Phillip Arlan Koontz, 50, of Austin pleaded not guilty on Thursday in Mower County District Court to 24 counts of felony possession of pornographic work involving minors.

On Dec. 14, 2017, the Austin Police Department received Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) case referrals that indicated Koontz was in possession of child pornography.

ICAC provided a detective with 11 child pornographic images, depicting two different girls, Koontz had in his possession.

On Dec. 20, the detective executed a search warrant on Koontz’s residence in the 200 block of Fifth Street Southwest, seizing a Samsung Tracfone smart phone, a Hewlett Packard laptop computer and an Apple iPad as evidence. The detective interviewed Koontz, who denied possessing child pornography. He said he did not recognize the girls in the images provided by ICAC and said if there was any child pornography on his electronic devices, it was because he “accidentally” downloaded it.

A court complaint states the detective found several sexually explicit thumbnail images of underage girls on Koontz’s laptop. He contacted the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and made arrangements to send the electronic devices, then interviewed Koontz about the images he found. Koontz denied downloading the images, saying he was “computer illiterate,” and said there was not any other child pornography on his computer.

On May 23, the BCA reported it had found 24 images of child pornography on Koontz’s electronic devices.

A pre-trial has been scheduled for March 8.