Fisk, Mo., man gets four years for child porn

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A Butler County judge sentenced a Fisk man Tuesday to the maximum for possessing child pornography.

Michael Charles Dissler, 53, was sentenced to four years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for felony possession of child pornography by Presiding Circuit Judge Mark Richardson, according to Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Barbour.

"He got the maximum under the law that we could give him," Barbour said. "It was an open plea; we knew what he was going to get because he had a prior [conviction].

"My information from federal [officials] is he is going to do quite a bit longer than that in federal custody."

Dissler, who pleaded guilty in August to one felony count of attempted transportation of child pornography, is to be sentenced Nov. 10 by U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry. A second count of possession of child pornography reportedly will be dismissed at sentencing.

At that time, Dissler faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 40 years in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie Crites-Leoni said earlier.

"The 15-year minimum is based on Dissler's prior conviction," she said. Dissler reportedly was convicted of sodomy, involving a 9-year-old boy, in August 1995.

With his plea, Dissler reportedly admitted on Oct. 2 he attempted to transport an image of child pornography over the Internet by sending the image as an attachment in an e-mail using his Yahoo e-mail account.

The image Dissler attempted to transport reportedly was a graphic video file depicting a minor female engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On Jan. 15, law enforcement officers seized Dissler's computer from his Fisk residence. Forensic analysis of the computer's hard drive reportedly revealed Dissler possessed more than 600 image files of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

During an interview on Jan. 30, Dissler reportedly admitted he had one prior conviction, under the laws of the State of Missouri, relating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse or abusive sexual contact involving a minor or ward.

The charges against Dissler stem from an investigation by Jeff Shackelford with the Poplar Bluff Police Department and other members of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force from the Butler County Sheriff's Department and Dexter Police Department.

The investigation into three "cybertipline reports concluded that an adult male," later identified as Dissler, had "conversed with an underage female by use of the Internet chat provider AOL [America Online Inc.], and that the conversation was of a sexual nature ..." Shackelford said in his probable-cause affidavit on file with the Butler County court.

The cybertipline information also included AOL reporting "they had caught the transmission of two video files they suspected to be child pornography being sent from an e-mail account owned by Dissler," said Shackelford, who serves as commander of the Cyber Crimes Task Force.

On Jan. 15, Shackelford said, he went to Dissler's residence in the 7000 block of County Road 644 to follow up on the tips generated from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

A consensual search of Dissler's computer, as well as printed images from his computer, which were in his bedroom, revealed "several images of child pornography both on printed paper, as well as residing in saved files to the hard drive of [his] computer," Shackelford said.

He said there were numerous images depicting children of prepubescent ages, as well as numerous images of youths around the age of puberty, in sexually explicit poses.

Dissler, he said, made statements that he had pictures of "young girls in their early to mid-teens, both on his computer, as well as printed, and directed officers to the location of where he stored the printed images in a box under his bed."

Shackelford said a video file of suspected child pornography was also found on Dissler's computer.

Other images of "child pornography and suspected child pornography have been located on Dissler's computer hard drive, and in the 'My Documents' folder of said hard drive," Shackelford said.

After being arrested and told of his rights, Shackelford said, Dissler admitted "ownership of the computer," as well as "claimed ownership, prior to its termination, of the AOL account 'dss15.'"

That account, he said, was the one to "which several of the printed images of child pornography showed to have been sent to, thus showing that he was, in fact, the user of the account that received and printed and saved these images of child pornography.

Shackelford said Dissler admitted to receiving and sending files of suspected child pornography through the use of AOL e-mail accounts.