The Region - News from Aug. 20, 1987

A Carlsbad man was arrested in a Ventura courtroom during a child custody hearing on charges of hiring a former makeup artist to simulate injuries on his 9-year-old son in an effort to win permanent custody from his former wife. Thomas Michael Haggerty, 37, once of Thousand Oaks, allegedly bragged to a former girlfriend that he had drugged the boy, Micah Haggerty Graves, had the makeup applied and then took photographs as evidence of abuse by the boy’s stepfather. The boy lives with his mother and stepfather in Orrington, Me., according to court records. He was to stay with his father during the summer. The former girlfriend, Avis Stahl, also of Carlsbad, secretly taped the boast, a Ventura County deputy district attorney said.