Youth pastor faces sex allegations

The youth minister at Holy Cross Lutheran Church has been fired for engaging in inappropriate relationships with teenage girls after detectives found explicit Internet chat transcripts and pornographic Web camera images on his home computer.

Investigative files seeking criminal charges against 31-year-old James D. Ritter of Spokane are expected to be sent to prosecutors this week. Court documents show Ritter could face charges of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, which is a Class C felony. The alleged victims were members of Ritter’s church youth group.

Ritter, who was a full-time church employee but not an ordained Lutheran minister, declined to comment on the investigation but confirmed that he had hired an attorney to represent him. The investigation by detectives with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office was launched in November after one of the girls’ family members contacted authorities.

Church elders placed Ritter on administrative leave on Nov. 22 when they discovered the allegations, Pastor Mark Benning said. They then unanimously voted Thursday to terminate Ritter from his official position as director of Christian education at Holy Cross, 7307 N. Nevada St.

“We are taking this very seriously. There is no tolerance for this type of conduct in our church,” Benning said. “We’ve been working with the police, with their investigation, providing any information that they need from us. We also are providing our youth with counseling services.”

Church officials spoke with the family and persuaded them to file a police report, Benning said.

Sheriff’s Detective John Grandinetti said the family agreed to turn over its computer, which contained records of many of the online conversations between Ritter and the girl. Based on those transcripts, Grandinetti obtained a search warrant Dec. 8 and seized Ritter’s computer at his home.

“The church has been very organized and very helpful,” Grandinetti said.

While searching Ritter’s computer, a forensics expert and Grandinetti found images and files showing images of a different, slightly older girl from his youth group. Grandinetti then filed a second search warrant Monday to gather computer files specific to the older girl, who later contacted Spokane police.

According to the warrant, the older girl told detectives she met Ritter on a youth group vacation to Florida in the summer of 2004 and felt attracted to him. They began communicating nightly through e-mail and instant messaging this summer, the warrant said.

The conversations usually started generically, but Ritter always steered the conversation toward sex, Grandinetti wrote in court records.

The girl “reported that Ritter asked (her) if she liked to be handcuffed, and he sent her a Web cam photo of a girl handcuffed, having sexual intercourse,” Grandinetti wrote.

This fall, the girl met Ritter at Friendship Park after youth group and, according to documents, they had sexual intercourse for the first time.

“They agreed to get together every Tuesday after the youth gatherings” to have sex in various locations, Grandinetti wrote.

The criminal investigation isn’t the first time questions were raised about Ritter’s interactions with teenage girls in his youth group. His relationship with the younger girl started in 2004 when Ritter invited the girl for coffee at a mall.

The girl’s mother, who also had a son in the youth group, became concerned after observing Ritter “paying attention to just the females in the youth group” and approached church officials.

The mother then had her son listen in on a telephone conversation between Ritter and her daughter in August 2004. That conversation consisted of 20 questions in which Ritter and the girl talked about body parts that each of them liked, according to court records.

Based on those family concerns, Benning confronted Ritter about the conversations and sent Ritter to counseling at the Genesis Institute in Spokane.

“Ritter never denied the conversations or other behaviors he displayed but did make it out as though he had trouble with boundaries,” Grandinetti wrote.

Asked why he didn’t contact law enforcement at that time, Benning said it didn’t seem appropriate.

“That was something discussed with the family and some of our church leaders. That communication, at the time, was nothing like what has happened recently,” Benning said. “It was basically just some inappropriate suggestive comments that were made, which we felt we could handle ourselves. I mandated counseling for that.”

Ritter, who remained youth minister at the time, attended five counseling sessions.

“I consulted with them (at the Genesis Institute) and was assured that he could continue to work with us and would not be a danger,” Benning said.

The mother did not allow her son or daughter to participate with the church youth group until this summer.

However, without her knowledge, the girl and Ritter continued to correspond over the Internet, and transcripts showed he was concerned about being caught while suggesting she expose herself on the Web cam.

During truth-or-dare games, “Ritter would ask her to do things that made her feel uncomfortable,” Grandinetti wrote. In one of those games, “Ritter lowered his pants and showed some of his pubic hair, and his dare was that she do the same, which she did.”

During one online chat, Ritter had all his clothes off and had a pillow over his pubic area while he chatted in front of his Web cam, according to the search warrant.

Then on Nov. 18, the girl told the mother that “Ritter had exposed himself to her on the Web cam and that she had done the same for him while using the family computer,” Grandinetti wrote.

Computer forensics examiner Cory Pritchard viewed files on the girl’s computer and discovered the extensive chat transcripts between Ritter and the girl.

Ritter’s wife, Shannon, had been working for the church as a preschool teacher, Benning said. She resigned last week.

“I’m sure it did come as a surprise to her,” Benning said, adding that she was welcome to stay at her job at the church. “We are not sure what her future plans are.”

James Ritter has no previous criminal record, Grandinetti said.

Benning said Ritter came to Spokane two years ago after serving two other congregations for a total of five years, Benning said.

“When we hired him, he had a clean history and a good recommendation” from his former church, he said.

At Sunday’s morning service, Benning informed the congregation of the circumstances surrounding Ritter’s dismissal.

“And we will be meeting with the youth and their parents to further discuss the situation and try to determine if there are other concerns we should be aware of,” Benning said. “We’ve also requested that our church body revoke (Ritter’s) credentials as the DCE, or youth minister, and that he be removed from our synod roster so that he cannot work with youth again.”