A prior sex offender who was on parole supervision at the time of his latest offense was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 186 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for attempting to sexually coerce a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
According to court documents, in May 2020, officers with the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force were conducting undercover online chats to identify individuals who were attempting to solicit and engage in illegal sexual activity with minors.
An officer posing as a juvenile on a social media application received a message from Larry Richard Dickerson, 56, and the two became in regular contact. Dickerson requested nude photos of the purported teenager. In one instance, he asked her to send a shirtless picture with the name “Rick” written across her chest so that he could be sure she was not a “cop.”
In a phone call with the undercover officer, Dickerson asked numerous questions about the supposed 15-year-old’s sexual history and preferences. The defendant asked the undercover officer to describe what her pubic region looked like. The two made a plan to meet to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
Dickerson and the officer decided to meet first in public before going somewhere private to engage in sex. Law enforcement observed Dickerson arrive at the designated meeting place and he was subsequently arrested.
Dickerson has two prior child sex offense convictions. In 2002, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison in the District of South Carolina on a child pornography charge. In 2018, he was convicted in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas with three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, based on his communications with a 13-year-old girl via MeetMe, and his subsequent meeting with and sexual abuse of the child.
Vipal J. Patel, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin and Franklin County ICAC partnering agencies announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison. Senior Litigation Counsel Heather A. Hill is representing the United States in this case.