The Region - News from May 6, 1986

A Santa Barbara man who pleaded guilty to planning to distribute large amounts of child pornography imported from Europe was sentenced in Los Angeles federal court to 25 years in prison, pending results of a psychiatric study. Thomas Joseph Pearson, 48, last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the federal Child Protection Act that bans the use of the mails to distribute child pornography. Assistant U.S. Atty. J. Stephen Czuleger said the interim 25-year sentence would be modified or formally imposed by Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel Real after the study is completed in about 60 days. Pearson has been held in lieu of $25,000 bail since being arrested on March 5 at his home, where federal agents seized “a truckload of cartons” filled with books, magazines, films and photographs from European pornographers, prosecutors said.