Princeton Alumni LGBT Activist Arrested On Child Pornography Charges

 A prominent LGBT activist associated with Princeton University has been arrested and charged with possessing child pornography.

Roy “Trey” Farmer, 53, is charged with one felony count of possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

He was arrested Friday at his condo in Princeton just across from the Ivy League school’s main entrance.

Farmer is a 1993 Princeton graduate and was heavily involved with the school when he was arrested, organizing events and leading organizations for alumni.

He served as president of both the Queer Princeton Alumni organization and the Princeton University Glee Club Foundation. He also served as vice president of Princeton’s Bisexual, Transgender, Gay and Lesbian Alumni organization.

“Alumni and students are constantly challenging me and inspiring me in new ways. The things I’ve done in my life and career all stem from the things I was exposed to at Princeton,” Farmer said in a 2022 profile published on the school’s alumni website.

The glowing “alumni spotlight” profile called Farmer a “piano prodigy” and touted that he was “heavily recruited by other prestigious universities.” He has earned master’s degrees at both Yale and Harvard, the profile said.

 

He also sits on the board of the New York Philharmonic, according to his personal website and the orchestra’s website. He says he founded the New York Philharmonic Pride Alliance as well.

Farmer also owned and ran companies in the U.S. and abroad and organized art festivals. One of those festivals, the StayInMay Festival in Naples, Florida, sponsors programs for children. Farmer spends some of his time in Florida.

The prosecutor’s office said they received a tip in January that someone in Mercer County had uploaded an item portraying child sexual abuse material, and investigators linked the material to Farmer.

Princeton referred questions about Farmer to the prosecutor’s office, according to NJ.com.

The tip came to the prosecutor’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit, and the information originated with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Several law enforcement agencies coordinated to arrest him Friday, including the county prosecutor’s office, the Mercer County Tactical Response Team, and Homeland Security Investigations Trenton.

They executed a search warrant to seize “multiple items of evidentiary value,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Farmer was being held at the Mercer County Jail before a scheduled detention hearing Wednesday in Trenton at the Superior Court of Mercer County.

The prosecutor’s office said they planned to argue that he should be detained before trial.