March 16--A federal judge agreed Monday to move the sentencing of former state Rep. Keith Farnham on child pornography charges to a courthouse in Elgin due to concerns Farnham is too ill to travel to downtown Chicago.
Farnham's attorney, Terry Ekl, had sought to delay the sentencing scheduled for Thursday because Farnham's advanced lung disease and other ailments have potentially left him with only six months to live. Farnham has deteriorated significantly since pleading guilty in Decemberand now needs almost constant care as well as supplementary oxygen, Ekl has said.
U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang denied the request to change the sentencing date but said Monday he would hold the hearing at the Illinois Appellate Court facility in Elgin, the same suburb where Farnham lives.
Farnham, 67, faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison after pleading guilty to trading online thousands of images and videos of child pornography depicting victims as young as toddlers. Federal sentencing guidelines call for up to about 15 years behind bars.
Whatever sentence he's given may be a moot point, since Chang has said he would consider delaying the date Farnham must report to prison so he can continue to receive medical care.
In a filing last week seeking the minimum sentence, Ekl detailed for the first time the former legislator's traumatic upbringing in a small town in Maine, where he was allegedly sexually abused from ages 6 through 10 by a boy older than him. At 13, Farnham ran away to New York, where he lived on the streets for several weeks before being taken in by a man who promised food and shelter but instead repeatedly raped him, Ekl said.
After he returned to Maine, Farnham was arrested for stealing a car and placed in a home for juvenile delinquents. He received "positive support and assistance" there that led to him joining the Navy and turning his life around, Ekl said.
Farnham, who moved to Elgin in 1977, served as a state legislator from 2009 until resigning after his arrest in March 2014.
In a court filing Thursday, prosecutors said that while the Illinois House was in session, the Yahoo account Farnham used to trade pornography was logged in to from a hotel in Springfield as well as from a network used by a House committee.
On Monday, attorneys for two alleged victims of child pornography found on Farnham's computer filed a request that they be allowed to participate in the sentencing hearing.
According to the court filing, the two were 6 and 10 at the time they were videotaped by their father being raped and sexually abused. The images of that abuse have become some of the most "widely trafficked sets of child abuse images in the world," the filing said.
Prosecutors have also said a woman who has alleged sexual abuse against Farnham intends to appear at the sentencing hearing and wants to read a statement describing how she was impacted.
The woman's allegations were not part of the criminal case, and Chang has not ruled if he will allow her statement to be put on the record. Farnham has denied the woman's sexual abuse allegations.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
