Wire thieves appear to be reaching a settlement

PALMER — As a new federal court case opens for at least one defendant, the case of the alleged theft of more than $100,000 in wire from MTA is drawing to a close.

The wire went missing back in January 2010. It came on massive spools and had to be removed from the phone company’s lot on a flatbed trailer. The wire made it as far as Anchorage before Palmer police broke up the operation. Eventually three people were arrested — Bob Ristick and Robert Stevens, both of Washington state, and Howard Tresham, then an employee of MTA.

Stevens appeared Friday before Superior Court Judge Eric Smith to ask that he be allowed to take off his ankle monitor. He had some job prospects in Bethel and Barrow he wanted to pursue.

His attorney, Bryon Collins, said Stevens needs to work to make good on the restitution. He and Ristick will each have to pay $50,000. The charge Stevens would plead to would be a misdemeanor and he’d have six months of jail time, a month and a half of which he’s already served.

Assistant District Attorney Kerry Corliss strongly opposed the request that Stevens go unmonitored.

“I’m not comforted by the fact that this defendant is going to be doing work in other communities,” Corliss said, noting that his line of work salvaging metal was what landed him in jail in the first place. She noted that Stevens was required to post an unusually high bail because the court worried he would flee.

Collins pointed out that his client had made every court appearance and that he’d brought his family with him to court Friday in order to prove he’d moved to Alaska since the case was filed.

“His intention is to stay here,” Collins said.

As for whether he would re-offend, Collins said Stevens was being very careful, running anything he was doing through Collins’ office to make sure he wouldn’t get jammed up again in a shady deal.

Smith eventually sided with Collins and Stevens.

“Mr. Stevens has a lot more to lose than to gain by running at this point,” he said.

As for Ristick, federal charges filed in March and recently unsealed in Washington state allege he was one of four people, along with Stanley Stevens, Ricky Ristick and Miller Stevens, who ran a scheme wherein used cars with lots of miles on them were bought for cheap and sold at a profit after rolling back the odometers.

Sgt. Kelly Turney with the Palmer Police Department who headed up the MTA case confirmed Thursday that the Bob Ristick named in the federal case was the same one who was arrested in Alaska.

The case outlines instances from 2005 to 2007 and includes 10 separate vehicles. In some cases, 100,000 miles or more were rolled off odometers, and in some cases as few as 39,000. Each vehicle brought in around $2,000 or so.

Turney said that might not seem like a lot, but if the scheme flipped 50 cars in a year — one a week, which he said doesn’t seem unreasonable — it was a $100,000 a year operation.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.