ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Registered sex offender Richard Cox is facing charges in Arlington County for exposing himself to women and girls in school locker rooms, but the case was thrown out by an Arlington County Circuit Court judge.
For months in 2024, Cox used women’s locker rooms in Fairfax County and Arlington County. Those two counties allow people to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their chosen gender identity.
Arlington judge throws out indictments against sex offender Richard Cox (7News)
Cox claims he’s a transgender woman.
“My civil rights as a transgender person allow me to use a public facility, including restrooms and changing rooms that identify as my gender,” Cox can be heard saying to Fairfax County police in November 2024 on a police body-worn camera that 7News obtained.
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Although Fairfax County police never arrested the registered sex offender for exposing himself to women and girls in rec center locker rooms throughout the county, Arlington County police did.
In 2024, Cox used women’s locker rooms in two high schools and a county fitness center in Arlington.
For that, the Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti’s office indicted the sex offender for loitering within 100 feet of schools and child swim and gymnastics classes, and exposing himself to women and girls in the locker rooms.
Cox asked a judge for the indictments to be dismissed and that’s what happened.
Judge Daniel Lopez ruled the Virginia law under which Cox is being prosecuted void for vagueness under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Read the judge’s ruling below:
The judge’s core reasoning is that the statute criminalizes “loitering” within 100 feet of schools and child day programs by some convicted sex offenders, but does not define “loitering” or give standards for when it becomes a felony.
This is a significant ruling because it not only found an issue with how the statute was applied to Cox. It says the statute itself is constitutionally defective.
The Arlington prosecutor disagrees with the judge’s decision and appealed.
The Court of Appeals accepted the case, and now Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones will represent the commonwealth on appeal.
For now, everything in the Arlington trial court is on hold.
Separately, Cox was recently convicted by a jury for possessing child pornography, which Arlington police found when they arrested him at Barcroft Sports and Fitness Center.
Meanwhile, in Fairfax County, Cox is charged with sexually assaulting a woman in 1988.
“I want to see justice served,” the victim told 7News Reporter Nick Minock.
The victim saw 7News’s reporting on Cox entering female locker rooms, which compelled her to tell police what happened to her more than 30 years ago.
“I felt guilt because maybe if I had pressed charges, this would have been on his record a long time ago, and he wouldn’t have been allowed access to these bathrooms,” the victim said.
Cox’s preliminary hearing on that Fairfax County sexual assault charge was held last week after being continued several times. For now, that case is continuing as planned.
Right now, Cox remains in custody at the Arlington jail.
