Balancing a Fairhope man's military career and health problems against his less-than-full-throated acceptance of guilt, a federal judge in Mobile handed down a five-year prison sentence Friday for possession of child pornography.
Robert Arthur Marney told U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose that he started looking at child pornography on the Internet at a time when he had trouble sleeping because of medication that he was taking.
The 75-year-old Marney compared the activity to the baseball cards and marbles that he traded as a youth.
"At the time I was doing this, I didn't know it was illegal," he told DuBose. "It was just something to do. I am not a pedophile."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Murphy urged a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, pointing out that one of the video images Marney saved on his computer depicted an infant being raped during a diaper change.
"I am shocked he would stand before this court and say it is just something to do," Murphy said.
DuBose cited Marney's 23-year military service and his battles against cancer and heart disease as she opted for a lesser punishment.
She also ordered him to register as a sex offender.
It was not the first break that Marney received in the case. Murphy agreed to a plea bargain that included dropping the more serious charge of receipt and distribution of child pornography because defense lawyer Arthur Madden told her that his client was near death.
"Knowing what I know now, I would not have gone to my superiors and ask that we ... ignore Department of Justice policy in insisting that a defendant plead guilty to the most serious offense we can prove," she said.
Madden said Marney has cancer of the tongue, suffered a recent heart attack and has had multiple bypass surgeries. "I believed he was at death's door or close to it, and I still do," Madden said.
Marney's wife of nearly 55 years, Evelyn Marney, said her husband is a kind and gentle man who would never hurt a child.
"I know the core of this man, and that core is a great man," she said.
The defendant's daughter, Caroline Marney, said both of her parents raised their children with "old-fashioned" values.
"My father has always been my hero," she said.
Law enforcement investigators traced 28 images of child pornography from a Gurnee, Ill., man to Marney's computer account.
A search of Marney's home computer in July 2006 turned up more than 600 child pornography images, according to court records.
No comments:
Post a Comment