Cedar Rapids man facing child pornography charges to remain in jail pending trial

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids man charged in federal court with distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography will remain in jail pending trial, a judge ruled Friday.

Scott Ristine, 40, was indicted last week and is charged with one count each of distribution and receipt of child pornography, and five counts of possession of child pornography. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years on distribution and receipt, and 10 to 20 years for the possession charges. 

U.S. Chief Magistrate C.J. Williams said Ristine is a flight risk based on his past criminal history, including a conviction for possessing child porn and violations while on supervised release. Those violations 'demonstrates to me that he's unlikely to comply” with any possible conditions imposed, the judge noted.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Michael McVey testified his office received a cyber tip report in September 2015 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding a file uploaded to a Google account. The account led back to Ristine and agents obtained a search warrant to a house where he rented a room. The room was locked and authorities had to break in to conduct a search, McVey pointed out.

Agents recovered a laptop and two flash drives, which contained child pornography, McVey said. They later talked to Ristine and he admitted to having child pornography on his cellphone. McVey said agents recovered the pornography from the phone and also messages talking about sexually explicit images with a person who appeared to be a minor girl. Ristine, in the messages, asked her to send him a full-body photo but agents didn't find the photo on his phone.

McVey said the images on the electronic devices appeared to be of children ages 8 to 14.

Jill Johnston, Ristine's lawyer, asked the court to release him with conditions of GPS monitoring and home confinement.

Williams pointed out Ristine's violations on his prior conviction, which included possessing adult pornography, having unauthorized phones and computers, contact with minors and failing to register as a sex offender.

Ristine's trial is set for July 31 in U.S. District Court.  

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