A former Kennedy family staffer pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to seven felony counts relating to distributing child pornography via the Internet and in trying to arrange a sexual encounter with a juvenile.
Thomas Jared Pearl, 39, Potomac, Md., was charged with the seven counts Wednesday in a grand jury indictment. He is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail.Pearl was arrested May 21 after getting off a plane in Utah where he had traveled to allegedly have a sexual rendezvous with a supposed young Logan girl he had met in an Internet chat room. Federal investigators say Pearl believed the girl he had communicated with was 12 but that she was actually a social worker posing as a young girl.
Pearl was charged last week with three counts of interstate distribution of child pornography for allegedly sending child pornography through e-mail. The grand jury Wednesday added two charges of transporting child pornography for material allegedly found in Pearl's possession at the time he was arrested.
The grand jury also charged him with using the Internet to induce an underage person to engage in an unlawful sex act and in traveling to Utah to engage in that sex act.
Pearl had allegedly been having sexually explicit communication with the decoy since November.