Wagoner County Resident Sentenced To Life In Prison For Sexual Abuse Crimes Against Three Children

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA - The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Richard Leroy Osborn III, age 48, of Wagoner County, Oklahoma, was sentenced to life in prison for five counts of Aggravated Sexual Abuse in Indian Country and one count of Abusive Sexual Contact in Indian Country, and to two years in prison for two counts of Abusive Sexual Contact in Indian Country. The Court ordered the terms to be served concurrently.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On December 11, 2024, at the conclusion of a three-day trial, a federal jury convicted Osborn on all eight counts. According to investigators, Osborn began sexually assaulting three children in 2011. In May of 2022, one of the children came forward to report the abuse. At trial, the United States presented evidence that Osborn had also sexually abused three other victims when they were minors. Osborn, who was convicted in 2005 of Rape in the Second Degree in the State of Oklahoma, was a registered sex offender when he committed these crimes.

The crimes occurred in Wagoner County, within the boundaries of the Cherokee and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservations, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

"It's heartbreaking when innocent people in our communities are victimized, especially our children," said United States Attorney Christopher J. Wilson. "It remains a priority of the United States Attorney's Office to pursue justice for crime victims. In this case, the defendant, a convicted sex offender, abused three children and the life sentences imposed by the Court are fitting punishments for his heinous crimes."

The Honorable Robert J. Shelby, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the District of Utah, sitting by assignment, presided over the hearing. Osborn will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Morgan Muzljakovich and Nicole Paladino represented the United States.