A 63-year-old Little Rock man's sexual dalliances with a 17-year-old girl weren't a crime until the man filmed one of the encounters, creating what federal law considers child pornography, a federal judge noted Wednesday in accepting the man's guilty plea.
U.S. District Judge Brian Miller accepted Terry Lee Harmon's guilty plea to a charge of distribution of child pornography, which carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000, after Harmon admitted filming himself and the girl having sex and then sharing the video with her.
But Miller said he was a little stumped about how to determine an appropriate sentence because the act of Harmon having sex with the girl didn't violate any state laws, regardless of whether some saw it as disgusting.
"He can have sex with a 17-year-old," Miller told attorneys. But under federal law, "he can't film it."
While he would normally "throw the book" at an adult who'd had sex with a younger girl who hadn't reached the age of consent, Miller noted, "Had he not put it on film, we would not be standing here."
He asked defense attorney Grant Ballard of Little Rock and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant to give him some written guidance addressing those concerns before Harmon's sentencing date, which hasn't yet been scheduled. He also said he wished he could hear from the girl, who now may be an adult, because he had read reports indicating that she raised the issue of having sex with the man as soon as she got into his car after leaving her high school classes for the day.
"You can't go around here filming underage children," the judge told Harmon, quickly adding, "But without you pulling out a camera, the state of Arkansas says it's perfectly legal" to be intimate with the girl.
Harmon, who lives near Boyle Park, appeared before Miller in black-and-white-striped jail clothes, having been ordered in April to remain in custody because he posed a potential danger to the community if released.
In the detention hearing in April, Bryant argued that the girl was a minor and as such could not consent to sex with Harmon. She said that despite the girl claiming to be 18 in notices she posted online in a forum seeking "sugar daddies and sugar babies," Harmon knew the girl lived with her parents and acknowledged picking her up a block away from school because he felt "a little too old" to pick her up at the school itself.
An FBI agent testified at the detention hearing that the girl's mother contacted the agency after finding evidence of "child prostitution" on her daughter's phone.
The agent said the girl then told agents she'd had sex with Harmon three times, each time after he picked her up near her high school.
In videos obtained after agents searched his Holly Hill Road home on Jan. 19, the girl was seen wearing a school uniform and lingerie that Harmon had asked her to wear, Bryant said. The prosecutor said the videos included images of the girl suspended from Harmon's bedroom ceiling by a chain as he slapped her, as well as images of her arms and legs bound by handcuffs, and images of her wearing a dog collar and performing sexual acts on Harmon.
The girl was paid $100 to $200 for each encounter, according to the FBI agent's testimony in April.
In exchange for Harmon's guilty plea to a new charge of distribution of child pornography, Bryant agreed to drop other child-pornography distribution charges that carried minimum 15-year sentences.
A plea agreement that the prosecutor described to the judge notes that sentencing enhancements will be applied for distributing pornography to a minor, sadistic and masochistic conduct, and a pattern of conduct involving sexual abuse or exploitation. The agreement also requires prosecutors to recommend a sentence at the low end of the penalty range recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
The agreement also requires Harmon to register as a sex offender and pay for any treatment needed by the girl.
Harmon told Miller that he decided to plead guilty rather than take his chances in a trial because "it's what I need to do."
Metro on 09/07/2018