Man due in court for child porn dies in car crash

A man scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison today for child pornography died in a one-car crash in Pend Oreille County this morning. Bruce R. Thompson was killed when his 2003 GMC pickup went off state Roue 211 about 10 miles west of Newport and struck a boulder, according to Washington State Patrol. Thompson, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor. The crash was reported about 8:30 a.m. Thompson was due in U.S. District Court in Spokane at 9 a.m. to be sentenced for receipt of child pornography. He’d been out jail awaiting sentencing since a grand jury indicted him in April 2011. Federal agents searched his apartment in the 500 block of West 7th Avenue in April 2010. Thompson pleaded guilty in February to downloading child pornography on the Internet from February 2006 to December 2009. A plea agreement called for him to serve five years in federal prison.