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Murphy – Every aspect of American life contributes to some sort of government statistic. The lucky ones manage to avoid misfortune.
Lawrence Keith Limon’s misfortune began at a young age. His biological mother abandoned him when he was a toddler, and the relatives who took responsibility for his care passed him around from home to home.
Limon’s first sexual experience happened at age 13, according to court documents related to a federal child pornography case. The mother of one of Limon’s friends statutorily raped young Larry. However, he never reported the encounter, and no charges were filed against the woman.
Limon later found some semblance of life structure in the U.S. Navy, after enlisting in 1987. However, he struggled with alcoholism, and his attempts at family life were “unsuccessful,” according to court documents, which also describe his experiences as “harmful.”
“His second wife led Mr. Limon down a road of sexual deviation that may have planted the seeds which brought forth their bitter
harvest some years later,” defense attorney Rich Cassady wrote in a sentencing memo to the court. “With no practical life experience from his own raising, it is not surprising that Mr. Limon was unsuccessful in his efforts to have a family while serving honorably in the U.S. Navy.”
Court documents say Limon meditated in sweat lodges to overcome alcohol addiction and connect with his Native American roots. However, his newfound strength could not repress the underlying “addictive personality,” which eventually found a worse outlet.
Limon, who turns 53 years old Thursday, received a six-year prison sentence last week after previously pleading guilty to distribution of child pornography.
Court documents say Limon possessed more than 3,000 child pornography images, which were mostly attributable to 32 videos that were seized from his digital devices during a raid in March 2019. Limon admitted he used two Gmail accounts, as well as Tumblr.com, to send and/or receive child pornography images.
Several people – including professional colleagues, the founders of the sweat lodge he frequented and his wife – submitted letters to the court in support of Limon. The letters argue that Limon is a “product of his upbringing” and asked the judge for leniency during sentencing.
“His [alcohol] addiction transferred to porn and it kept evolving,” Limon’s current wife wrote in a letter to the court. “If I had known, I would have gotten him help.”
Government research found that being abused as a child may increase a person’s risk for alcohol-related problems as an adult. There is some dispute over whether science supports the notion of “addictive personality” and the tendency to develop an addiction to a different vice after overcoming one.
However, a large portion of the mental health research community believes “addiction replacement” is real.
Experts say many people recovering from addiction crave the fulfillment of an emotional need and, therefore, develop a new addiction. Even if the new addiction is a healthy habit, such as exercise, trading one addiction for another is harmful.
“He truly wants to address his addictive personality and heal, not only from his childhood, but to also learn what happened to him that contributed to the addictions,” Limon’s wife wrote to the court. “He wants to become certified so that he can help other veterans that have these same issues.”
Limon, who served 22 years in the U.S. Navy and retired in 2009, must serve a lifetime of supervised release and register as a sex offender after he is released from prison.