A Salinas dentist on probation for possessing child pornography is re-arrested for possessing a switchblade.

A Salinas dentist who was placed on probation after pleading no contest to possessing vast amounts of child pornography was again arrested today, Oct. 23, after a check by probation officers found him in possession of a switchblade.

According to intake records, 70-year-old Gary Klugman was booked into Monterey County Jail earlier today on the switchblade charge, which is considered a violation of his probation.

The Monterey County Probation Department was listed as the arresting agency, although it is unclear if the search took place at his home, office or in his vehicle.

Klugman's case dates back to 2015, when the Monterey County Sheriff's Office received tips about search histories for child pornography on Klugman's computers. A search warrant was then served in January 2016 at his Corral de Tierra home and Blanco Circle dental office for electronic devices, including computers and hard drives, and Klugman was subsequently charged with possessing child pornography with an enhancement that he had more than 600 images stored on various electronic devices.

The search also turned up 35 firearms, which he possessed legally, save for one—one of his weapons had an illegally threaded barrel—and Klugman was also charged with illegal possession of an assault weapon because of it. The Sheriff's Office obtained what's known as a gun restraining order that required him to relinquish all of his firearms.

Klugman challenged the legality of the search warrant in a case that made it all the way to the state Supreme Court. In its published decision, the Sixth District Court of Appeal noted that Klugman's attorney, Juliet Peck, argued the warrant was overly broad and lacked probable cause, arguing that the warrant "contained no limiting time periods, specific accounts, precise descriptions of the types of information, or particular electronic devices that could be seized. Nor did it contain any safeguards such as sealing or the appointment of a referee to preserve the privacy of seized information unrelated to the purpose of the warrant. Instead, it authorized a ‘complete dump’ of all electronic devices found at the defendant’s home and business including thousands of patient records.” The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Sixth District, which ruled the search warrant was lawfully served. 

In May, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Julie Culver put Klugman on a suspended prison term of five years and granted him felony probation. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender, forfeit all electronic devices and all firearms as well.

An exact date for his arraignment on the new charge has yet to be set.