Donald Raymond Persson could be sentenced to fewer than 10 years on child pornography charges under a draft agreement by his attorney and a federal prosecutor.
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene gave Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Lambert and Persson's attorney, Fred Metos, until Aug. 30 to present him with a proposed solution.Persson, 54, pleaded guilty last year to federal allegations of interstate transportation of child pornography and to state charges of aggravated child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Greene sentenced Persson, a former Davis School District psychologist, to the maximum 10 years in prison on June 11, 1993.
Eleven days later, 2nd District Judge Rodney Page sentenced Pers-son to a nine-years-to-life term under a state child sex-abuse law that requires Persson to serve a minimum of nine years.
Because Greene handed down his decision first, Page said the state sentence could run concurrently with the federal prison term.
But Greene's order had no concurrent provision. Metos said he will ask the Federal Bureau of Prisons to designate the Utah State Prison system as a federal prison for the purpose of housing Pers-son. That would give him federal credit for the state prison time he has served.
If both sentences have concurrent provisions, Persson might be freed in nine years. Otherwise, he could be behind bars for a minimum of 17 years and eight months.
Persson was arrested in June of 1992 after Bountiful police used search warrants to confiscate pornographic photographs from his home. He also was accused of taking nude photos of a 10-year-old Long Beach, Calif., girl and of sexually molesting her.