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January 20, 2011

Farris sentenced in sex sting

Former Pitt neurology faculty member Roger Wesley Farris II has been sentenced in federal court to 44 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release for attempting to arrange for sex with a minor.

Farris, 41, pleaded guilty under a plea agreement last July. He was sentenced Jan. 7 by United States District Judge David S. Cercone.

Farris was arrested in 2008 at the Quality Inn University Center after arranging the liaison with an undercover agent posing as the uncle of a 10-year-old girl (see March 20, 2008, University Times).

According to the 2008 complaint, Farris phoned the “uncle” and expressed interest in having sexual intercourse with and receiving oral sex from the child. The men agreed on a price of $750 and arranged to meet at the hotel.

Farris was arrested outside the Oakland hotel when he approached the undercover agent’s vehicle to look at the child. There was no child, but a female law enforcement agent was stationed in the vehicle. According to the complaint, agents found $760 along with Farris’s wallet, identification, driver’s license and wedding ring in a hotel room thereat Farris had rented with a personal credit card.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Judge Cercone commented prior to imposing the sentence that Farris’s conduct was “nothing less than despicable,” but that he took into account the fact that Farris likely would lose his medical license as a result of his conviction.

Under the plea agreement, Farris agreed to register as a convicted sex offender under the law of any state in which he lives, works or is a student. Formerly of Fox Chapel, Farris’s most recent address was in Waynesboro, Va.

Following the sentencing, Farris was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service pending a determination by the Bureau of Prisons on where he will serve his sentence.

—Kimberly K. Barlow


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