A repeat sex offender returned to court Monday after the suspect was accused of exposing himself to women and girls in locker rooms across the Northern Virginia suburbs that he gained access to by claiming to be transgender.
Richard Kenneth Cox, 58, appeared in Arlington County’s Juvenile & Domestic Relations court to schedule a future hearing where witnesses will be allowed to discuss their encounters with the man who has done multiple prison stints over the past 30 years, including for sex crimes.
Cox is facing nearly two dozen charges in his current case after police arrested him in December for trespassing at a recreation center near Shirlington. Most of the charges stem from Cox allegedly entering properties that prohibit convicted sex offenders, such as rec centers and school facilities made available to the public outside of classroom hours.
The Arlington County judge scheduled Cox’s next hearing for May 23. The judge set aside three hours in the hearing to provide time for witness testimony.
Cox remains behind bars while he awaits his next court date.
The sex offender was linked to a number of exposure incidents in Arlington and neighboring Fairfax County last year after being allowed into women’s-only spaces by telling facility staff he was a transgender woman.
Authorities said Cox exposed himself to a woman and two girls in the Barcroft Fitness Center in December.
Cox is charged with making multiple visits to Wakefield High School’s public swimming pool and using the school’s locker room for women as well, despite his status as a sex offender forbidding him from coming onto the premises.
Last June, he was accused of flashing a woman in a Planet Fitness locker room in Fairfax County.
The decision to drop charges in that incident drew the ire of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, who called for Fairfax County’s top prosecutor to hand the case over to the state office so it could be properly litigated.
“Once again, you have failed your constituents in Fairfax by insisting on acting like a social worker instead of a prosecutor,” Mr. Miyares wrote last month to Steve Descano, the Commonwealth’s Attorney and Democrat who was once supported by left-wing billionaire George Soros.
“Once again, innocent Virginians are being harmed by your inaction and the ’criminal first, victim last’ mindset that has beset the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office under your leadership,” the letter continued.
The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Descano for comment.
Police said Cox was also issued a no-trespass order at a Fairfax County rec center in November after the facility learned he was a sex offender. Cox used the facility’s women’s locker room, again, after claiming to be transgender.
Cox’s criminal history extends back decades, according to court records.
In 1992, he exposed and fondled himself in front of multiple children inside an Arlington County gym. He served nearly eight years behind bars for the offense.
Cox wrote to a judge in 1995 to say “I am aware that I suffer compulsions to expose myself in public places.”
The Virginia Department of Corrections said Cox has been in and out of prison for most of his adult life.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.