66-Year Old Man Investigators Say Had Over 4,000 Porn Images Scheduled For Trial
By: Ken Curtis
Updated: September 9, 2012
A Houston County man already convicted on federal child pornography charges will face additional charges in Dothan this week. Phillip Rister, 66, is scheduled for trial on five counts of possessing pornographic materials involving minors.
Investigators say they took over 4,300 images belonging to Rister at or near the time of his arrest in August, 2007. Rister, believed to have been living with two children at the time, resided on East Saunders Road.
."We found a computer, a lot of literature, and adult pornography," said Houston County Sheriff's Office Investigator Bill Rafferty shortly after Rister's arrest. "Just stacks of it," is the way Rafferty described the number of illegal images. "It's very disturbing because the area he lived in has lots of kids (living there.)"
Rister was arrested after an investigator in Bay County, Florida tipped off local investigators that illegal images may have been sent from Rister's computer.
Court records show fugitive warrants were issued in Houston County after Rister failed to show up for trial scheduled in 2008.
In 2009, after being located, Rister was sentenced to 16 years in Federal prison after pleading guilty to distributing child pornography over the internet.
(Video story above first aired in 2007)
