Former State Rep. Keith Farnham tells a judge he collected thousands of images of child pornography, many of kids as young as 4 or 5 years old. But after pleading guilty, he walked out of court, rather than into a jail cell. Phil Rogers reports.
A former Illinois state representative who pleaded guilty to child pornography charges has died in prison.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons says Keith Farnham died Sunday. The 69-yearold from Elgin had been serving an eight-year sentence at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
The Democrat was elected to the Illinois House in 2008. He resigned in 2014 citing health issues and was charged one month later with compiling and trading more than 2,000 pornographic images of children online.
Farnham pleaded guilty in March 2015 and entered the North Carolina prison two months later.
Terry Ekl was Farnham's defense attorney. He tells The Daily Herald Farnham lived longer than Ekl expected when he appeared at his sentencing hearing in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank at his side.
