Clay County Sheriff's Office Deputy Travis Ryan Pritchard, 36, is accused of having sex with a minor after his arrest on May 2.
WJCT News partner News4Jax reports he was fired by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office following the arrest and that he had been previously disciplined by the Sheriff's Office for improper conduct.
He faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in a federal prison if convicted of charges including enticing a minor for sex.
Federal prosecutors said he was assigned to a DUI unit when he was arrested by the Green Cove Springs Police Department around 2 a.m. on Saturday, May 2.
Pritchard is accused of having sex with the 15-year-old girl on a weekly basis, according to the U.S Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.
He was arrested after an undercover detective from the Green Cove Springs Police Department assumed the child’s identity and chatted with Pritchard using an online chat application.
Pritchard is accused of thinking the undercover officer was the girl and using the chat to encourage her to sneak out to meet him for a "quickie."
He’s also accused of sending a photograph of himself from the waist down, wearing only boxer shorts, to the undercover officer.
The arrest came about as part of Project Safe Childhood, which is a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice. The case was investigated by the Green Cove Springs Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Pritchard is "charged with having sex with a minor." While investigators alleged in their report that he had sex with a minor, at the time of this story's publication, he was charged with "online enticement of a minor and attempted online enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity."
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
