Frahm pleads not guilty to child pornography charges

Former local high school band teacher David Matthew Frahm, who is facing child pornography charges in federal court, has pleaded not guilty to all charges filed against him.

After he arrived on Saipan yesterday following a successful extradition from Malaysia, Frahm was brought before U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona for an initial appearance and arraignment in a case involving child pornography.

Specifically, in this case, Frahm faces charges of attempted exploitation of a child, possession of child pornography, and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.

During yesterday’s hearing, Frahm, through his court appointed counsel Richard Miller, pleaded not guilty to all charges filed against him.

After pleading not guilty, Manglona set the matter for a jury trial on Aug. 13 at 10am.

However, both Miller and assistant U.S attorney Eric O’Malley informed the court that there could be delays in this case due to acquiring virtual evidence, analysis of the evidence, and pre-trial motions.

In an interview with defense attorney Miller after the hearing, he explained that by law, the court is required to set a trial date within 70 days of an arraignment and because Fahm was arraigned yesterday, the court was following procedure.

However, Miller said based on his experiences in similar cases, a trial date in August is unlikely and a later date is more realistic as it gives both parties time to prepare.

“The judge by statute needs to set a jury trial within 70 days of a defendant’s initial appearance and arraignment. I was just alerting her that in all likelihood, we would be moving her to continue the trial to a later date because with the nature of the charges, electronically stored information is involved, and that requires analysis sometimes technical analysis and that takes time. Second, the charges stem from two completely different periods; the first two are alleged conduct in 2019, and the third charge alleges conduct in 2024, very different set of facts and each one will present its own challenges both to the defense and prosecution and may have its own set of motions associated with it,” he said.

The court also set a hearing for June 17, 2024 to address the government’s motion for detention pending trial.

“I just got the case today and it takes time to investigate the facts that may persuade the court to release my client on bail prior to trial. This is normal. The government filed a motion for detention pending trial, so I am expecting the government to oppose any bail,” he said.

Meanwhile, Miller said he intends to file a motion to dismiss the engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places charge against Frahm based on lack of venue.

“Even if the court has jurisdiction over the defendant for count three, there’s still the question ‘why Saipan” when the conduct took place in Malaysia. On the face of the indictment, it’s not clear. Sometimes venue is obvious on the face of the indictment, and that’s enough. But here, it;s just not obvious in count three so I expect we will file a motion on that,” he said.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, Frahm pleaded guilty before a court in Malaysia last month to possessing child pornography.

In addition, Frahm pleaded not guilty to the sexual harassment charges filed against him after allegedly producing sexual material when he allegedly filmed a minor showering in her home.

Back in April, the U.S. government filed a superseding indictment in the U.S. District Court for the NMI against Frahm after he was arrested in Malaysia.

Frahm allegedly left the CNMI sometime before or after he was charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a child back in 2023.

Following his arrest in Malaysia, assistant U.S. attorney O’Malley filed a superseding indictment against Frahm, adding one count of possession of child pornography and one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. That’s on top of the existing charge of attempted sexual exploitation of a child.

The superseding indictment replaces the indictment issued last September 2023.

In the “attempted sexual exploitation of a child” charge, the indictment states that Frahm attempted to take a photo of a minor while using the toilet at the high school he worked for, Marianas High School, back in March 2019.

As for the one count of possession of child pornography, Frahm was allegedly caught in March 2019 of possessing a computer file that depicted a minor child engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The indictment states that the image was created in Ukraine and distributed via the internet.

For the one count of illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, Frahm was allegedly caught producing child pornography in Malaysia.