The government found images of bestiality, bondage and other acts of sexual deviance on a computer seized from the home of former Cuyahoga County Recorder Patrick O’Malley in 2004.

A sentencing memorandum filed Monday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan details the wide assortment of pornographic images and text that led to O’Malley’s recent conviction.

O’Malley pleaded guilty to an obscenity charge in May after quitting his job as county recorder. He is scheduled to be sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge David Dowd.

The memorandum also states that the government found child pornography on a computer and several floppy disks that O’Malley’s estranged wife removed from the house and turned over to the government.

But the prosecution decided a charge of child pornography would be difficult to pursue.

The relationship between O’Malley and his wife was apparently a factor.

The memorandum states that the divorce proceeding between O’Malley and his wife “was quite public and quite volatile” and that while “the forensic examinations seemed to authenticate the evidence of child pornography, it was clear that the chain of custody for all such evidence included (Vicki) O’Malley, her attorney and their investigator.”

It’s the policy of the U.S. Department of Justice to charge “the most readily provable offense,” according to the memorandum. “As the evidence of obscenity was contained consistently on all of the digital media, including the computer to which no one but Patrick O’Malley had access, the government determined that a plea to an obscenity charge was warranted.”

When the government conducted its own search of O’Malley’s house in November 2004, it found other evidence for its case. Two computers were seized, one from O’Malley’s bedroom and the other from a common area of the house.

The computer in the common area, which was used by O’Malley’s children, “contained no evidence of criminal activity,” according to the memorandum.

But obscene content, both images and text, was found on the bedroom computer and it was very similar to that found on the two computers and floppy disks removed by O’Malley’s wife.

The government also found that “the computers revealed a rather disturbing pattern of Internet activity,” with more than 135 Web sites related to various pornographic or sexual activities.

In discussing various factors pertaining to sentencing, the memorandum points to the scope of obscene material and the length of time O’Malley was receiving it.

“As the father of five children, Defendant sought out and received, for over six and one half years, numerous stories glorifying and salaciously describing sex between adults and children, including children who would have mirrored his own children’s ages,” the memorandum states. “. . . The scope and depravity of the material Defendant sought is made exceedingly more disturbing by the fact that he was the custodial parent of small children at the time.”

The prosecution is asking the judge to sentence O’Malley to the maximum limit of five years in prison. Guideline levels related to the plea agreement call for a lesser sentence, but that’s just one factor the judge will consider.

Friedman could not be reached for comment Monday evening.