Porn producer gets 15-year prison term Niskayuna man also appeared with girls in movies at home studio By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer Click byline for more stories by writer. First published: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 ALBANY -- A former stay-at-home dad who filmed and "starred" in sex movies with teenage girls was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday. The sentencing of Abraham Pearson, 49, of Niskayuna, follows his June guilty plea to 21 counts of a 74-count indictment that charged he possessed and produced the sex movies. He was one of two Schenectady County men to plead guilty to child pornography this week. Richard Scrom, 52, of 1 Queens Drive -- who traded graphic child pornography images in 2004 with an e-mail buddy who was actually an undercover police officer in Utah -- pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy to one count of possession of child pornography. Pearson, whose Orchard Park Drive home was raided in 2003 after Niskayuna police received a tip about the makeshift basement movie studio, victimized two teenage girls. The state case moved into the federal system after Pearson rejected a plea offer from county prosecutors on charges that originally included rape, sodomy and using a child for a sexual performance. News of the film-making enterprise came as a surprise to Pearson's wife, a doctor, who has since divorced him. As part of Monday's sentencing hearing, McAvoy ordered Pearson to pay $900,000 in restitution to the victims, whose medical benefits for counseling have run out. He must also forfeit his share of the family home along with electronics equipment and a Lincoln Navigator. Defense lawyer James E. Long asked McAvoy, in pre-sentencing papers, for leniency and a reduced fine, saying, "The events leading up to this indictment will not be repeated. The defendant will be well over 60 years of age upon his release." In his plea, Scrom had said he has an obsession with 12-year-old girls and viewed sexually explicit images daily. Police seized Scrom's Compaq Presario computer in July 2005 during a raid on his Foster Avenue home. His May 4 sentencing hearing -- where he could receive up to 10 years in state prison -- was expedited because of his ill health, said federal public defender Gene Primono.
