(Marion County, FL) Wednesday, during a jury trial representing himself, 57-year-old Richard Logsdon pleaded no contest to his charge of Soliciting a Child for Unlawful Sexual Conduct using a Computer. Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky sentenced Logsdon to five years in the Florida Department of Corrections and he is designated as a Sexual Offender.

Back in August of 2018, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), along with the assistance of several law enforcement agencies, including the Ocala Police Department (OPD) and Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, conducted an undercover online operation targeting individuals who solicit children online for sexual activity and who travel to meet these children with the intention of engaging in the sexual activity.

During the operation, the defendant engaged in sexually explicit conversations with an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old female child, but was in fact an undercover detective. While communicating with the decoy, Logsdon acknowledged the decoy’s young age but continued to talk to who he believed to be a minor, even providing his own cellphone number to message with the undercover detective.

Logsdon continued to have inappropriate conversations with the undercover detective posing as a 13-year-old, asking for nude photographs and initiating sexually explicit conversations. When detectives arrived at Logsdon’s residence to question his online conversation with the minor, the defendant denied ever speaking with underage girls. Law enforcement was able to subpoena information on both the email address and phone number used by Logsdon to positively identify him as the owner and user.

Assistant State Attorney Katrina Self prosecuted this case.

Published on 08/22/2025.