Man sentenced to prison for possessing sexual content of children as young as 3

IDAHO FALLS – A 39-year-old man was sent to prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Ryan Kent Baum was sentenced for two counts of felony possession of child sexually exploitative material by District Judge Bruce Pickett to a minimum of one and a maximum of 10 years in prison. Each sentence will run concurrently.

Baum initially pleaded not guilty to four counts of possession of child sexually exploitative material but accepted a plea agreement in March, where he agreed to plead guilty to two counts if the prosecution dropped the rest.

Baum will also receive credit for time served.

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Upon his release from prison, Baum will also be required to participate in a treatment program and register as a sex offender.

During sentencing, Baum’s defense attorney, Bron Rammell, argued that Baum has “good character,” shown by his time in the Army and time spent on a Latter-day Saint mission.

He argued that Baum was unlikely to re-offend and that receiving treatment while still living in the community would give him a chance to deal with everyday stressors and learn how to defy temptations with the help of a counselor.

“He’s already shown for a year that with sufficient monitoring and with sufficient safeguards, he can, in fact, do everything that the court would require of him in a community setting. Imprisonment, therefore, is not reasonable because it’s not necessary,” said Rammell. “If you sent him to imprisonment, he can’t ever get this ‘Scarlet P’ off his chest. ‘P’ for pervert.”

Bonneville County Prosecutor Chief Deputy Penny North-Shaul argued the opposite. She said Baum had a moderate risk of reoffending and that the only way Baum could learn from his mistakes was to be given prison time, where he could also receive treatment but be separated from the public while doing so.

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“Children are being raped and tortured to make this kind of pornography, and that’s what he was engaged in. That isn’t a probation case,” said North-Shaul. “Possessing that kind of material — engaging, perpetrating and perpetuating a situation where little kids are being abused in this matter, it’s not a probation case. Not for him, and not for other people in the community who are doing that.”

North-Shaul also told the court that Baum possessed child pornography images of children as young as 3 years old.

Baum took the opportunity to speak to the court on his behalf, apologizing to his family and friends, asking for the opportunity to advocate for children who are harmed by child sexually exploitative material, and describing his mental health as poor after serving in the Army.

“After I got out of the Army, I tried a couple places of work, one of which was for BLM as a wildland firefighter. It was only seasonal, and I ended up at multi-packaging solutions working nights. I didn’t notice the depression at first, and for a while, I thought I could manage. But it became more difficult as time went on. I started to look at pornography to try and cope with these feelings,” said Baum. “All I knew was misery, and that soon became what I felt like I deserved. I got used to putting myself down and no longer had any self-worth. That’s when the child pornography came in. I can’t remember when it started, I wanted to find the next fix, and nothing made me feel lower than those images did.”

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Pickett said that although Baum apologized to his family and friends, he failed to apologize to the victims.

Pickett also stated that he gives him credit for being a veteran – but also pointed out that as a veteran, he had been trained “not to cause harm and not to allow others to cause harm,” which he failed to do.

“There is no dispute that this causes harm. When we look at the files that were uploaded, there are two pictures of juvenile females in erotic poses, one is a rape of a juvenile female by an adult male, and one where two kids approximately 10 years old are engaged in sexual acts with each other,” said Pickett. “They are children. They were harmed.”

Pickett then said why possession of child porn is a crime, even if you’re not the only one developing or sharing it.

“I recognize that there are third-party people involved in this. I don’t believe in any way that those minor children did that, so I recognize that there are third-party providers. Frankly, these smut providers should have the harshest of penalties that society can give. I recognize that’s not you — you’re not accused of making it, producing it, and you’re not accused of directly harming these children,” said Pickett. “However, the reason this is a crime is because you’re accessing them. These people are gaining because you’re accessing these pictures. If nobody was looking at these pictures, they wouldn’t be produced.”