By Brett Milam
Editor
A New Richmond man pleaded guilty for soliciting nude photos and videos of a 16-year-old on Facebook and was sentenced to three to four and a half years in prison.
Raymond Seng, 39, was charged over the summer with one felony count of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, and one felony count of attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.
The latter count was dropped in the plea agreement, and he pleaded guilty to the first count.
The first count carried with it minimum prison sentences of two, three, four, five, six, seven, or eight years.
He also must register as a Tier II sex offender, with a mandatory five years of post-release control.
Dorothy Smith, assistant prosecuting attorney, said between January and March 31, Seng engaged in “sexual themed conversation” on social media and the phone, written and spoken, to request images and/or videos of a 16-year-old minor naked, and on at least one occasion, received a video.
Seng was hired as an officer with the Georgetown Police Department on March 17, according to The Brown County Press. Prior to that, he was an officer with the Felicity Police Department between January 2015 and August 2019.
Robert Freeland, Georgetown police chief, told The Press that the hiring process includes a polygraph, background check, and mental evaluation. Freeland said the latter was “especially necessary” because Seng’s 17-year-old son, Tyler, was killed in a motorcycle crash in November 2019.
By May, when the arrest occurred, Seng was fired from the police department.
At the Oct. 22 sentencing, Smith said the victim’s family was requesting incarceration, and she said from the State’s perspective, they are also asking for incarceration.
“The facts of the case are disturbing, to say the least. The steps that the defendant took to not only contact, but have contact with this young girl is concerning, not just for a lay person, but more specifically because of his position as a police officer prior to and during the time of this contact. That makes this case more serious than the average in regards to this type of offense,” she said.
Suellen Brafford, Seng’s attorney, said Seng has no record, and after the death of Tyler, he “was not thinking clearly, was distraught.”
“There’s no excuse, your honor, for his actions. He will even tell you that himself. He’s accepted full responsibility. I think getting caught with this was some sort of clarity for him to realize what he had spiraled into. Your honor, we believe that he had some strong mental issue going on during this; he made poor judgment decisions,” she said.
Brafford also noted that while he was a police officer, this incident was nothing in his police duties.
“Totally unrelated. This was someone who reached out to him, and the conversation started. This was nothing he had anticipated. He had no anticipation of harming anyone,” she said. “It’s no excuse. Given his position as a grown adult, he should have said no. Thinking clearly, he should have. I don’t think he was thinking clearly.”
She asked the Court to put Seng into some sort of treatment program or mental health counseling or sex offender counseling instead of handing down a prison term.
Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Richard Ferenc asked Seng if there was anything he’d like to say.
“Your honor, I would just like to apologize to my family first and foremost, and to the victim’s family. You know, I did lose my son in November of last year. That’s no excuse, but I’m not in my right state of mind for what I’ve done. Like Ms. Suellen said, that’s not me. I apologize for my actions,” he said.
Ferenc said, with all due respect to Seng losing a son, that’s not a sufficient explanation as to why he would get involved in this “kind of conduct with someone that you knew.”
“This should have never happened. Hindsight is 2020, but it went on for more than just one single phone call, and one text, and exchange of photographs, and that coupled with the fact that you were a part-time police officer and sworn to prevent this kind of conduct and investigate this kind of conduct, I believe … makes it a more serious offense,” Ferenc said.
Consequently, Ferenc said he would impose a sentence, and believed the three to four and a half year sentence was a proportional sentencing.
As Seng was taken into custody by the Sheriff’s Office, a family member can be heard saying, “I love you.”