University Times

A Nov. 4 sentencing hearing is scheduled for a former Pitt neurology researcher arrested outside the Quality Inn University Center in 2008. According to court documents, he had arranged with an undercover agent posing as the uncle of a 10-year-old girl to meet the child at the hotel for sex. (See March 20, 2008, University Times.) Roger Wesley Farris II pleaded guilty in federal court July 7 to coercion or enticement of an individual to engage in prostitution or other illegal sexual activity.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a maximum $250,000 fine and a supervised release period of five years to life.

According to the complaint filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, Farris, formerly of Fox Chapel, agreed to pay the “uncle” $750 to bring the fictitious girl to the hotel. Farris was arrested outside the hotel when he approached the agent’s vehicle to look at the child. There was no child, but a female agent was in the vehicle.

Robert S. Cessar, acting United States attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, said Farris would be required to register as a sex offender under the laws of any state in which he lives or works.

Farris’s attorney Paul D. Boas, did not respond to a request for comment.

Farris, who has three young children, had been a faculty member in the Department of Neurology and a physician and geriatrics researcher at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. He specialized in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia research.

Following his arrest, Farris, 40, was released on bond to electronic monitoring and home detention in the Virginia home of his parents.

The courts later approved Farris’s wife, Joan Farris, to act as his guardian while on bond. Also a physician, she resigned her position in the Division of General Internal Medicine and moved to Virginia last year.

—Kimberly K. Barlow