{"id":176032,"date":"2026-03-03T06:29:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176032\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T06:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:29:05","slug":"former-lake-mary-high-teacher-sentenced-to-27-years-for-sex-with-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176032\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Lake Mary High Teacher Sentenced to 27 Years for Sex with Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home<\/a> \u00bb Home<\/a> \u00bb Former Lake Mary High Teacher Sentenced to 27 Years for Sex with Student<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>A former Lake Mary High School teacher and soccer coach has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for carrying on a sexual relationship with a student.<\/p>\n

LAKE MARY, FLORIDA \u2013 A former Lake Mary High School teacher and soccer coach has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for carrying on a sexual relationship with a student.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

At Colon\u2019s Feb. 16 sentencing hearing, Assistant State Attorney Anna Valentini presented evidence that Colon\u2019s relationship with the girl started in 2022 when he was her teacher. He later became her confidante. It advanced to sexually charged messages and photos they exchanged over Snapchat.<\/p>\n

Within months, the relationship progressed to sex acts at Colon\u2019s home and his classroom during a school period when she didn\u2019t have class and he had no students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t \u2018mutual\u2019 because there was a built-in power dynamic \u2013 he was a 56-year-old teacher and coach at her school,\u201d Valentini said. \u201cWe trust our children with teachers. This is the ultimate abuse of that trust in the teaching profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the witness stand, Colon apologized to the girl, her parents, his family, his former colleagues at Lake Mary High, and the community at large. He said he regretted \u201cgiving in and not saying no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colon\u2019s defense attorney asked Circuit Judge Michael Rudisill to sentence Colon to seven years in state prison followed by sex offender probation, a departure from state sentencing guidelines.<\/p>\n

But Valentini argued successfully for adhering to guidelines that called for 326 months in prison. In Florida, sexual battery on a child is punishable by up to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Rudisill noted that Colon\u2019s relationship with the student was more than \u201ca one-time thing. \u201cIt started when the girl was an attention-seeking 15-year-old and continued for about two years. \u201cIt is fundamental to being a teacher,\u201d Rudisill said. \u201cYou do not have sexual contact with the students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home \u00bb Home \u00bb Former Lake Mary High Teacher Sentenced to 27 Years for Sex with Student A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-176032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-orlando","9":"tag-orlando-headlines","10":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}