Timothy McDarrah
Encyclopedia
Timothy S. McDarrah is a former magazine editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

 and gossip columnist
Gossip columnist
A gossip columnist is someone who writes a gossip column in a newspaper or magazine, especially a gossip magazine. Gossip columns are material written in a light, informal style, which relates the gossip columnist's opinions about the personal lives or conduct of celebrities from show business ,...

 from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 who was convicted and imprisoned after a U.S. federal sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...

 for soliciting sex with a minor in September 2005.

Career

Before his arrest, he co-authored three books -- Kerouac and Friends: A Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...

 Album, Gay Pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...

: Photographs from Stonewall to Today, and Anarchy, Protest & Rebellion -- with his father, Fred McDarrah, a longtime staff photographer for the Village Voice.

From 2002 to 2004, he wrote a gossip column for the Las Vegas Sun
Las Vegas Sun
The Las Vegas Sun is a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper. It is one of Las Vegas, Nevada's two daily newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group....

 newspaper titled "VegasBeat." Before going to the Sun, he had been a writer since 1985 for the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

s "Page Six" column and a writer for a chain of community newspapers in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, New York. McDarrah left the Sun to take a position as editor of the "Hot Stuff" column for Us Weekly
Us Weekly
Us Weekly is a celebrity gossip magazine, founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The publication covers topics ranging from celebrity relationships to the latest trends in fashion, beauty, and entertainment...

. He was suspended without pay from that job after his 2005 arrest.

Arrest

McDarrah was arrested after an investigation by the FBI Crimes Against Children Squad in New York in June 2005 on charges related to solicitation
Solicitation
Literally, solicitation means: 'urgently asking'. It is the action or instance of soliciting; petition; proposal. In criminal law, it most commonly refers to either the act of offering goods or services, or the act of attempting to purchase such goods or services...

 of sex with a 13 year old. His attorney blamed his client's conduct on an Internet addiction.

Conviction

The criminal case was heavily covered by the national media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

, including entertainment news outlets, because McDarrah, a high-profile gossip writer, had himself become the subject of entertainment news he would typically cover.

He was convicted in December 2006 of one count of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity after an eight-day jury trial
Jury trial
A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge...

. He was sentenced in April 2007, at age 43, in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 federal court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...

 to 72 months in a federal prison for the attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. He is a Federal inmate at the Loretto Federal Correctional Institution
Federal Correctional Institution, Loretto
Federal Correctional Institution, Loretto is a U.S. federal prison near Loretto, Pennsylvania. It is a low-security facility housing male inmates. An adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum-security male offenders....

 in Pennsylvania. McDarrah is scheduled for release from prison in March 2012, at age 50, when he will begin serving a four-year supervised release.

External links

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