SUNBURY — A mother and father are selling all their belongings, and the former church in which they live, to pay to help prove what they believe is their son’s innocence in a case accusing him of child pornography.

“We sold all our furniture so we can help him,” Theresa Dreistadt said Friday in her home, a former church on Race Street, for which she and her husband are seeking $76,000.

“We’re selling everything so we can afford to help if we need to. ... We’re prepared for the long haul no matter what. Material things don’t matter. We will go wherever he ends up.”

Her son, Thomas A. Dreistadt, 21, a Coast Guard graduate and former Eagle Scout, is being held in a federal transfer center in Oklahoma City following allegations of child pornography, an accusation Theresa and her husband, Thomas E. Dreistadt, plan to do all they can to prove as false.

“This is really tough,” she said Friday. “He has got to be traumatized. It’s unbelievable. He doesn’t understand what’s going on.”

The family plans to live in a year-round campground in preparation to raise money for their son’s case.

According to Theresa, Milton police approached their son in January with a sealed search warrant, confiscated his laptop computer and cell phone and accused him of child pornography.

The laptop computer was kept at the Milton Fire Department.

The Dreistadts wrote in a letter to The Daily Item that they contacted attorney James Best, of Sunbury, and after about four months, Best told Thomas A. to “get on with his life.”

In the letter, she and her husband said Best told the family he would keep in touch and let them know if he heard anything.

Moved on with his life

Their son then enlisted in the Coast Guard, something he had been considering before the alleged January incidents, his mother said. Her son graduated in July.

“He was just going on with his life,” Theresa said. “He already made plans and continued with it.”

Around Aug. 6, Theresa said she received a call from Best stating the Northumberland County district attorney’s office was considering filing charges that week.

She said she contacted her son, who was stationed on a base in California. Her son then began the process of requesting leave to come home to “answer the charges and clear his name.”