Former mid-Peninsula journalist Brian Bothun pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of possession of pornography, the Menlo Park Almanac reports.

Bothun has worked at all three Palo Alto newspapers: as an intern at the Palo Alto Weekly in the early 1990s, a reporter and editor at the Palo Alto Daily News from 1996-2005, and as a reporter for one month at the Daily Post in 2008.

Sentencing is set for April 6, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Bothun faces a sentence of up to 204 days in county jail — the 180-day maximum jail sentence, plus an additional day for each of the 24 pornographic images on his computer, Wagstaffe said.

Bothun was arrested on child pornography charges in March 2008, when his partner called Atherton police to report domestic violence. When police officers showed up, he told them about pornographic material on Bothun’s computer, according to Wagstaffe.

Bothun was also charged at the time with possession of a glass pipe, which is considered drug paraphernalia. He has been out of jail on $100,000 bail, but has been arrested twice since on drug-related charges: once in July 2008 in Menlo Park, and again on April 5, 2009, in Santa Clara.