Ailing ex-Illinois lawmaker gets 8 years in child porn case

ELGIN, Ill. (AP) - A judge sentenced a terminally ill former Illinois lawmaker on Thursday to eight years in prison for compiling and trading more than 2,700 pornographic images of young children, rejecting a plea that he not be sent to die behind bars.

Former Democratic state Rep. Keith Farnham, 67, apologized from a wheelchair, as tubes from an oxygen tank to his nose helped him breathe. "I want to say I am sorry to the victims," he said softly but clearly.

He got little sympathy from the federal judge.

Children - many under 10 and some even toddlers and infants - were abused in the making of the photographs and videos Farnham had, Judge Edmond Chang said, and some would bear emotional scars all their lives.

"Each one represents their own nightmare," Chang said about the images.

Defense lawyer Terry Ekl told the court the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis would lead to Farnham's "painful death" in less than four months, asking that his client be allowed to serve any sentence at his Elgin home under house arrest.

"Part of his punishment is the fact he's going to die in total humiliation for what he's done," Ekl said. "He's still entitled to die with some dignity."

Chang rejected that plea.

"I don't think there's much ... anyone can do to restore his dignity," the judge said. "It is he who put himself in this position ... of leaving this earth in the confines of prison."

He ordered Farnham to report to prison in 60 days, saying that's enough time for prison officials to arrange for his medical and hospice care.

Prosecutors concede Farnham is gravely ill. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Storino noted Thursday that Farnham was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2011 and kept viewing child porn online until March 12, 2014, the day before agents raided his office and home. He resigned his seat several days later.

Because of Farnham's health, the judge did take the rare step of moving sentencing from Chicago's federal courthouse to a state courthouse less than 2 miles from Farnham's suburban home, in the district Farnham represented for five years.

Prosecutors said Farnham used multiple computers to view the illegal images, including his official House computer. He went online at his home, his district office and while in Springfield when the legislature was in session.

"He sat down at his government computer, on government time ... to exploit children," Storino said.

During his five-minute statement, Farnham alluded to defense filings that claim he was himself sexually abused between ages 6 and 10 by an older boy, then raped by an adult at 13.

"I too was a victim of abuse," he told the judge.

Farnham was never charged with sexual abuse. But the judge allowed an adult woman who alleges Farnham abused her when she was 8 and 16 to make a statement Thursday.

The woman, who wasn't identified by name in court, said she had repressed the memory of the abuse until it came back to her later in life.

Ekl, the defense lawyer, later told the judge Farnham strongly denies her claims.

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