A 61-year-old man stood before a federal judge in Lubbock and said his arrogance and stupidity led him to join “the most hated group of people on the planet.”
Terry Joe Sides Jr., who has been in custody since his arrest in October faced between five and 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in January to a count of receipt and distribution of child pornography.
As part of his plea, two other counts of possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor, which carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison, were dismissed.
He appeared Thursday, May 14, for a sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who handed him a 17-year-prison sentence.
He also ordered Sides to be on 10 years of supervised release once he completes his sentence.
“You of all people knew that this was highly illegal and yet you continued to do it,” Hendrix told Sides, a former police officer in the Metroplex.
Sides’ case stems from a an FBI investigation that began in March 2025 as part of Texas Attorney General’s Office operation investigating child exploitation on an online file-sharing site, according to a federal criminal complaint.
An investigator with the AG’s office downloaded three video files that reportedly depicted the sexual abuse of pre-teen girls.
Investigators traced the videos to an IP address that was registered to Sides’ RV home in the 6000 block of 34th Street, where he lived alone, the complaint states.
Meanwhile, in May 2025, a Homeland Security Investigations agent engaging in a similar operation downloaded 37 files, two of which were confirmed to contain child sexual abuse materials from the same file sharing site.
The files were also traced to Sides’ residence.
On Oct. 1, after obtaining a search warrant for Sides’ home, investigators went through his desktop computer and found a text file that contained what records described as a script of a conversation between a man and a 10-year-old girl that contained grooming language and sexual references about “what young girls are supposed to do with adult men,” the complaint states.
Investigators also found 3D renderings of a nude pre-teen girl and renderings of female genitals, according to the complaint.
The investigator noted he believed Sides was a sophisticated computer user who knew computer coding languages and appeared to have frequently erased his browsing history.
The search of Sides’ computer, which was connected to multiple hard drives that used encryption software to deter forensic investigation, also yielded evidence that he had access to the so-called “Dark Web,” a network of computers on the internet that requires the use of a special browser that hides a users’ I.P. address, virtually hiding their activity on the web.
Meanwhile, Sides spoke with investigators, telling them he has lived at the residence for five years and lived alone. He also provided the same phone number and email address as the ones linked to the IP address.
However, Sides reportedly ended the interview and asked for a lawyer as soon as the investigators asked him about the file sharing website, the documents state.
Sides was arrested later that day after investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Apologizing in Lubbock federal court
During the hearing, Sides’ attorney, Brandon Barnett told the court that that Sides was prepared to take full responsibility for his actions but asked Hendrix to take into account his client’s limited criminal history.
Sides addressed the court and offered no excuses for his actions but asked the court for a second chance.
“God did not do this to me,” Sides said in court as his family listened in the gallery. “The government did not do this to me. Arrogance and stupidity did this to me. My own. I’m guilty. I just want to say to my mom and to anyone in my family, that I love you. Thank you for your support.”
However, prosecutor Sean Long asked the court to consider as aggravating factors, the lengths Sides went to hide his crimes and the number of images filed in his collection, which contained the documented sexual abuse of pre-pubescent children.
“Every time that image is viewed and every time that image is shared, the child is victimized again,” Long said.
Hendrix told Sides before handing down the sentence that his actions compound the trauma of the child victims since the videos document the worst days of their lives.
He said those videos live forever on the internet where pedophiles can find them and view them for their sexual gratification.
“These victims have a life sentence,” Hendrix told Sides.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Former Metroplex police officer sentenced in Lubbock child porn case
Reporting by Gabriel Monte, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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