Richard Loughry
A Las Vegas Fire & Rescue captain arrested in a child prostitution case engaged in sexual activities with a 15-year-old girl at his assigned fire station, according to a Metro Police arrest report made public on Wednesday.
Richard Odell Loughry, 46, was arrested on Monday as he left a store with his wife, according to police.
He was booked on one count each of soliciting or engaging in child prostitution, statutory sexual seduction by a person older than 21 and lewdness with a child, jail logs show. He’s being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.
According to his arrest report, around late February and early March Loughry responded to an online ad from a website frequently used by prostitutes and their pimps, and paid $300 to have sex with the girl, whose ad posted by her pimp said she was 22 years old.
Loughry never asked the girl’s age but had asked her to message him a photo prior to the encounter, police said. Her pimp, who she told police had trafficked her for about nine days, had made the arrangements.
Loughry asked the girl to meet him at his fire station, which location was redacted from the report, and told her to be quiet until they went in his room.
The girl went to a lawyer who then reported the incident to the FBI, which subsequently contacted Metro, police said.
Detectives linked Loughry to a cellphone text messages and physical and location descriptions from the girl, police said. The alleged sexual contact took place on the night of Feb. 28.
When detectives arrested Loughry, they took a cellphone he'd registered under a different name from his vehicle. The fake name was the persona he would use to contact other women, and the phone was kept secret from his wife, he told police in the report. He said he'd taken multiple females to the station to have sex.
"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," a detective wrote on the report.
Loughry has been with the fire department since May 5, 1997, David Riggleman, director of communications for the city of Las Vegas, said on Tuesday.
The city doesn’t comment on personnel issues, but the seriousness of the charges is “a great concern to the city,” Riggleman said.
Loughry is scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning, according to jail logs.