Rep. Keith Farnham (D), who recently resigned from his post as an Illinois state representative, was arrested for possessing child pornography, authorities reported this week.
The Democrat from Elgin, west of Chicago, resigned his 43rd District seat on March 19th, after federal ICE agents raided his home and office.
After the raid, Farnham, 66, claimed that he was resigning for health reasons. “I have been battling serious health issues for a number of years and the coming months will require my full attention,” he said in a statement.
But by April 28, a different reason for Farnham’s retreat from public life seems to have been realized when federal authorities filed child porn charges against the former Democrat lawmaker.
Authorities reported finding two movies on his computer of adults having sex with preteen children. Allegedly, there were also records of sexually charged email messages Farnham exchanged with users of an online chat forum where child porn was traded.
One of the emails assigned to Farnham that was found on his computer allegedly detailed his sexual interests. One email said, “12 is about as old as i [sic] can handle.” Authorities said Farnham wrote in another email, “i [sic] love them at 6 7 8.”
The charges stated that Farnham was targeted when homeland security agents received a tip from its Cyber Crimes Center that an email address, kimdavid5582@yahoo.com, was being used to trade child porn. Investigators later identified the address as belonging to Farnham.
Colleagues claim they are shocked by the allegations.
Ironically, Farnham sponsored two anti-child porn bills in the state legislature during his five-year legislative career.
One of the bills would have increased penalties for individuals involved in creating child porn, and the other would have made child porn a crime of violence.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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