Following his arraignment Wednesday on felony charges of possessing child pornography, Michael Ritter is taken to the county prison where he was jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. PHILIP HOLMES/Sun-Gazette

Almost three weeks after pleading no contest in a theft case, Nisbet resident Michael Allen Ritter was arrested on felony charges of possessing child pornography, according to court records.

Taken into custody at his home at 26 E. Village Drive on Wednesday morning, Ritter, 37, has been charged by the Lycoming County District Attoney’s Office with six counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.

The charges stem from child pornography investigators discovered allegedly on Ritter’s cellphone which was seized, along with other items, when law enforcement executed a search warrant on March 18 at his Susquehanna Township home.

“Among various items seized from Ritter’s cellular device included photos and videos between May 27 and Sept. 6” of last year, according to an affidavit.

At least five files contained “an image” that investigators have considered to be child pornography, the court document stated.

A second search warrant was approved on April 3 that permitted detectives to “extract” data from “the full file system” of the cell phone, the affidavit stated. In reviewing the material in the file, investigators found yet another image deemed child pornography.

Ritter was arraigned before District Judge William Solomon and committed to the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.

On March 27, the day he was to go on trial for allegedly failing to deliver more than $7,000 worth of T-shirts to the Lycoming County 9/11 Memorial Coalition, Ritter pleaded no contest to a single downgraded misdemeanor charge of theft by deception. In exchange for the plea, the District Attorney’s Office dropped a felony charge of deceptive business practices plus a second count of theft by deception.

Ritter was automatically placed on one year probation.