A former employee at a Tucson foster group home will be spending the next eight years in prison and be subjected to state supervision for the rest of his life, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Taylor Ray Freeman, 28, was arrested last February after he told an undercover police officer in Australia that he was sexually interested in children and had explicit photos available for trade.
Freeman sent an image to the officer, and Homeland Security agents traced it back to his Tucson home, arresting him on federal charges of distribution and possession of child pornography.
In June, he accepted a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which agreed to drop the distribution charge if Freeman pleaded guilty to the two counts of possession.
Freeman was facing prison time ranging from 60 to 136 months.
In court Monday, U.S. District Court Judge James Soto said authorities downloaded more than 440 images and videos from Freeman’s computer and cellphone.
While his attorney, Nicki DiCampli, said she was not objecting to the term recommendation by Adult Probation Services, she said she didn’t find the calculation reasonable.
“No one can dispute that those images are horrendous, and no child should be put through that,” DiCampli said “The maximum sentence seems unreasonable based on the plea and who my client was.”
DiCampli argued that Freeman had no criminal history and supported his ex-girlfriend and their young son.
Freeman had an addiction to pornography that resulted in his becoming desensitized to the explicit images of children that would “pop up” on his computer when he accessed regular pornography sites, DiCampli said.
Freeman’s court-ordered psychosexual exam determined that he was at a moderate level to re-offend, DiCampli said.
“He’s not trying to blame anyone else. He made these choices,” she said.
“But he needed help.”
Freeman also addressed Soto, his shoulders hunched over as he spoke into the microphone, taking long pauses between each sentence.
“I’m disturbed by my own actions and I’m ashamed,” he said. “I was just so lost.”
Soto’s brow was furrowed throughout Freeman’s statement, during which he wavered between accepting responsibility and detaching himself from the situation.
“None of it was real at the time. I was falling into this fictional pattern and detaching from it,” he said. “I never want to be put in this situation again.”
Soto interjected. “Let’s be clear. You put yourself into the situation,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carin Duryee said Freeman was not an unintelligent guy and that it seemed like he was saying things that might be the right things to say.
“But he misses the point,” Duryee said. “He’s sexually interested in young girls and I don’t hear responsibility for that yet.”
Duryee said Freeman told his girlfriend that he was posing as a predator to conduct his own investigations, and referenced emails Freeman sent to the undercover police officer in which he talked about his attraction to several young girls under his care in the group home. Freeman also sent the officer nonsexual photos of the girls he described, Duryee said.
His seeking employment around young children, especially a job that required him to live in the group home 24 hours a day, sets him apart from most defendants, who try to avoid temptation, Duryee said.
“If you’re trying to stay away from chocolate, you don’t go work in a chocolate shop,” she said.
Soto sentenced Freeman to 97 months in prison and imposed 16 special conditions recommended in the pre-sentencing report, which included providing a DNA sample, being placed on the state’s sex-offender registry, polygraphs to determine if he’s compliant in his probation, sex-offender treatment, no use of social networking sites or computers with internet access and no contact with children except his own.
Freeman was also ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution — $3,000 per victim — which he’ll begin paying while he’s in prison at the rate of $25 every three months.
Freeman was hired in 2013 by local nonprofit TMM Family Services, according to Arizona Department of Child Safety records.
