An LGBTQ activist with top degrees from Harvard, Yale and Princeton is facing up to five years in jail on charges of downloading child porn.
Roy ‘Trey’ Farmer, 53, was arrested at his home opposite the gates of Princeton in New Jersey on Friday after a tip-off from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
The former ‘piano prodigy’ sits on the board of the New York Philharmonic and is president of Queer Princeton Alumni, but it has since had his details removed from their website.
A successful banker and entrepreneur, he is a former president of the Harvard Glee Club and has served on the boards of orchestras and opera companies across the world.
He is also chairman of Florida’s StayInMay Festival which has staged more than 300 events in Naples over the last ten years.
Roy ‘Trey’ Farmer, 53, has top degrees from three Ivy League universities including Harvard and Yale, and is president of Queer Princeton Alumni
The president of the Princeton University Glee Club Foundation cut the cake at its annual alumni sing in New York City in February this year
But he was arrested on Friday and charged with downloading child pornography
The NCMEC alerted detectives with Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit in January that child sexual abuse material had been downloaded in Mercer County where Princeton is situated.
On Friday the Mercer County Tactical Response Team, with assistance from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations Trenton searched Farmer’s Princeton apartment seizing ‘multiple items of evidentiary value’, the prosecutor’s office said.
Farmer was arrested without a struggle and was detained at Mercer County Jail pending a detention hearing on Wednesday.
A philosophy graduate from Princeton’s 1993 class he went on to earn an M.Phil from Yale University, and a master’s in education degree from Harvard.
He secured a job in private equity before setting up a boutique investment bank during 15 years spent living in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
But he has remained a pillar of the Princeton establishment with places on the boards of a host of its societies.
‘Good things happen when you bring Princetonians together,’ he told an interviewer two years ago.
‘There are wonderfully generous interactions of like-minded people who want to spend their time volunteering, and they are all so passionate about it.
‘This is not traditional networking. This is about connecting interesting people doing interesting things in all areas of our society.’
He has previously served on the boards of the Classic Chamber Concerts, Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, London Symphony Orchestra, Naples Music Club, and Opera Naples.
The banker and festival organizer spoke to guests at Queer Princeton Alumni Day in February
He was arrested in his apartment at the gates of the university after police received a tip-off from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
And he was instrumental in keeping Princeton alumni communities together with a series of podcasts from his home next to the campus.
‘Princeton has always been about the people for me,’ he said.
‘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.’