Former State Rep. Farnham Charged With Child Pornography Possession

Former State Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) now faces child pornography charges.

A former State Representative who recently resigned citing health problems was charged with possession of child pornography today.

Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) was charged Monday with possession of child pornography in the U.S. District Court of Chicago after officials cited two videos were found on a computer seized from the former representative’s Elgin office in March. Farnham, 66, is expected to appear in court Wednesday regarding the charges.

The Elgin Democrat resigned from office on March 19, citing health issues. He told media sources in March that he had bladder cancer and was struggling with pulmonary fibrosis. He had served in the Illinois General Assembly since 2009 and was a co-sponsor on at least two anti-child pornography bills designed to increase the possible penalties for those convicted of possessing child pornography in certain cases. Prior to his time in office, he worked as a painting contractor in the Chicagoland area.

According to the criminal complaint, though, officials discovered the child pornography videos on March 13, just six days prior to Farnham’s resignation. Officials said one of the computers confiscated, which contained the videos, was labeled as property of the State of Illinois House of Representatives.

The complaint describes a Yahoo! email address connected to the suspect looking to trade child pornography with other accounts with attachments of the two videos in question. Further detailed in the complaint is an exchange between the suspect and another person where the suspect was asked if they had seen a video where a young male forced himself onto a young female. The suspect then states “send me some more yes i think its hot” (sic) in response.

If convicted, Farnham could face up to 10 years of prison time and a maximum $250,000 fine.

Related articles

• Illinois legislator under investigation for possession of child pornography
• Rep. Farnham’s replacement to be sworn in Sunday
• Rep. Farnham’s replacement to be sworn in Sunday

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Justin Shimko

Justin Shimko is an award-winning writer and political analyst. He began as a reporter in his college days at the University of Oklahoma, writing for The Oklahoma Daily (rated as one of the best collegiate newspapers in the nation) and The Oklahoman, the statewide newspaper, winning awards from the CSPA and the Society of Professional Journalists. He later moved on to research and writing work for a number of political campaigns. His email is [email protected]

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