CHATTANOOGA - Dec 8, 2015 - Man sentenced to federal prison for Sex Trafficking of Children

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A 40-year-old Chattanooga man has been sentenced to 210 months, or more than 17 years, in federal prison for the attempted sexual trafficking of minors, according to a news release from the Department of Justice for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

John Harper Farmer, who pleaded guilty in May 2015 to one count of sex trafficking-related activity, also was ordered to complete a 500-hour mental health program by Judge Curtis Collier in the sentencing hearing Thursday. He was originally indicted on five counts, the release states.

Farmer admitted that he arranged a meeting Oct. 4, 2014, between a minor, his co-defendant in the case, and a client at a Chattanooga hotel, court records show. He hoped the female minor and client "would engage in a commercial sex act," the release says.

The client, however, was an undercover police officer, and the encounter ended with Farmer's arrest, the release states.

During his arrest, authorities found a second minor with Farmer, the release says. Both minors were females, ages 14 and 15, who had been given a methamphetamine mixture, court records show.

The Times Free Press does not typically identify juvenile victims.

Farmer has had an unusual path through Chattanooga's legal system.

While incarcerated in March 2015, Farmer approached Assistant District Attorney Leslie Longshore, offering to snitch on Rhasean Lowry, a 36-year-old man who faces child rape and aggravated child abuse charges in connection with the death of 3-year-old Tatiana Emerson.

Court documents show Longshore initially agreed to the move, and Farmer was placed in Lowry's cell at the Hamilton County Jail on April 5.

Although it is unclear what the men discussed, Longshire backpedaled on the move about one month later, writing a public memo to Lowry's defender in which she said she didn't intend to use any of the information Farmer gleaned from Lowry.

Several lawyers argued the move violated parts of the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and that Longshore's behavior broke a cardinal rule of legal ethics. Longshore never commented publicly.

Farmer's co-defendant in this case, Maria Morales, will appear in federal court for a sentencing hearing in March.

Lowry, whose case has been delayed several times, is scheduled to appear today before Criminal Court Judge Don Poole.