Island Park man sentenced for possessing child porn

An Island Park man was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in federal prison for possession of child pornography.

U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert said she had some reservations about whether Thomas Farese, 59, was taking full responsibility for his crimes after he denied some statements attributed to him by the federal agents who arrested him in 2014.

She also said presentencing letters Farese had submitted to the court contained, “a lot of denial, a lot of revision, and, frankly, a lot of semantics.”

Defense attorney Peter Tomao of Garden City argued that Farese was remorseful and should be spared prison. Prosecutor Allen Bode urged a prison sentence, saying Farese’s statements to agents indicated he could be prone to commit the same crimes again.

The judge said the presentencing report said Farese was “a moderate to low risk” of recidivism.

“But I can’t just take that big of a risk. I think you would benefit from a term in jail,” she said.

Farese is a vocalist who had performed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra but left the group in 2011 according to his web postings. He was indicted in March, 2014 and charged with downloading child pornography on seven separate occasions onto his home computer.