A Rock Springs couple face life in prison on claims they included a teenage girl in their group sex acts for more than a year.
Jennifer Renee Fahrney, 39, and Richard Allen Turner, 56, are both facing dozens of felony charges in Sweetwater County District Court.
Fahrney’s case reached the felony-level court Dec. 20. One of Turner’s two cases reached the felony court earlier this month, and he’s set for an arraignment Jan. 27. The other case is still pending in Rock Springs Circuit Court.
If convicted on the 66 felony counts she faces, Fahrney could face a sentence of up to 858 years in prison. Those include 57 varying claims of sex crimes against a child, and nine claims of exposing that child to drugs.
An evidentiary affidavit filed in her case says she incorporated a teenage girl into sex acts with her boyfriend, Richard Turner, over the course of more than a year — and that she watched Turner perform sex acts with the girl as well.
When Rock Springs Police Department Detective Jennifer Saloga interviewed the girl, the girl said someone had helped her inject meth into her arm since she didn’t know how, and that she had sex with Turner, the affidavit says.
The girl would not say who injected meth into her, Saloga added in the document.
Saloga executed three search warrants: one for Turner’s phone, one for Fahrney’s and one for the girl’s cellphone.
The detective found child pornography on Turner’s phone, an affidavit in his case alleges.
On Fahrney’s phone, says the affidavit, Saloga found text messages in which Fahrney was coordinating with a contact saved as “My Biggest Mistake,” plans for various people, including the girl, to have sex together.
Some Life Sentences
Sweetwater County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Micaela Lira charged Turner with two cases tied to these allegations.
One involves 13 counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, each punishable as a second offense by a term of life in prison. That one also claims he gave drugs to a minor three times (punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $20,000 in fines for each instance) and committed child abuse three times (up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 each).
The second case accuses Turner of 24 counts of child pornography possession, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Court documents allege that investigators found numerous child pornography files on Turner’s phone, and that the alleged victim admitted that Turner had performed sex acts on her or with her numerous times.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
