A male predator arrested on multiple charges for exposing himself to women and children has defended his crimes by citing his alleged “civil rights as a transgender person.”
58-year-old Richard Cox, a man who claims to be a “transgender woman,” told police that his “civil rights” allowed him to expose himself sexually to women and children in two different female locker rooms.
Cox told investors that his sexual crimes are protected acts because his “civil rights” allow him to use bathrooms that correspond with his “gender identity.”
The convicted sex offender is currently facing 22 charges in Arlington County, Virginia after he allegedly exposed himself to women and children.
Cox is already on the registered sex offender list for exposing his genitals to women and children in public places, WJLA reported.
In police body cam footage of the encounter, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from WJLA, Cox said:
“My understanding of the sex offender registry, cuz I understand that they’re concerned about my history and that’s the reason they’re banning me, and my understanding of the sex offender registry – is it is a tool to be used to prevent any sort of future criminal offenses.
“Now, my civil rights as a transgender person allows me to use a public facility including the restrooms or changing rooms that identify with my gender and you can see on my ID that I’m recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia as female.
“So, exercising my civil rights is not a criminal offense.”
WATCH:
🚨Video from my FOIA request shows 58-year-old Richard Cox, who identifies as transgender, telling Fairfax County police that he should be allowed to use a women’s locker room at a Fairfax County rec center in Oakton despite being a registered sex offender.
WJLA was the first to… pic.twitter.com/4WaZwuHa9y
— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) February 23, 2025
The footage is from November in Fairfax County.
A supervisor with the county parks reportedly called the police on Cox after he allegedly visited several facilities and exposed himself in the women’s locker room.
Cox was previously convicted of taking indecent liberties with children in Arlington in 1992.
The charges stemmed from an incident during which Cox masturbated in front of children in a gymnasium.
In letters obtained by WJLA that he wrote after the conviction, Cox acknowledged that he has “compulsions to expose myself in public places.”
Last year, Cox’s gender was listed as male in court documents.
However, he is now listed as “female.”
In June 2024, he was charged with indecent exposure for allegedly exposing his genitals in the women’s locker room of a Planet Fitness gym.
Yet, that charge was dismissed for unknown reasons.
“Nudity alone is not indecent, or we could not have public locker rooms at all,” Cox wrote in a motion to dismiss the charge against him.
“And the question of whether it is indecent for a transgender person to be nude in the locker room that they identify with has also been answered by our courts, our legislatures, and public opinion, and the answer is, No.
“So whatever it is that my accuser calls ‘indecent,’ other than the anti-trans discrimination that she harbors in her own mind, it has not been and cannot be proven to the court.”
Cox’s current charges stem from multiple incidents.
He was arrested at a fitness center on December 6 for trespassing and providing a false identity, Fox 5 DC reported.
He also faces charges of indecent exposure and indecent liberties with children after he allegedly exposed his genitals in the women’s locker room at this fitness center on November 30 and December 2.
Cox allegedly exposed his genitals when an adult and two children were present.
Some of his current charges also stem from an incident on October 21, 2024, when an unnamed victim entered the girls’ locker room and saw him allegedly exposing his genitals.
