A former Pinellas Park teacher will spend the next two decades in federal prison after stepping right into an undercover FBI investigation.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber sentenced Lee Hughes, 46, to 20 years in federal prison. The sentencing comes after his guilty plea on January 30, 2026, to various federal offenses, including attempted delivery of obscene material to a minor, attempted coercion and enticing of a minor, and receipt and possession of child sex abuse materials.
The arrest marked the conclusion of a months-long web probe. According to the Tampa Free Press, Hughes communicated with an undercover investigator online for months. Throughout those chats, Hughes was aware that the officer had a nine-year-old daughter…