Ex-Orange official violates probation, gets prison

A former Orange town manager who spent seven years in prison for child sex offenses will be going back to serve the rest of the sentence after violating his probation.

Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney Diana Wheeler said Monday that Circuit Judge Daniel R. Bouton sentenced Doyle W. Frye to the remaining 17-and-a-half years on a probation violation triggered by a child pornography case in Smyth County. The remaining term in Orange was suspended during sentencing in 2000.

Defense attorney Mike Hallahan said Frye told the judge on Monday that he “was doing the best he could to keep from creating more victims” and that he had found a treatment center that he could go to when he is released from prison.

Frye, 45, was found guilty in 1999 of aggravated sexual battery, a child pornography charge and three counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor. Court records showed he was sentenced to 26 years in prison, but 16 of those years were suspended. According to Wheeler, Frye’s active sentence later was reduced by a year-and-a-half because he testified in another case.

Frye was fired from his five-year position as town manager after the charges were brought in 1999.

Frye’s sentence in Orange included a period of supervised probation. Wheeler said Frye was released in May 2007 and went to live in Southwestern Virginia, where he worked several jobs.

In November 2007, authorities intercepted a letter sent from Frye to an inmate at the Greensville Correctional Center. Wheeler said the letter contained a picture of a clothed 3-year-old male that had been taken from one of his co-workers and an explicit letter that described the child sexually and Frye’s intentions for the child.

Hallahan said his client had just come across the picture.

“In this particular case, he hadn’t met the child in question,” Hallahan said.

Search warrants executed later that month turned up child pornography on a computer that was traced to Frye, Wheeler said Monday.

Frye was charged with 133 counts of child pornography possession last year in Smyth County. According to court records, he was convicted of possession of child pornography and conspiracy to commit sodomy in March and given a six-year active sentence.

The new child pornography charges triggered a probation violation in Orange. Hallahan said a judge found Frye guilty of the charge a year ago, but the court was waiting for the Smyth case to be resolved before making a decision on probation.

Hallahan said Monday that he asked the judge to put Frye back on probation for a term longer than 17-and-a-half years rather than sending him back to prison. Wheeler requested to have the entire suspended sentence invoked.

“He was barely out of prison when he was brought to [authorities’] attention,” Wheeler said. “ … I believe he’s a danger to society.”

Wheeler said Bouton ordered Frye to serve the formerly suspended sentence consecutively to his term from Smyth, but Hallahan said he also has heard that Frye is supposed to serve it concurrently. The defense lawyer said the Virginia Department of Corrections ultimately would decide how Frye’s sentence is served.

Hallahan said his client has 30 days to appeal the decision. As of Monday, Frye had not requested an appeal.