Khuong Van Truong pleaded guilty Thursday to counterfeiting charges in one of the largest pirated video cases on the West Coast, the district attorney's office reported.
The case came to light when Truong's 2-year-old son walked into a busy intersection while Truong was not home, Deputy District Attorney Ben Field said.
A passing driver stopped to care for the boy and call police.
When officers arrived, Truong returned home and allowed officers inside the house, where a pirating operation was discovered.
Truong had been making and selling the counterfeit video games, movies and music CDs, and was also found to be in possession of marijuana, illegal mushrooms, steroids and ecstasy, Field said.
Truong was arrested and faced two counterfeiting charges, three felony and one misdemeanor drug charge, and a misdemeanor child endangerment charge.
The court offered Truong a county jail term in exchange for a guilty plea on the counterfeiting, narcotics and child endangerment charges. He will be sentenced before Judge Rene Navarro on Feb. 3 and likely faces about 10 months in jail, according to Field.
Field said the case is an additional warning to the community. "Despite all the warnings on videogames, movies and music CDs not to copy, many people think we don't prosecute counterfeiting," Field said. "But we do."
Field said protecting the developers of software, the producers of movies and the artists who release music is essential.
"Especially here in Silicon Valley," he said.
