KENNEWICK — A former prison guard claimed Thursday that he never intended to make a young teen girl a victim of sexual abuse just like he was.
Roy “Dave” Farber sobbed uncontrollably as he spoke for seven minutes about the torment he says he endured during his youth and now as a convicted sex offender.
“There is nothing I can say that can adequately express my sadness or my pain over my actions … I can hardly bear it,” said the 32-year-old. “If taking my own life would fix this situation, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Farber said he understands the effect his “mistakes” have on the Kennewick girl “because I grew up as a victim of child sexual abuse, and it kills me that my actions became a source of pain for this child.”
The married father who pursued the middle-school girl previously blamed her for their sexual relationship, while also saying that it was not wrong and he hopes to marry her someday.
Thursday, he was sentenced in Benton County Superior Court to the maximum time possible of 10 years in prison. That will be followed by three years on supervision.
And he was ordered to have no contact with the girl for 10 years.
Deputy Prosecutor Anita Petra warned Farber that if he has any type of contact with the teen, her office “pursue it aggressively and it will be a consecutive sentence that the state of Washington will be asking for.”
Farber nodded as she spoke.
Petra said Farber knew the girl’s family and took advantage of that connection in order to groom her and manipulate her for his own sexual gain.
He gave her a cellphone, a promise ring and love letters and asked for naked pictures of her and sent his own, and molested her.
“This individual has no remorse for what he did to this child,” said Petra. “He truly has no understanding of what harm he has done to this victim.”
The girl’s parents attended Thursday’s hearing, but she opted to skip it.
In a letter read by an advocate with the Support, Advocacy & Resource Center, the girl wrote about how Farber made her feel included and loved, but soon he had her lying to her parents and distancing herself from friends and family.
She spent six months deceiving her family and 1 1/2 years working to repair that relationship, she said.
She is trying to be like other teens, but said her parents are worried about her having another cellphone.
“Dave, if you really think I will get back with you when you’re out, you are dead wrong,” the girl wrote. “I will never marry you.”
Farber entered guilty pleas in December to sexual exploitation of a minor, child molestation, communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and two counts of possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Two of the charges include the aggravating circumstance that he used his position of trust to commit the crimes.
At the time of his arrest, Farber was a full-time corrections officer at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Ore. He also worked for Tri-Cities Monitoring as a fill-in bailiff for Benton-Franklin Superior Court and Pasco Municipal Court.
He was fired from the Oregon prison in 2018 after charges were filed.
His wife, Kimberlee A. Farber, has been charged in her own case for communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. Trial is scheduled July 8.
Prosecutors claim the 29-year-old woman used her job at Kennewick’s Chinook Middle School to make some connections between the girl and her husband, including passing letters. Kim Farber lost her job as a part-time paraeducator.
Thursday, the girl’s mother showed Judge Alex Ekstrom pictures of her daughter as she talked about the funny, strong-willed, stubborn and loving teen.
The girl completely shut down and refused to speak with her parents after talking to police, but she now is opening up about some of the tricks Farber used to groom her.
“I can’t tell you how horrible it was to learn that this person we got to know and trusted could be so deceitful and calculating and evil,” the mother said. “We trusted him. Even after we saw some of the signs of grooming, we didn’t believe it because we trusted him so much.”
Farber took advantage of her daughter’s youth and innocence, and now he’s blaming his problems on the girl and her parents. He is a morally bankrupt person, and “the longer he is in prison … the better for all of us,” the mother said.
When Farber met with a community corrections officer earlier this year for his presentencing report, he said “you can’t help who you love” and talked about wanting to be “man and wife” with her one day.
Defense attorney Catherine Harkins said Thursday that her client has been in professional sex-offender counseling since then and would not make the same statements if interviewed now.
“I wish I could tell (the girl) that none of this is her fault. This is my own fault and I pray with everything that I am that she will forgive me,” said Farber.
He said he is on “the edge of hopelessness,” and begged for help to get his head cleared and soul mended. He even suggested a state mental hospital instead of prison. “I fear going to prison and not getting the help that I need,” Farber said. “I won’t survive it.”
Judge Ekstrom told Farber that he never should have had those type of feelings about a child in the first place, and said he failed to hear any statement Thursday showing Farber knows that part of it was wrong.
Ekstrom reminded Farber a few times that he is the adult and the girl is a child, and said he’s concerned the 10-year sentence is not going to be enough.