A podiatrist accused of having 1,100 images of child pornography on his Santa Ana office computer is to be arraigned Thursday on charges that could fetch him a three year prison stretch and mandatory lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Dr. Pete Thomas, 58, of Long Beach, is charged with one felony count of possession and control of child pornography, according to an Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) statement.
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A technician at Coastline Podiatry stumbled upon the kiddie porn in late October and contacted the Santa Ana Police Department, which seized the computer and sent it to the FBI for analysis. Children depicted in the images appeared to range in age from 7 to their early teens, police said in announcing Thomas' arrest.
Dr. Pete Thomas, Santa Ana Podiatrist, Accused of Possessing Tons of Kiddie Porn
The OCDA statement identifies the technician as being employed by an imaging company that Thomas had hired to install a scanner on a Coastline Podiatry computer, On Oct. 15, 2012, the installer noticed thumbnail images of young girls who were nude and
in sexual positions, completed the installation,
told his supervisor about the images, and reported it to Santa Ana
Police, prosecutors say.
On Oct. 30, 2012, police with the assistance of the Orange County Regional Computer Forensics
Laboratory discovered the images of girls in stages of undress and showing their breasts or
vagina, including approximately 100 images of young girls involved in
sex acts with grown men, the OCDA alleges.
As Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky of the Sexual Assault Unit prepares his case, the police and DA are trying to determine if their are additional victims of Thomas. Anyone with information is asked to contact Santa Ana Police Detective
Mike Judson at 714.245.8378 or Supervising District Attorney
Investigator Anthony Sosnowski at 714.347.8794.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.