Richard Cox claims he's a woman. He is not. He just uses this excuse to find an audience of little girls so he can expose and touch himself.
Now, I'm no biologist, but I've seen pictures of Cox, and I'm going to share one with you now. I'll let you decide whether or not he's a woman. He's the one on the right. The one on the left is just the woman who encourages this kind of behavior and who now wants to be governor of Virginia.
You may be familiar with this story. Cox was arrested in December 2024 after several people reported that a naked man was watching women change in the locker room at the Arlington Aquatic Center. The center shares its facilities with Washington Liberty High School in Arlington, Va. It's part of the Arlington Public Schools (APS) District, which has a policy in place that allows grown men to use the same facilities as the very young students the district is supposed to protect, if that grown man claims he's transgender. The facility also hosts swim classes for much younger children.
Cox had been hanging out in the locker rooms there and at other nearby children's athletic facilities in Arlington and Fairfax Counties for months. On Thursday, he was in court for a lengthy preliminary hearing, and more gruesome details are coming out about those months. It's becoming increasingly obvious that this is just a dude who probably should have been locked away decades ago.
WJLA reporter Nick Minock has been on top of it and says that several women have testified that they saw Cox naked in the high school's girls' locker room. A 17-year-old lifeguard made similar claims.
"One woman testified when she walked into an Arlington girls high school locker room after swim class for her young daughter she saw Cox masturbating in a shower stall with the curtain open. She said her young daughter was with her when she saw Cox touching his erect penis," Minock reported.
The children in this case and others like it were five and six-year-olds.
These mothers say they tried to contact the school district but received no response. One said she spoke to the pool manager, who told her there was nothing he could do because Cox claimed to be transgender.
Despite outcry from parents, the school system continues to back its policies. Earlier this year, APS released this statement to a local ABC affiliate:
APS permits pool patrons to access restrooms and facilities that correspond to their gender identity. We take every report of concerning or unsafe behavior very seriously and do not tolerate behaviors from any individual who is threatening or making others feel unsafe. APS responded to all patron concerns related to this matter in a timely manner and took appropriate and immediate action to investigate, notify law enforcement, and prevent the individual from returning to our pool facilities
During Thursday's hearing, Cox asked the judge to stop "misgendering" him because he claims he is a woman. The judge apparently said no. However, the arrest warrants list him as a female or "U."
Did I mention that Cox is a registered sex offender? And not just any old sex offender, but a Tier III sex offender, according to court documents. Tier III "offenses are the most serious type of sex offense with a required registration period of life." Here's more on his past from ABC7 (and from what I understand, this isn't even all of it):
On May 18, 1992, an Arlington County Grand Jury charged Cox with knowingly and intentionally exposing his genitals to a child under 14 years old.
7News reviewed Arlington County Circuit Court documents from the 1990s and confirmed that Cox was convicted of taking indecent liberties with children in Arlington. In 1992, Cox visited a gymnasium and exposed himself to multiple children, according to the court records. The investigation at the time said Cox held his penis in his hand and masturbated in front of the children. The court documents listed Cox as a male.
7News obtained letters Cox wrote in the 1990s after he was convicted of taking liberties with children.
Cox wrote that he had three years filled with trial and error with substance abuse and mental health treatment.
In a 1992 letter to a judge, Cox wrote that he was becoming aware of his 'sexual problems' and sought help before it could escalate.
'I am aware that I suffer compulsions to expose myself in public places,' Cox wrote in a letter to a judge in 1995 when he was incarcerated. Cox told the judge that he sought to have himself castrated, but didn’t go through with the operation.
In 1995, Cox wrote to a judge that he was a victim of a sex crime committed by an older cousin when he was 11 years old.
He's been doing this kind of stuff for decades.
A detective testified during the trial that she found child porn and child sexual abuse material on Cox's phone. She also found schedules for the children's swim lessons and gymnastics classes at another facility, implying that he was keeping up with when children would be there so he could go and expose himself. He is not currently facing any charges for that.
The officer who arrested Cox said he wouldn't come out of the locker room for an hour, and when he finally went in to get him, he found him sitting naked on a bench.
But wait, there's more! Minock uncovered video earlier this year of Cox "visiting a water park for kids with disabilities and a playground at a Fairfax County rec center, a place that also has a preschool." As a sex offender, he's breaking the law by simply being close to these places.
A blind and deaf newborn monkey could figure out this guy is a child predator who shouldn't be allowed in public at this point. But apparently, Virginia's system can't.
The thing is, Cox probably won't even get into too much trouble for any of this.
While he faces charges in Arlington County, Fairfax County refuses to prosecute him, despite the literal video of him hanging out at children's facilities as a registered sex offender. And even the charges in Arlington County are light, considering the situation. While he faces over 20 charges, including indecent exposure and loitering as a sex offender, many argue that prosecutors are avoiding those that carry heavier consequences, like child endangerment, and ignoring the child porn allegedly found on his phone completely, though it's possible that they'll bring charges on that in the future.
The case goes before a grand jury next week, but right now the eyes of the world are watching Virginia.
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