CLEARFIELD – A former DuBois man will spend up to 10 years in state prison for possessing child pornography.
Scott J. Kriner, 51, whose address is now listed as Altoona, pleaded guilty but mentally ill, to five counts of child pornography before Judge Paul E. Cherry on Tuesday. Cherry sentenced him to serve three to ten years in state prison.
Kriner must complete sex offender counseling at Project Point of Light and he is not to have any unsupervised contact with any female under the age of 18.
Prior to sentencing, District Attorney Ryan Sayers explained why the plea was guilty but mentally ill saying the offense will stay on Kriner’s record but he will go to state prison where he can get mental health treatment.
He also noted that Kriner was evaluated but he did not meet the criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator. He will still have to register with authorities under Megan’s Law.
Kriner’s attorney, Joseph Ryan, stated that he didn’t receive a copy of the evaluation and he asked for a few minutes to review it before they moved on to sentencing. Kriner was evaluated twice: once in Nov. 2024 and again in May 2025.
Cherry’s court order will state that the defendant is not severely mentally disabled but is in need of treatment. It is not appropriate for him to go to Torrence State Prison. He will be sent to a state prison with a mental health unit for treatment.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, a tip was received by investigators in April 2022 regarding a Google account with child porn images. The images were traced by the Internet provider to an account of Agape Community Services in DuBois. Kriner was residing there at the time the images were uploaded to a Google Photos account.
In Nov. 2023, a search warrant was served on Kriner’s Stockdale Street residence in DuBois.
When he was questioned, Kriner claimed a lot of people in town were talking about child pornography and “he was trying to bust them.” He denied searching for or having any child pornography on his phones. He stated that the images downloaded in March of 2022, were accidentally downloaded to his phone by an application on the device. The files were then automatically synched with his Google Photos account. He could not explain why he was on a shared child porn site.
Kriner also stated that he joined online groups that claimed to be child groups but instead they were actually porn groups.
On his two cell phones investigators found a total of 12 images/videos of child porn involving indecent contact, 11 images of child porn involving nudity and one image of child porn transmitted to his Facebook account, according to the report.
