DA files charge against professor for child porn
CHICO >> More than a month after Chico State professor Laird Easton was arrested on suspicion of child pornography possession, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday it has completed its review of the allegations against Easton and has filed a felony criminal complaint charging him with possession of child porn.
Easton, 64, a history professor at the university, was arrested at his Chico home Jan. 21 after the Butte County Sheriff’s Office began investigating him earlier that month and investigators said they found evidence indicating Easton was downloading child pornography.
According to the DA’s Office, a local judge issued search and arrest warrants based on the Sheriff ’s Office inves ti gation, revealing a person linked to Easton’s personal and university email accounts had downloaded and uploaded child porn images via the internet.
In a press release, District Attorney Mike Ramsey said at the time Easton was arrested on Jan. 21, his home was searched for electronic devices and cell phones, while Chico State University Police simultaneously searched Easton’s computers located in his campus office.
Ramsey said investigators found the suspected child porn images during a subsequent “extensive” forensic download of the electronic devices belonging to Easton that were seized in the search when Easton was arrested.
Following his arrest, Easton was transported to the Butte County Jail before posting a $75,000 bail bond and being released.
Ramsey said Easton is scheduled to be arraigned on the charge in court
April 9. He faces a maximum of three years in state prison.
On Jan. 24, two days after Easton’s arrest, Chico State’s university communications team confirmed the professor had been “suspended from teaching and campus activities until further notice.”
An email sent to Easton’s university email address Thursday returned an automated reply that simply said, “Dr. Easton is on leave.” His biography is no longer visible on the Chico State history department’s faculty and staff page online.
The massive COVID- 19 relief bill Congress approved Wednesday will pump more than $150 billion into California’s economy, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said, including a $26 billion windfall for the state’s already burgeoning budget surplus.
Nearly half of the money will go to Californians directly in the form of $1,400 checks and expanded unemployment benefits.
Another $15.9 billion will go to public and private schools while $3.6 billion will boost the state’s vaccination, testing and contact tracing efforts. There’s also money for public transit agencies, airports and child care.
About $16 billion will go to local governments and will be split between cities and counties. And $26 billion will go directly to state government for services impacted by the pandemic.
Toni Atkins, Democratic president pro tempore of the California Senate, called it the state’s “fair share.”
Like most states, California budget forecasters predicted a steep drop-off in revenue during the pandemic as businesses were forced to close and millions of people lost their jobs.
Newsom and the Legislature reacted quickly by raising taxes, cutting spending and pulling from the state’s savings accounts to cover what they expected to be a $54.3 billion shortfall.
Instead, California’s revenues went up, buoyed by taxes paid by a wealthy population that made a lot of money from the surging stock market.
In January, Newsom announced the state had a $15 billion one-time surplus. The state has already spent $7.6 billion of that via a state stimulus package that will, among other things, send $600 payments to millions of lowto moderate-income Californians.
State lawmakers also set aside $6.6 billion to help schools return students to classrooms. And they are preparing another bill that would give $2.3 billion in tax breaks to businesses, bringing the state’s total aid package to more than $16 billion.