7News has obtained police body camera video where we’re hearing from a registered sex offender who is currently facing 22 charges in Arlington County after he allegedly exposed himself to women and children in women’s locker rooms in two Virginia counties.
7News Reporter Nick Minock has been digging into the background of 58-year-old Richard Cox, who identifies as a transgender female.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, 7News obtained police body camera video from an interaction with Cox in Fairfax County.
In November, a supervisor with Fairfax County parks called the police after Cox allegedly visited several county rec centers and exposed himself in the women’s locker room.
There was great concern among patrons after it was discovered that he was a registered sex offender. They asked the police to remove him from the property.
Here's part of what Cox told police when they spoke to him.
"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," Cox is heard saying on the police body camera video.
in this case, no criminal violations were established, but he was banned from all Fairfax County facilities.
7News combed through more video on Wednesday.
The Fairfax County police body camera video was recorded on Nov. 16, both in and near the Oakmont Rec Center in Oakton. Fairfax County said after learning Cox was a sex offender, the county’s park authority began a process on Nov. 15 to ban Cox from county rec centers. Police were called to Oakmont Rec Center on the 16th after Cox arrived.
Although most court documents in both counties list Cox as male, in the video and previous court writings he says he is a transgender female.
“My civil rights as a transgender person allow me to use a public facility including the restrooms that identify with my gender,” Cox told police in the video. “Them pulling up my information on the sex offender registry and using it to stop me from exercising my civil rights as a transgender person is a criminal misuse of the sex offender registry.”
“Just to give an example, when they didn’t want Black people in certain places, if they called the police and said, ‘hey we have asked this person to leave,’ you guys realize that was because he was Black,” Cox said to police in the video.
Although a Fairfax County spokesperson said the county began the process to ban Cox from county rec centers on Nov. 15 because he was a sex offender, on the 16th he was still allowed to scan in and walk right past the front desk of Oakmont Rec Center and down to the women’s locker room.
“How was he allowed to check in if he’s not allowed to be in here?” one of the police officers asks the facility’s manager in the video.
7News reached out to Fairfax County and asked why Baldwin was allowed to scan in and go to the women’s locker room even though the Park Authority had decided the day before to ban him for being a registered sex offender. A county spokesperson sent this response:
“On 11/15, the process to ban the offender was initiated by the Park Authority and coordinated with the Police Department. Guidance was also shared on 11/15 with all rec centers to immediately contact Fairfax County Police should the offender be identified in person. For the ban to be effective, formal notice must be given via certified mail or issued onsite. After Mr. Cox was issued the ban on 11/16 at Oakmont Rec Center, his rec center credentials were immediately deactivated.”
Although Cox faces charges in incidents in women’s locker rooms in Arlington County, in the Oakmont Rec Center incident, Fairfax County police wrote in their report that they were not able to establish that there had been a crime.