RANCHO CUCAMONGA – The former manager of an area strip-club chain was taken into custody Monday after being sentenced in West Valley Superior Court to 270 days in jail.

As a result, Ryan Ward Welty – whose father owns Tropical Lei in Upland and two other strip clubs – will not stand trial in Colorado today as scheduled for allegedly soliciting sex over the Internet with a 9-year-old girl.

Welty, of Rancho Cucamonga, was arrested in rural Fremont County, Colo., last June after he traveled there to allegedly meet a woman he believed was willing to involve her young daughter in sex.

The woman Welty met online was actually an undercover Colorado police detective, and Welty, 38, was arrested when he arrived at a predetermined meeting place.

Following his arrest in Colorado, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies conducted their own investigation of Welty, and prosecutors charged him with three felonies: soliciting sex with a minor, possession of steroids for sale and possession of child pornography.

Welty pleaded guilty to all three charges last month.

His attorney, Roger Diamond, said Welty is innocent of the charges but pleaded guilty to avoid prosecution in Colorado, where he has been charged with five felonies and potentially faces a life sentence.

Diamond argued unsuccessfully before a Fremont County judge last week that the Colorado charges should be dismissed on double-jeopardy grounds because of Welty’s local conviction.

Diamond has appealed the judge’s ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Welty was originally scheduled to be sentenced locally on Friday but would likely have missed the sentencing date because its timing conflicted with the Colorado trial, which was set to start this morning.

Because of that conflict – and because he wanted to leave no doubt that his client had been convicted in California – Diamond said he arranged last Friday to move up Welty’s sentencing date.

“The Colorado judge in effect forced our hand,” Diamond said Monday.

Following the first 100 days of Welty’s jail sentence, he will be eligible to petition the court to complete the rest of the time on weekends, Diamond said.

Welty was also sentenced Monday to five years probation and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, Diamond said.

Thom LeDoux, district attorney for the 11th Judicial District in Colorado, said his office intends to prosecute Welty’s case after he is released from jail in California.

To prevent a Colorado prosecution, Diamond said he is “about to launch a fight the nature of which no one has ever witnessed.”

In addition to seeking dismissal of Welty’s charges on double-jeopardy grounds, Diamond said he is going to “go into detail about what this judge is doing in Colorado – it’s a scandal.”

Diamond alleges the Fremont County judge handling Welty’s case, Julie Marshall, hands down disproportionately lengthy prison sentences and is biased against defendants.

Diamond said Marshall rejected his assertion last week that Welty, by pleading guilty in California, had been convicted. Her ruling shows “no respect at all for the California courts,” Diamond said.

After Welty was sentenced Monday in Rancho Cucamonga, Diamond said he called Marshall’s courtroom to notify the court that Welty would be unable to appear for today’s trial.

Diamond said the court’s clerk put him on speakerphone in the courtroom, and Marshall told him she intended to revoke Welty’s bail today and issue a warrant for his arrest.

There was an implication, according to Diamond, that Marshall felt Diamond orchestrated Welty’s local plea to avoid prosecution in Colorado.

“It wasn’t orchestration,” Diamond said. “Ryan is relying on his rights. He can’t be forced to give up a right he has to be speedily sentenced.”