A former Seton Hill University professor who pleaded guilty in January 2013 to producing child pornography wants a do-over.

Balazs Tarnai, 40, of Unity is asking U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to allow him to accept a plea deal that had been rejected earlier, which would have given him a lighter sentence than the 15 years he is serving.

He admitted to ordering DVDs of child pornography from a Los Angeles-based mail-order company and to secretly recording four boys — ages 5, 10, 12 and 13 — while they were using two bathrooms in his home.

Tarnai rejected two previous offers to plead guilty to other charges that would have carried lesser sentences, the government contends.

Tarnai testified Thursday that he meant to accept the first offer, which carried the lightest sentence, but his attorney didn't communicate his acceptance to the government.

His trial attorney, Al Lindsay, said he doesn't remember Tarnai calling to accept that first plea offer, but he had several conversations during which Tarnai wanted to accept a plea bargain without admitting guilt. It wasn't until the eve of trial that Tarnai was willing to admit guilt and plead guilty, he said.

Cheryl Stein, Tarnai's current lawyer, contends that Lindsay erred in not telling the government that Tarnai wanted to accept the first plea offer. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Smolar said Tarnai rejected a second formal plea offer and several informal ones and didn't bring up his claim of wanting to accept the first one until he was already in prison.

U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose took the arguments under advisement and said she would allow both sides to submit briefs within three months after they received a transcript of Thursday's hearing.

Brian Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.

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