CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Return of Seized Photos Demanded

Prominent photographer Jock Sturges demanded Wednesday that the government return thousands of photographs and other property that it has held for seven months while deciding whether to charge him with child pornography. Sturges, whose nude portraits, many of them of children, are displayed in major galleries across the country, filed papers in U.S. District Court saying that police illegally searched and ransacked his San Francisco home last April, confiscating 100,000 negatives and numerous other items. Police have returned some of the material but turned the rest over to the U.S. attorney’s office, which says it is still investigating to determine whether to seek an indictment against Sturges.