Jury Convicts Buhl Man Of 117 Counts Of Child Porn Possession, Dissemination

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A Tuscaloosa County jury found Dennis Wright of Buhl guilty of 117 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of dissemination of child pornography after two hours of deliberations on Wednesday.

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Wright’s trial, held in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court before Judge Al May, followed a forensic investigation into electronic devices seized during the execution of a search warrant at Wright's home on Union Grove Road in Buhl.

As Patch previously reported, the prosecution — headed up by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Marshall — presented evidence showing the images were stored on a network area storage device (NAS) found in Wright’s home, and linked to the Pinterest account that triggered a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"More of the same," Marshall told the jury during his closing statements, reminding them of Wright's response to investigators when he was asked what else would be recovered from his devices following his initial arrest.

Marshall also reiterated to the jury that Wright told investigators he had tried to masturbate to the images but "kept feeling guilty" after the birth of his daughter.

Closing statements also saw the prosecution mention a phone call from the Tuscaloosa County Jail by Wright to his sister, where he discussed the use of a virtual private network (VPN).

During the evidentiary phase of the trial, investigators said Wright could be heard telling his sister, "If I had a VPN, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you."

"The reason we are here today is because [Wright] didn't have a VPN," Marshall said. "And what did they find when they ran that search warrant? 'More of the same.'"

Wright was represented by Tuscaloosa attorney Joel Sogol, whose closing arguments reiterated his client's claims that he was being set up, possibly by his ex-wife following a messy divorce.

Wright was first arrested in January 2023 on a single count of dissemination of child pornography and 20 counts of possession. This came after the initial Pinterest post on Dec. 11, 2022, was flagged and reported by the social media platform.

The grand jury later indicted Wright on an additional 100 counts.

Prosecutors called multiple witnesses at trial, including a crime analyst and investigators, who testified that the 120 images in question were downloaded between May and December 2016.

Wright took the stand on Tuesday and denied knowingly possessing the images or uploading them.

He also told jurors that others — including his ex-wife or her family members — may have had access to his devices and could have uploaded the images without his knowledge.

The 12-person jury that convicted Wright consisted of six Black women, one Black man, three White women and two White men.

Judge May said a sentencing hearing will be set sometime in the next month.

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