Chris Ortloff, toward the end of his time as a state assemblyman, meets with constituents in March 2006 in the Harrietstown Town Hall in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise file photo)

LAKE PLACID — Chris Ortloff, a former New York state Assemblyman who grew up in Lake Placid, is set to be released from federal prison today.

Ortloff, 72, was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison in 2010 after being arrested two years prior in a State Police sting operation that ended with him arriving at a Colonie hotel for pre-planned sex with preteen girls — who were fabricated by police investigators, although he hadn’t known that. He later pleaded guilty to federal coercion and enticement charges, and was moved from county jail to the Hartford Correctional Center in Connecticut.

As part of his sentencing nine years ago, he was required to register as a sex offender, was fined $50,000 and will be under lifetime supervision.

Asked where Ortloff intends to go after he’s released, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said for “privacy, safety and security reasons” the department doesn’t discuss plans for inmate release.

Before he ran for office, Ortloff was an anchorman at WPTZ News Channel 5 in Plattsburgh, and before that was a reporter for the Enterprise and for WNBZ-AM radio in Saranac Lake. He wrote a book called “A Lady In The Lake,” about the mysterious death of Mabel Smith Douglass in Lake Placid.

Ortloff, a Republican, served the then-116th Assembly District — it later became the 114th Assembly District — from 1986 to 2006. He rose to assistant Assembly minority leader and chaired the Clinton County Republican Committee. He stepped down as an assemblyman in May 2006 as he was being challenged for his seat by a number of candidates — including Republican Janet Duprey, who ultimately won the seat — because he was appointed by then-Gov. George Pataki to a six-year term on the Parole Board. Ortloff resigned from the Parole Board when he was arrested in the State Police sting.

A months-long investigation into his online conduct ended when Ortloff showed up at the hotel with the intent to rape two preteens — those under the age of 17 can’t consent to sex under state law — with the permission of their “mother,” who was in fact an undercover agent.

It began when State Police investigators received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and then uncovered an online profile registered to Ortloff where he explicitly said he was interested in preteen females.

An undercover agent contacted him, posing as the mother of an 11 and 12 year old, and told him she wanted her daughters to experience sex with an adult male. Over the course of the investigation, he told the agent that he had oral sex and intercourse with two preteen girls while serving in the Air Force. He sent agents, posing as the agent’s two preteen girls, two hardcore pornographic videos and a nude photo of himself.

When State Police showed up in October 2008 to arrest Ortloff at a hotel where he had planned to meet the girls, he allegedly answered the door naked and had assorted sex toys and accessories in the room.

At his sentencing in 2010, Ortloff apologized for his actions and said he had become addicted to internet pornography.

“I tell you today that I am already healed,” he said, according to the Albany Times Union. “I don’t have these desires any more.

“I don’t think about young kids. I never did when I wasn’t online.”

Ortloff’s family could not be reached for comment Thursday about his release from federal prison. His sister, Susan Ortloff Cameron of Lake Placid, told the Albany Times Union in a statement nine years ago that the case was a “tragedy” and that it was “important to clarify that Chris’ family are the only victims of any of his activities of his crime.”