From staff and wire reports – October 13, 1990
A former Oregon assistant attorney general pleaded guilty
Friday in Salt Lake City to a misdemeanor count of distribution of
pornography, involving child sex films from an Oregon case. Scott McAlister,
who resigned as the Utah Corrections Department inspector general in December,
was sentenced to seven days in the Salt Lake County jail and began serving the
sentence immediately. Jeff Sapiro, the counsel for the disciplinary committee
of the Oregon State Bar, said he had been in contact with the Salt Lake County
prosecutor and would forward the results of the case to the Oregon Supreme
Court. The Oregon Supreme Court can suspend lawyers from practicing in the state
for felonies and misdemeanors involving moral turpitude.
McAlister
had been charged with second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor after
authorities obtained two films that reportedly contain child pornography.
The films were taken from evidence in an Oregon case that McAlister was
involved in during his 17 years as an Oregon assistant attorney general.
McAlister
could not be reached for comment in the Utah jail. McAlister was arrested in
January after his former secretary, Linda Dreitzler, reported to federal
authorities that she had found the films in a box of 30 movies that McAlister
had given her for safekeeping. She said McAlister had shown her some of the
movies depicting adult sex in hopes of convincing her to participate in group
sex.
Dreitzler
recently was paid $95,000 by the state in an out-of-court settlement of a
sexual harassment suit that she filed against McAlister and the Department of
Corrections.