This ex-guard’s love letters and promise ring to a Kennewick teen will send him to prison

A married man who worked as an Oregon corrections officer could spend 10 years behind bars after admitting he lured a young Kennewick teen into a sexual relationship with love letters and a promise ring.

Roy David Farber, 32, recently pleaded guilty in Benton County Superior Court to five felony sex crimes.

He now is being held in the county jail without bail while awaiting sentencing Feb. 7.

Meanwhile, his wife, Kimberlee A. Farber, has a trial scheduled for Jan. 22.

She is accused of using her job at Chinook Middle School to make the connections between the girl and her husband. The wife claimed she only participated so she would not lose her husband.

The alleged relationship between Dave Farber and the girl came to light exactly a year ago when he gave a letter to the teen’s parents professing his love for her.

The parents then searched and found a cellphone in her room that contained numerous sexually explicit messages between the teen and Farber. The messages included several exchanges of naked pictures, according to court documents.

Farber allegedly gave the flip phone to the girl after her parents took away her previous cell.

His letter to the parents said he loved their daughter “more than he would like to admit,” and if he wasn’t married to his wife and if the teen was older, he wold have considered marrying her, documents said.

The parents reported finding more letters from Farber to the girl, often with affectionate names like “my love” and “baby,” court documents said.

They told Kennewick police their concerns about Farber started in May 2017.

The teen told detectives that Farber’s wife helped pick out the promise ring for the girl, and that she and Farber had realized their feelings for each other in summer 2017, documents said. She went to his Kennewick apartment a number of times.

Farber was a correctional officer at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Ore.

Kim Farber, 28, was a substitute paraeducator with the Kennewick School District for about a year before she was hired part-time. She worked at Chinook for a few months until she was fired after district officials became aware of the allegations.

The wife allegedly told investigators she had known for a couple of years that her husband is attracted to young girls. She is charged with communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

Dave Farber pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor, second-degree child molestation, communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and two counts of second-degree possession of 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.

According to his plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend a six-year sentence with sex offender treatment if an evaluation in the next month finds Farber would be a good candidate. Prosecutors also want to see if state Department of Corrections officials would recommend the sentencing alternative.

If he doesn’t qualify for treatment, Farber is facing a 10-year prison sentence.