Former owner of Tampa drag bar Southern Nights facing child porn charges
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Richard Kowalczyk and his partner Eric Patrick ‘both very clearly engaged in predatory deviant sexual behavior towards minors – behavior [that] went on for years’, federal prosecutors allege. The former owner of a thriving Tampa Bay drag and LGBTQ bar and his partner are facing “extremely serious” allegations of child sexual exploitation and child pornography charges, according to federal court documents seen by The Independent.
Richard Kowalczyk, 44, who until recently owned the well known LGBTQ hangout Southern Nights and his romantic partner Eric Patrick, 31, a teacher, were arrested earlier this month after being after being accused of accessing pornography involving boys from as young as six years old to prepubescent teenagers.
The pair are both facing charges of conspiracy to entice a minor, attempted coercion, and the enticement of a minor. Federal law enforcement officials in Florida say their investigation began in January 2023 after they discovered a spate of messages on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram between Kowalczyk and a suspect who was under a separate investigation between April to August 2022.
In the disturbing exchange, investigators say they found texts that went into extremely graphic detail about sexual encounters and fantasies with minors as well as multiple explicit child sexual abuse images and videos – Kowalczyk had been communicating under the username of “RickSN”, said prosecutors.
