Utah Patriot Front Homophobe Sentenced for Child Pornography
For possessing child pornography, a Utah judge sentenced a member of the white nationalist anti-LGBTQ+ group Patriot Front to one year in prison and three years probation.
Jared M. Boyce, 28, pleaded guilty in a Utah court last month to nine felony counts of sexual exploitation of minors and one misdemeanor count of dealing in material harmful to children, according to KSTU, Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate.
He was initially charged with 22 counts, but prosecutors reduced them to nine.
The sentence is only a fraction of the confinement Boyce could have been sentenced to. He was facing 30 years in prison.
During last year’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Boyce was among 31 Patriot Front members arrested on their way to disrupt an LGBTQ-friendly event, and the child pornography case appears to be an extension of that incident.
Boyce’s phone was searched by FBI agents a month after his Idaho arrest, and images showing children in sex acts were discovered. According to court documents, an investigator interviewed Boyce, and he admitted to having the photos in Utah County and sending a picture of his genitals to a 16-year-old.
He was kicked out of his family home last year for the Idaho incident, according to his mother, Karen Amsden, who believes her son was radicalized.
She believes that his attitude and persona have soured since his father came out as gay several years ago.
Boyce was also sentenced in another case on Tuesday by Judge James Brady of the Fourth District Court. A Provo coffee shop bathroom stall was defaced by Boyce, who admitted to police that he had written “white pride” and “Patriot Front” on it.
During police questioning, Boyce reportedly told them that “commies” frequented the coffee shop and worked there.
A database of Utah County jail inmates shows Boyce has been there since March 10.
His criminal conspiracy charge still stands in Idaho.
