Man who rented from cop gets 10 years for child porn

Convicted sex offender Thomas Herman, now headed to prison for 10 years, said in court Wednesday even he knew it was wrong to watch and possess Internet images of child pornography “when I heard the kids cry.”

Herman heard the children crying as he watched them being sexually abused in video depictions on his computer while living in the basement of a north Spokane home owned by police Officer David Freitag.

“When you hear little kids crying, that’s too far,” the child rapist told U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle.

“I said, ‘The hell with it,’” Herman said in explaining how the sound effects stopped him from watching child porn on his computer several weeks before he was arrested by FBI agents last July.

Herman was one of 22 suspects living in 20 states with ties to the “North American Man/Girl Love Association” that advocates legalizing sex between adults and children. The group’s Web site used encrypted files that allowed pornographers to view and trade child porn.

Herman’s explanation for breaking federal law didn’t seem well-received by the judge, who said some of the estimated 1,000 child porn files Herman possessed weren’t accompanied by audio.

“Just because you can’t hear the voices and cries and screams, it doesn’t mean (these crimes) don’t happen,” the judge told Herman.

“Children are abused, somewhere in the world, because of child pornography,” the judge said. “I hope you continue to think of what is going on with those children.”

To avoid a jury trial and a likely life sentence, Herman struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. Two other charges of receipt and advertisement of child pornography were dismissed.

He was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison – below the standard sentencing range of 151 to 188 months for someone with his criminal history. Herman will be on supervised release for 10 years when he is released from prison in 2016.

He deserved the break because he fulfilled his plea bargain and cooperated with investigators, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Lister and Assistant Federal Defender Tina Hunt told the court.

“Mr. Herman is 66, and this could translate into a life sentence,” Hunt told the judge.

The written plea agreement detailing what Herman had to do as part of the plea bargain was sealed from public inspection. Plea agreements in child porn cases usually are put in a public file after all prosecutions are completed and defendants are sentenced.

Herman’s court-appointed attorney opposed unsealing the plea agreement, and the assistant federal prosecutor agreed to keep it secret.

“I haven’t been given a reason to unseal it,” U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt said when asked later why the written plea bargain was being kept from the public after Herman’s sentencing.

In court, Lister told the judge that Herman agreed to be interviewed by FBI agents who asked the previously convicted sex offender if Freitag, fired from the Spokane Police Department over the case, was aware of the child pornography or viewed it.

Lister said investigators were unable to tie the police officer to the pornography stored on a computer in his basement. The images showed children victimized in sex acts involving adults.

Herman is a U.S. Navy veteran who later worked as a boilermaker at Fairchild Air Force Base. He was convicted in 1986 of eight counts of statutory rape, indecent liberties and sexual exploitation involving at least eight young girls, some of whom were photographed.

He was one of the first sex offenders required to register with police when he got out of prison in 1991. But he didn’t reregister, as was required, when he moved in with the police officer who considered him a friend.

Herman rented a basement apartment in the Freitags’ home in the 2100 block of North Stevens. The Freitags had a young daughter and teenage son living with them.

Freitag had loaned Herman money and, at some point, taken firearms from the convicted felon as collateral. Felons aren’t allowed to possess firearms or ammunition.

His attorney told the court that the Freitags and others who know Herman consider him “such a nice gentleman.”

“They believed he was not a threat to the community, he was not a threat to their children,” Hunt told the judge.

“He was a sex offender, and he knew that,” Hunt said. “But he was living with a police officer, in a police officer’s home. He thought, ‘How hard could it be to find me? I’m living downstairs.’”