attempted to stop him near his home after he failed to show up at a scheduled interview.

Charges of fleeing were never considered by O’Connell or Stierwalt.

Patrol officials, who said last week they were waiting until after sentencing to decide on Vitte’s appeal to get his job back, were not concerned that Vitte used a patrol vehicle to flee a stop.

It was a short chase, a spokesman for Ohio Public Safety director John Born told the Register last spring. Born oversees the State Highway Patrol.

Vitte stared forward with his hands in his lap for most of the sentencing hearing. He’s been in counseling since 2013, he told Ansted, and he has been in anger management classes.

Vitte and his attorneys told Ansted he was recently promoted to a management position at a new job, and asked for leniency before the sentencing so he could pay his child support.

A victim’s advocate read a statement on the boy’s behalf prior to sentencing, which was prepared by the boy’s mother.

She was not in the courtroom for herself but to give voice to her son, the boy’s mother wrote, who was then a scared 12-year old-boy. Her son used to look up to Vitte and wanted everyone to know how proud he was of his Ricky.

But Vitte threatened and intimidated the boy after the sexual encounters with warnings, according to his mother’s statement:

“I am the law. Who are you going to call?”

“This is family business. You don’t discuss what is going on in this house.”

“Who is your mom going to believe?”

Vitte didn’t want the boy to tell anyone what happened.

“Your secrets caught up to you,” she wrote, adding that Vitte was not above the law.

The boy didn’t tell anyone for several years — until 2013 — and only then because he feared Vitte would abuse his younger siblings.

When his mother learned what happened she confronted Vitte. The county child services agency conducted an investigation, referring the findings to the county sheriff.

Vitte showed the boy a porn video titled “Island Fever 4,” and showed him how to masturbate, according to what Stierwalt said during the plea hearing.

But before being forced to reconsider his decision to drop the investigation, the case file was closed with O’Connell writing in his January 2014 report that no charges would be pursued against Vitte because the time lapse since the incidents occurred, and that there was no physical evidence.

O’Connell and Stierwalt pedaled it back, however, when the Register questioned why the time lapse mattered since it was not beyond the statute of limitations, and why physical evidence was needed since they had the victim’s testimony, his mother’s testimony and statements by Vitte made during the social worker’s investigation confirming the boy’s story.

Stierwalt said he reviewed the file again after being questioned, and then determined the main reason he wasn’t seeking charges was Vitte could argue he was showing the boy how to masturbate.

The prosecutor finally reversed that stand against charging Vitte entirely, however, after the torrent of criticism from around the country erupted in response to his masturbation lessons comment.

Many speculated Vitte was getting preferential treatment from the sheriff’s office and Stierwalt because Vitte was a law enforcement officer.

After the sentencing, in the hallway outside the courtroom, the victim’s mother was upset but composed.

“I feel my son’s voice was heard but I don’t feel this was an appropriate outcome,” she said.

Vitte declined to comment after the sentencing.

Judge Barbara Ansted sentenced former Ohio Patrol trooper Ricky Vitte Jr. to six months in jail