(Photo from RawPixel.com)
ORLANDO | Eric Patrick, a former Orange County Public School teacher whose husband Richard Kowalczyk previously owned Southern Nights Orlando and Tampa, pleaded guilty Jan. 15 to attempting to lure a 15-year-old for sex, court records show.
The couple was indicted on multiple counts involving child pornography last year. Patrick’s move comes weeks before they were set to go to trial in federal court.
Patrick pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a teenager, whom the prosecution said he and Kowalczyk met on Grindr, according to the plea agreement. The couple was engaging in graphic exchanges on the messenger platform Telegram.
If a federal judge approves the agreement, two of the charges against Patrick would be dropped: conspiracy to entice a minor and distribution of child sexual abuse material.
The agreement doesn’t mention an agreed-to sentence but says Patrick would have to register as a sex offender and agree to cooperate with prosecutors against his husband.
The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury Dec. 18, 2024, and filed Jan. 2, 2025, charged Kowalczyk with conspiracy to entice a minor, attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, two counts of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
In conversations occurring between April 16, 2022, and Aug. 15, 2022, Kowalczyk and the individual discussed past sexual encounters involving minors and exchanged images and videos featuring minors suspected to be as young as 7 years old.
The investigation led law enforcement to seize Kowalczyk’s iPhone on Feb. 8, 2023. The same day, a search warrant was executed at Kowalczyk’s Orlando residence where he resides with Patrick.
According to the indictment, investigators found 83 images and two videos saved on Kowalczyk’s iPhone of child exploitation. Some of the images are of minors under 12 years of age.
A further search of Kowalczyk’s electronic devices revealed messages sent from November 2019 to March 2021 between Kowalczyk and Patrick which included images and discussions of child exploitation.
Kowalczyk’s trial is expected to begin Feb. 2. He is no longer affiliated with Southern Nights Orlando or Tampa, which closed and rebranded last year.
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