(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man who admitted possessing child pornography on his personal cell phone was given a three-year prison term as part of a plea bargain approved in court by Payne County District Judge Phillip Corley on Friday.
Rodney David Ritter, 34, who previously lived in Maramec, must register as a sex offender and serve seven years of probation when he is released from prison, the judge ordered.
Ritter was also ordered to pay a $500 fine and the cost of his incarceration, court records show. Ritter has been in the Payne County Jail on $50,000 bail for the past five months.
At the time of his arrest, Ritter was married with four children. His wife has filed for divorce, court records show.
Ritter “has admitted to downloading, possessing and distributing child pornography,” Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Rachell Savory, who is assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, wrote in an affidavit.
“On Oct. 24-31, 2014, Agent Nick Chaffin conducted an undercover investigation into the sharing of child pornography over the internet,” through a peer-to-peer network, Savory’s affidavit said.
At 9:12 p.m. on Oct. 24, Chaffin’s computer began communicating with a computer assigned to an address where the user reported having 85 files available for download that had been flagged in other child pornography investigations, the affidavit said.
From 9:12 p.m. on Oct. 24 until 1:07 a.m. on Oct. 25, Chaffin downloaded 48 complete files containing multiple child pornography videos including one showing adult sexual abuse of a girl, about four or five-years-old, the affidavit said.
From 10:15 p.m. to 11:17 p.m. on Oct. 30, Chaffin downloaded 11 complete filed including a folder containing multiple videos of a girl approximately eight to 10-years-old engaged in sex acts including bestiality, the affidavit said.
On a court order, the internet provider provided the subscriber information for that address, the affidavit said.
“On Nov. 20, 2014, at about 7 a.m., officers from the OSBI, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, and the Stillwater Police Department served a search warrant,” for child pornography and computer-related items at a home in the 100 block of S. Payne in Stillwater where the Ritters were living with their four juvenile children, the affidavit said.
When Ritter was interviewed by the OSBI agent, “Rodney admitted to downloading and viewing child pornography,” on his cell phone before deleting it, the affidavit said. Ritter said “he viewed child pornography because he was curious,” the affidavit said.
Ritter “said he had not sexually touched any children,” the affidavit said.
“Rodney said he was employed. Rodney said he drinks socially and last used methamphetamine when he was a teenager. He was currently prescribed pain medication for a neck injury,” the affidavit said.
Ritter’s personal cell phone was used solely by him, the affidavit said.
As part of a plea bargain, an additional felony court of illegally using a personal cell phone to download and view child pornography was dismissed by the prosecution Friday.
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