Former South County Planning Commissioner to Enter Plea for Child Pornography Charges

From the Orange County District Attorney’s office:

A former planning commissioner for the City of Lake Forest is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow for possessing child pornography. Jerry Zechmeister, 61, Lake Forest, is charged with two felony counts of possession and control of child pornography.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in state prison and lifetime sex offender registration. He is out of custody on $20,000 bail and is scheduled for continued arraignment tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 15 at 8:30 a.m. in Department H-1, Harbor Justice Center, Newport Beach.

In October 2013, Zechmeister is accused of using his home computers to view and download approximately 160 sexually explicit videos depicting minors under the age of 18 engaging in sexual conduct. Zechmeister is accused of accessing and sharing child pornography on the Internet for approximately seven years.

The Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, along with special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and detectives from the Newport Beach Police Department began investigating this case.

On Oct. 9, 2013, task force investigators arrested Zechmeister at his Lake Forest home.

OCCETF is comprised of members from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; Orange County Sheriff’s Department; Federal Bureau of Investigation; United States Postal Inspection Service; Huntington Beach Police Department; and NBPD. OCCETF investigates internet-related crimes against children and crimes involving the possession, production and distribution of child pornography.

PHOTO Patch photo credit: Martin Henderson.