Charges were filed Tuesday against a 58-year-old La Crosse sex offender accused of photographing a group of children.

A 12-year-old girl told her mother she witnessed Steve Traister, of 1532 S. 31st St., take pictures of her and a friend while the girls were wearing swimsuits and beach towels in early June, according to the criminal complaint filed in La Crosse County Circuit Court.

The mother learned Traister was a sex offender on a Web site before contacting authorities.

Police found Traister sitting on the front steps of his house with a digital camera and a telescopic lens he said were being used to photograph the bluffs and nearby houses, the complaint stated.

But officers instead discovered numerous pictures of children playing in a yard and two of the 12-year-old girls on the camera, according to the complaint.

Traister told police he was testing his new camera and did not mean anything by photographing the children.

He was temporarily left alone when the officer called the district attorney’s office. When the officer returned, all the images had been erased, though Traister denied involvement. He later admitted to taking four pictures of the children, according to the complaint.

State statutes prohibit people on the sex offender registry from photographing anyone younger than 17 without the parent’s permission.

The criminal complaint charges Traister with being a registered sex offender intentionally photographing a minor without consent, obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct, all as a repeat offender.

Traister was placed on five years probation in April 2001 stemming from a conviction of possession of child pornography in federal court while he was living in Iowa.