Plea deal likely for former Duke employee

By Neil Offen

DURHAM -- Frank Lombard, the former Duke University administrator charged with a series of sex crimes involving his adopted 5-year-old son, is scheduled to be arraigned in court today -- the next step in a likely plea agreement for him.

The U.S. Attorney's Office will file an "information" today in Washington, D.C., District Court against Lombard, charging him with sexual exploitation of a minor. The filing of an information is a legal maneuver by the prosecution that is an alternative to a grand jury indictment, "with the defendant agreeing to be charged by information," said Ben Friedman, a spokesman for the attorney's office in the nation's capital.

The filing of an information, since it implies the defendant's acceptance of guilt, typically means that a plea agreement is imminent. The one-page information that Lombard will acknowledge today states that he forced a minor to "engage in sexually explicit conduct ... for the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction of such conduct."

The sentence for sexual exploitation of a minor is generally around 15 years.

Lombard, who had been associate director of the university's Health Inequalities Program and a Duke employee for 10 years, was originally charged with sexual offense with a child and of persuading someone to cross state lines for illegal sexual activity. Conviction on both those counts could have brought him a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Lombard was arrested in Durham last June after he allegedly solicited adults over the Internet to have sex with his son. He has been held in the Washington, D.C., jail without bond since his arrest.

The arrest came following an elaborate sting operation that included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation and an Internet Crime Task Force as well as police in both Durham and Washington.

According to the original arrest warrant, Lombard allegedly told an undercover police officer that he had sexually molested the child himself multiple times.

The child involved in the alleged crimes was one of two adopted children in Lombard's home, which he shared with a live-in partner who did not participate in the abuse, according to the affidavit. The affidavit did not say whether the other child, whose age was not revealed, was abused. It also did not say how long the abuse of the 5-year-old went on.

At today's court appearance it's expected that another date for Lombard to appear will be set, when the plea agreement would be officially announced.