Ex-Las Vegas fire captain pleads guilty in teen prostitution case

A former Las Vegas fire captain pleaded guilty to two felonies Monday after authorities accused him of paying a teenage girl $300 to have sex with him at a fire station.

Richard Loughry, 48, entered a plea to one count each of attempted statutory sexual seduction and soliciting prostitution. He entered a type of guilty plea that required him to admit only that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove the case to a jury.

Loughry faces up to five years behind bars and $10,000 in fines, though prosecutors said they would not ask for a specific sentence. His attorney, Craig Hendricks, is expected to ask District Judge William Kephart to grant Loughry probation.

Under the agreement, Loughry would be required to register as a sex offender.

In February 2017, Loughry contacted a girl through an advertisement on craigslist.org and twice asked her whether she was comfortable going to his fire station, according to authorities. The advertisement described the girl as 22, though she was 15 at the time, prosecutors said.

In an interview with a Las Vegas police detective at the time, Loughry “acknowledged he has brought females to the fire station where he works to have sex on a few occasions,” according to his arrest report. “Loughry said he had no idea one of these girls could have been a juvenile and would not have done what he did if he knew that.”

According to court briefs, Loughry told the girl to stay quiet as he led her to the captain’s dorm at Station 47, where they had sex. She told police she spent about 45 minutes at the fire station. She said she heard voices coming from another room but could not decipher whether they were from a television. The report does not indicate that other firefighters were aware of her presence.

Police had tracked Loughry through a cellphone, registered to “Tom Collins,” used in the text message exchange. He was arrested two months later at a Walmart parking lot as he and his wife approached his pickup truck with professional firefighter plates.

Loughry, who resigned from the Fire Department shortly after his arrest, initially faced three counts of lewdness with a child under 16; two counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment; and one count of soliciting prostitution of a minor. He remains free on house arrest until his sentencing hearing in June.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.