DeSoto County Sex Offender Arrested For Possession Of Child Pornography

𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗖 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗:

The Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program is a national network of 61 coordinated task forces representing over 4,500 federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. These agencies are continually engaged in proactive and reactive investigations and prosecutions of persons involved in child abuse and exploitation involving the Internet.

DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office Detectives are with the Central Florida Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The Central Florida ICAC Task Force is headquartered from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office (Florida), and as such the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office receives Cyber Tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and disseminates them to the appropriate jurisdiction.

𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬:

On July 25, 2025, Lieutenant Zachary Long received a CyberTip report from NCMEC in reference to APPARENT Child Pornography uploaded through WhatsApp.

The content reported to Lt. Long was a 22 minute video of a child being sexually abused. After thorough investigation, Lt. Long identified the subject who uploaded the video to be Richard Dale Estes, a convicted felon and sex offender in DeSoto County.

As an offender, Richard is obligated to follow his sex offender requirements per Florida Statute. He did not register his WhatsApp account as required by law.

Today, a search warrant was conducted at Richard’s residence (6499 NE COUNTY ROAD 660) and numerous electronics (phones, laptop, camera) were seized and will be forensically examined and diligently searched.

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗘𝗦:

Richard was then placed under arrest and charged with the following:

– Possession of Child Pornography (FELONY)

– Failure to Comply with Registration Requirements (FELONY)

– Failure to Report Internet Identifier within 48hrs (FELONY)

𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗦:

It is imperative that law enforcement agencies participate in the protection of our children by joining and working with ICAC.

Sheriff Potter is grateful to the work conducted by Lt. Long and our Criminal Investigative Unit (CID), which will continue to aggressively monitor local sex offenders and work each and every day to protect the children of DeSoto County by getting Sex Offenders who violate our laws off of the streets. There are no local victims in this case.

𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙪𝙥 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙚𝙭 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨: https://shorturl.at/KwzPJ