A judge rejected a request for a shorter term and followed state sentencing guidelines.
SANFORD, FL— A former Lake Mary High School teacher and girls soccer coach was sentenced Feb. 16 to more than 27 years in Florida state prison after pleading guilty to sexually battering a student and possessing child sexual abuse material, prosecutors said.
The case drew attention across Seminole County because it involved a longtime educator accused of using his position to build a relationship with a teenager. Prosecutors said the contact began while the girl was his student and continued for about two years, moving from messages and photos to sex acts that investigators said happened both at his home and inside a school classroom. The sentence ends a criminal case that began with a tip to school officials in 2024 and led to an arrest that fall, followed by a guilty plea in late 2025.
Richard C. Colon, 57, was adjudicated guilty in November of three counts of sexual battery on a child by a person in custodial authority and one count of possession of material depicting sexual conduct by a child, according to the Office of the State Attorney for Florida’s 18th Judicial Circuit. At the Feb. 16 sentencing hearing, Assistant State Attorney Anna Valentini told the court Colon’s relationship with the girl started in 2022 when he was her teacher and later became her confidante. Valentini said the relationship escalated to sexually charged messages and photos exchanged over Snapchat, then moved to sex acts at Colon’s home and at school during a period when the girl had no class and Colon had no students in the room.
In court, Colon spoke from the witness stand and apologized to the girl and her parents, along with his family, former colleagues and the community, according to prosecutors. Colon told the court he regretted “giving in and not saying no.” He also described his conduct as a mistake, according to coverage of the hearing, as lawyers argued over how the court should treat a case involving a student who was 17 when the sexual activity occurred. Valentini argued the relationship was not mutual because of the power imbalance between an adult teacher and a student. “We trust our children with teachers,” Valentini said in court. “This is the ultimate abuse of that trust in the teaching profession.”
Colon’s defense attorney urged the judge to depart from state sentencing guidelines and impose a seven year prison term followed by sex offender probation, prosecutors said. In that request, the defense portrayed the relationship as voluntary and asked for leniency based on Colon’s background and the impact the case had already had on his life. But Valentini argued for a sentence that matched the guidelines, which called for 326 months in prison. Circuit Judge Michael Rudisill agreed and imposed a sentence of more than 27 years, according to prosecutors and local news reports. In Florida, sexual battery on a child can be punishable by up to life in prison, the prosecutor’s office said.
Rudisill said the relationship was more than a single incident and described it as conduct that continued for about two years. The judge said the behavior violated a basic duty of educators. “It is fundamental to being a teacher,” Rudisill said in court. “You do not have sexual contact with the students.” In remarks reported from the hearing, Rudisill also noted that Colon declined a plea offer that would have sent him to prison for 15 years and instead sought a shorter sentence, a gamble that did not pay off once the court followed the guidelines.
Investigators tied the case to digital evidence recovered from phones, prosecutors and local reports said. A forensic review by Seminole County investigators found photos, videos and text messages that depicted sexual activity, including in a classroom, according to accounts of the evidence presented in court. Earlier investigative reports described messages that turned explicit during 2024, and an arrest report said Colon had sexual conversations with the student over multiple apps between July and September of that year. In one reported incident, investigators said Colon sent a photo of himself with his genitals exposed and later invited the student to a home outside Seminole County for sexual activity.
The case also documented how the allegations first surfaced inside the school. In October 2024, after the school principal received a tip, Seminole County Public Schools placed Colon on administrative leave and law enforcement opened an investigation. During Colon’s first court appearance in 2024, a judge set an $80,000 bond and ordered him to have no contact with the alleged victim, no contact with minors and no contact with Lake Mary High School, according to earlier reporting. School officials said the allegation was reported to child welfare authorities and to law enforcement. The school district said it would cooperate with investigators and moved to provide counseling support for students after the arrest became public.
At Lake Mary High, the allegations rippled through classrooms and athletic programs tied to Colon’s work as a teacher and coach. One student, Joshua Butler, told Spectrum News 13 in 2024 that the arrest did not surprise him, saying he had seen Colon hugging girls before and after class. In a message to families at the time, Lake Mary High Principal Dr. Mickey Reynolds said the school would take any allegation of staff misconduct seriously and act quickly. The district’s communications officer, Katherine Crnkovich, said Colon had been with the district for nearly three decades and held a teaching role that put him in daily contact with students.
The charges in the case reflected both the alleged sexual contact and the digital material investigators said was tied to it. Prosecutors said Colon pleaded guilty in November 2025 to felony counts that included sexual battery by a person in custodial authority and possession of material depicting sexual conduct by a child. The sentencing hearing focused on how the relationship developed, the age difference between the defendant and the student, and what prosecutors described as grooming that began when the girl was younger. Attorneys debated whether the court should treat the conduct as a single lapse or a sustained pattern. The judge ultimately treated it as an ongoing violation and imposed a lengthy prison term based on the guideline score.
Colon will serve his sentence in state prison and will be required to register as a sex offender, according to local reporting. With the sentencing complete, the next steps are administrative and procedural, including prison intake, registration requirements and any post-conviction filings Colon may pursue through the courts. Prosecutors said the sentence was entered Feb. 16, and the case is now in the enforcement phase as Colon begins serving the term.
Author note: Last updated February 17, 2026.