Prosecutor: Welty discussing plea bargain in solicitation case

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A former strip club manager accused of soliciting sex with a child in an online police sting is reportedly negotiating a plea bargain that would spare him a life prison sentence in Colorado, where the Internet sting originated.

Ward Ryan Welty, whose family owns Tropical Lei in Upland and two other strip clubs, potentially faces a prison sentence of two years to life if convicted of criminal charges filed in rural Fremont County, Colo., located about 100 miles south of Denver.

The plea bargain that Welty's discussing with prosecutors in Colorado would spare him a life sentence, said Deputy District Attorney Jason Anderson, who is prosecuting Welty's extradition case in San Bernardino County.

The Colorado prosecutor, Kathy Eberling, and Welty's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, both declined to discuss the case today.

Welty, of Rancho Cucamonga, was arrested in Colorado in June 2008 after he traveled there to allegedly meet a woman he believed was willing to involve her 9-year-old daughter in sex.

The woman Welty, 36, met online was an undercover police detective who posed as a single mother in a Yahoo.com chat room.

After Welty's arrest in Colorado, San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies searched his Rancho Cucamonga apartment and other locations, where they found child pornography images on his computers and steroids they allege Welty was selling.

Welty pleaded guilty locally in February to three felonies -- soliciting a minor for sex, possessing a controlled substance for sale, and possession of child pornography -- and was sentenced to 270 days in jail.

After Welty's release from West Valley Detention Center in June, authorities in Colorado initiated an extradition effort in connection with Welty's case there, where he faces five felonies.

Diamond resisted the effort, arguing that the Colorado prosecution violates the state's double jeopardy laws because Welty has already been convicted of solicitation in California.

If Welty, 36, reaches a plea bargain with prosecutors in Colorado and voluntarily surrenders to authorities there, his local extradition case would be dropped, Anderson said.

Welty appeared in West Valley Superior Court this morning for a hearing in his extradition case, Anderson said. The hearing was continued to Sept. 25.

"Everything will probably be taken care of," Anderson said. "We should know more by then."
Welty's legal issues could be resolved by mid-October, Anderson said.