Crime Briefs

CENTRAL ISLIP/Plea in child porn case

A well-known East End architect pleaded not guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip to an indictment charging him with six counts of possessing child pornography.

Jay Lockett Sears, 73, of Quogue was arrested in January by FBI agents and Suffolk detectives, who said he took pictures of young children and superimposed their faces or his own on the faces of people engaged in adult pornography.

The indictment charges that Sears printed photographs of six girls and modified them so the minors appeared to be "engaging in sexually explicit conduct."

Sears was released on $250,000 bond in February on a number of conditions, including that he be confined to the apartment of an 82-year-old female friend, one of the people who agreed to back his bond.

But yesterday, federal Magistrate Arlene Lindsay agreed to allow Sears to move into his own apartment in an unidentified senior complex, after the female friend said her 17-year-old granddaughter would be visiting her during the Easter holiday season and the summer. Lindsay ruled Sears could remain free in his apartment on the condition that the friend visits him at a random time at least once a day.

Robert E. Kessler

HEMPSTEAD/Charge in bomb threat

A man who was due to be sentenced yesterday on a drunken driving charge has been accused of calling 911 to falsely report a bomb threat in the Hempstead courthouse yesterday morning, a district attorney spokesman said.

Melbis Hernandez's sentencing was indeed delayed when the Nassau District courthouse was evacuated for nearly 30 minutes, said Chris Munzing, a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

But now Hernandez, 25, of Hempstead, has also been charged with two counts of falsely reporting an incident, a felony, Munzing said.

Hernandez was due to be arraigned on the new charge today, Munzing said.

His attorney on the drunken driving charge, for which he faced up to a year in jail, could not be reached.

Court officials learned of the threat about 9:30 a.m., and evacuated the 1,200 people in the building, court spokesman Daniel Bagnuola said. Court officers found nothing suspicious.

Everyone was allowed in about 9:50 a.m., Bagnuola said.

Ann Givens and Gary Dymski