Patrick Naughton is free. He will not serve prison time for his felony conviction of crossing state lines to have sex with an undercover police officer that he thought was a 13 year old girl. Instead of prison he will serve his five years on probation and nine months home detention during which he will have to wear an electronic monitor. In fact the former Disney executive doesn't even have to continue working for the FBI. Working for the FBI you ask? Yes, in return for a lighter sentence, Naughton was providing “technical assistance” for the FBI 50-hours a week for a total of 1,006 hours from his apartment in West Hollywood. My guess is that while he was working for the FBI Naughton either ratted out his other pedophile friends or went online posing as an 11 year old to catch other pedophiles since “he knows what they want to hear.” So in less than a year after his high-profile arrest on Santa Monica Pier, he is looking for a new tech job.

The FBI wouldn't elaborate on what he's done, except to say that unlike the controversial software program Carnivore, his programs won't look at everyone's online behavior. ``This is more targeted,'' he said. ``They'll catch more people breaking the law. I don't think anyone who is remotely innocent will be swept up in this.''  Plus the FBI got some free pedophile catching software out of the deal from a man who should know how to build the better mousetrap.

Let’s not forget that in Naughton’s trial the jury couldn’t agree on the crossing state lines and the “using the Internet to get his dick sucked” charges, what they convicted him on was the possession of child pornography. Which is the worst crime he was charged with if you ask me. I mean the jury isn’t sure that he went to Oregon to fuck a 13 year old or that he was online to get laid, but they are dead to sight on the fact that he had pictures of little kids engaged in sexual activities with adults lying around on his apartment floor. What does that tell you?

His original conviction was temporarily put aside after an appeals court questioned the constitutionality of portions of the child pornography law in a separate case. Before his second trial was to begin, Naughton pleaded guilty in March to crossing state lines to have sex with a minor.

Naughton is not completely free, thank God. Naughton will have to continue getting counseling, wear an electronic monitor for nine months and pay the $4.60 daily charge for the monitoring service, plus a $20,100 fine. He will have to register as a sex offender in any state where he works or resides. Thank God. He is prohibited from communicating with children under 18 except in the presence of another adult. Thank God. And he is prohibited from accessing pornography on the Internet or entering sex chat rooms. Then what does he need the Internet for? The government has not said whether or how it would monitor his online activities.

Speaking after his sentencing Wednesday in federal court, Naughton, 35, said he will again seek work at a technology company, possibly a start-up, and most likely as a consultant, not as an employee or ``an executive at a big company. . . . There's tons of opportunity out there,'' he said. ``More than ever.''