A Vandalia man charged with 10 counts of child pornography was set for a plea Monday afternoon in Fayette County Court, but that changed with the announcement of the defendant’s family wishing to hire new private counsel. 37-year old Ryan J. Koontz appeared in Fayette County for what was scheduled to be a plea agreement. However, defense attorney David Grigsby, who took over the case after the previous defense attorney was allowed to withdraw from the case, announced that he had just been informed by Koontz’s family that they were hiring a private attorney, Eddie Veltman, to serve as defense counsel. With the short notice in a change of counsel, Judge Kevin Parker informed the prosecution and defense that he would like to keep the final pre-trial date of September 19 and the jury trial date of September 25 set for now as it would take a change of counsel form signed by Koontz, Grigsby and Veltman before the new counsel was entered into record. With that, a status hearing is now set for August 29 at 1p.m. Koontz is charged with 8 counts of possession of child pornography, which are Class 2 felonies and punishable by 3-7 years in prison, and 2 counts of reproducing or disseminating child pornography of a child reasonably known to be under 13 years of age, which are punishable by 6-30 years in prison. Koontz remains in the Fayette County Jail as his bond on the case was revoked following his no show at his previous scheduled trial week in April which then led to a search over several days by law enforcement before he was captured and taken into custody.
