UPDATED: Bail Hearing Set For Jay Lockett Sears

Update Friday: Sears has been released on a secured bond. Find out more here. 

Update Thursday: No decisions on Sears' bail were made on Thursday; the court session will reconvene at noon on Friday.

Previous: Quogue philanthropist Jay Lockett Sears, 73, who has been in jail since Jan. 25 on a child pornography charge, will be in U.S. District Court in Islip on Thursday before Judge A. Kathleen Tomlinson for a bail hearing.

Thursday will be the third time Sears has appeared before Tomlinson for a bail hearing — on Jan. 25 she declared him a danger to the community, denying him bail. Then, on Jan. 28, Newsday reported Sears' attorney, Daniel Barker, of Riverhead, told the magistrate that his client has not yet come up with a bail package to present to the court.

Thursday's bail hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Sears, who runs a Quogue-based nonprofit called Mission of Kindness, and who owns an architectural firm that has designed houses for celebrities, including Michael J. Fox and Clint Eastwood, stands accused of one count of child pornography.

He was arrested on Jan. 25 after some of the photos that he allegedly created by cutting and pasting children's faces onto adult pornography — a process called morphing — were found in a garbage container at the Brookhaven transfer station. An investigation revealed that the photos originated from Sears' East Moriches home, according to authorities, who report that since Sears' arrest they have managed to identify some of the children in the photos.

The news came as a shock to residents in Westhampton Beach and Quogue. Find out what they had to say here.

Related Reading:

• Jay Lockett Sears Faces Child Porn Charge; Community Shocked
• Cops ID Victims in Jay Lockett Sears Case; Sears Remains in Jail

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