Parents seek $76K in child porn defense

By Gina Morton
The Daily Item

September 14, 2008 04:02 am

— 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.”
About two days later, however, she said her son was arrested on a fugitive warrant.
Since the arrest, her son has been sitting in jail for more than a month, awaiting his return to Pennsylvania to face charges.
“It’s been a nightmare. He’s such a good kid, and then all of a sudden ...” his father said, his voice trailing off.
The man’s father served as a federal prison guard for several years, and offered to go to California to pick up his son and bring him back.
But the idea was shot down by the county assistant district attorney, Ann Targonski, because the extradition process had already begun, the family said.
“He’s been sitting in jail for 37 days now,” the man’s father said. “He hasn’t been arraigned or anything.”
Milton police Detective Todd Ulrich said he could not comment on the nature of the case or the charges.
Best also declined to comment.
Since the alleged incidents, the Dreistadts have switched lawyers and hired Peter Campana, of Williamsport, to handle the case.
Campana said Friday that he wasn’t aware of the specifics because he had to wait for Thomas A. to return to Pennsylvania before any progress could be made. He did say Thomas A.’s warrant to return to Pennsylvania was to face felony charges, and that it has to do with pornographic images on Thomas A.’s computer.
“It’s frustrating the state wouldn’t agree to just let him come back on his own,” Campana said. “He certainly would have, and it would have saved them money and saved him the aggravation he is going through now.”
Kept computer, other belongings at firehouse
Theresa said her son lived and breathed for the fire department and kept many of his belongings there for other members to use — including the laptop computer.
“He had been with the department since he was 15,” she said. “It was his life. He updated training all the time and was a certified (emergency medical technician) by 15.”
He was an Eagle Scout, an assistant Cubmaster, a member of the Boy Scout National Honor Society, a lifeguard at the community pool and was a student teacher at the middle school while he was attending Milton Area Junior-Senior High School, his mother said.
“He is such a good kid,” Theresa said. “He was never in any trouble. He’d give you the shirt off his back. ... He was really into kids. They were his life and he loved working with them.”
Theresa said her son wanted to advance in life and start his career before he started a family, recalling a phone call he made to her shortly after graduating from the Coast Guard.
“He called me and said, ‘Mom, I want to travel the world and advance in my career before I settle down and get married.”
She said he had no time for “girls or women,” and was never serious because he “knew what he wanted. He had goals.”
One goal, she said, was to become a physical education teacher.
“Because of (the allegations), he loses his career,” she said. “(The Coast Guard) gave him a general discharge. He was going to fight for his country.
“Why can’t they fight for him?”
Coming up
Thomas A. is expected to soon return to the Valley to face the felony charges. Despite the situation, he doesn’t seem to be brought down, his mother said.
“He’s hanging in there,” she said. “He sounds good.”
-- E-mail comments to gmorton@dailyitem.com

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.