Doctor From Long Beach Charged With Child Porn

A Long Beach resident and Santa Ana doctor is expected in court Thursday to face a charge of possessing over 1,000 images of child pornography on his office computer.

Podiatrist Pete Thomas, 58, Long Beach, has been free on $50,000 bail since his arrest last month, the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

Thomas is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning on a single felony count of possession and control of child pornography and could face a three-year maximum prison sentence and registered sex offender status if found guilty.

Thomas has no children, according to O.C. Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky, who is prosecuting the case. She said Wednesday that Thomas was not found to be in any of the images from his computer reviewed thus far.

Bokosky, from the Sexual Assault Unit, said she was not able to release even cross streets nearest Thomas's Long Beach residence.

"It is still an ongoing investigation," Bokosky said Wednesday afternoon. "We have confirmed  ... with the National Center for [Missing and] Exploited Children" that the more than 1,000 photos allegedly on Thomas's computer feature girls ages 7 to 12 that are already registered as being exchanged on the internet.

According to court documents, Thomas was working at Coastline Podiatry of Santa Ana when on Oct. 15, he hired a technician to install a scanner on an office computer. The imaging company technician "noticed thumbnail images of young girls who were nude and in sexual positions," a press release stated. "The representative completed the installation, told his supervisor about the images, and reported [the finding] to the Santa Ana Police Department."

Two weeks later, the press statement said, police detectives and "the Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory investigated the files on the computer. The defendant is accused of possessing approximately 1,100 images of girls ranging from 7 to 12 years old in stages of undress and showing their breasts or vagina, including approximately 100 images of young girls involved in sex acts with grown men."

Thomas was arrested on Dec. 11 by police officers but it was not disclosed where Thomas was taken into custody.

Convicted sex offenders are required to be registered for life, and in Orange County, that bars the offender from entering county recreation areas and city parks as per the Sex Offender Ordinance.

Visitwww.orangecountyda.com to read the prior press releases on the County's Sex Offender Ordinance and 14 cities that have enacted it.

Any suspected victim of a sexual offense is urged to contact Santa Ana police Detective Mike Judson at (714) 245-8378 or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Anthony Sosnowski at (714) 347-8794.