Sex offender used transgender identity to access Arlington school pools

The transgender lavatory saga in Northern Virginia sparked new controversy Friday with the discharge of emails from Arlington County, Virginia, faculties about correspondence board members acquired from serial intercourse offender Richard Kenneth Cox.

Cox, 58, was thrust into the nationwide highlight after Democratic Fairfax County Prosecutor Steve Descano declined to prosecute Cox on costs of perversion in ladies’s locker rooms, whereas neighboring Arlington County, Virginia, arrested him in 2024 for comparable crimes he confronted in court docket in October.

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, denounced the information that Cox — who recognized herself as a transgender lady going by the identify “Riki” in emails to Arlington, Virginia, faculties over issues about using services on the semi-public aquatic heart — was allegedly capable of sexually assault younger ladies within the Washington suburb aces.

“This ‘lady’ – little one predator Richard ‘Riki’ Cox – repeatedly used a ladies’ locker room and uncovered herself to younger ladies,” Earle-Sears stated in an announcement Friday. “Abigail Spanberger believes he has a proper to be there.”

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Mugshot of intercourse offender Richard Kenneth Cox. (Arlington County Sheriff’s Workplace)

Fox Information Digital reached out to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Spanberger to verify whether or not she opposes or helps Virginia’s coverage permitting transgender ladies born male to make use of ladies’s services, however didn’t obtain a response.

Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) requests filed by ABC Information’ Washington affiliate returned emails between faculty officers after Cox despatched a prolonged message to 1 member. Arlington Colleges (APS) supply folks the chance to make use of the services that match their desired gender id.

“I notice that is on very quick discover, however the subject solely arose on Friday, October 25 (2024) and I would like your assist earlier than I do know who to vote for. I’m a member of the LGBT and particularly transgender neighborhood,” Cox wrote to board member Kathleen Clark.

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The report famous that Clark might not have identified that the sender – “Riki Cox” – was a registered intercourse offender, Richard Okay. Cox. A faculty board official informed the ABC affiliate that Clark additionally responded in a private capability and that when Duran acknowledged a intercourse offender was on faculty grounds, he took corrective motion.

“At no time did we knowingly permit a intercourse offender into our aquatic services,” the official stated.

Cox, who was beforehand reported to have been residing out of his van at one level, stated transgender persons are “disproportionately homeless” and depend on provincial services resembling pool altering rooms to bathe.

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Arlington, Virginia, an instantaneous suburb of Washington, DC, is seen on a hazy afternoon. (iStock through Getty Photos)

“However let me be clear that this isn’t simply a chance to be clear, but in addition to be a part of the neighborhood. Simply due to complaints from a transgender particular person within the locker room, Washington-Liberty Swimming Pool has made a rule that individuals who use the bathe however not the pool should use the only, remoted locker room, away from everybody else, like they’re some form of freak or one thing,” Cox wrote.

Cox stated he as soon as thought of volunteering to make use of the unisex room, however he needed “to really feel like he was a part of the neighborhood” and that complainants ought to be those apparently pressured to be excluded from the single-person bathe.

Cox stated a number of folks working for college board positions claimed to be pro-LGBT, however Cox needed to see who may reverse the college district’s resolution within the locker room to apparently hold their guarantees.

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“Please reply and thanks,” Cox stated.

A second e-mail, reported by Cox’s ABC Information affiliate to the board, confirmed that Cox felt the obvious stress on Cox to cease showering in the principle locker room once more “despatched the message {that a} transgender particular person is a freak and I do not suppose regular and delightful like everybody else.”

Clark later responded, in keeping with the affiliate, telling Cox that she hoped he wouldn’t obtain “transphobic statements” from employees through the incident and will have the ability to use the showers and locker rooms that Cox is most snug with.

Cox, who has a felony report relationship again to the George HW Bush period in northern Virginia, faces not less than 21 costs, in keeping with open court docket info considered by Fox Information Digital earlier in October.

The costs coated visits to highschool services and a personal gymnasium in Barcroft, Virginia.

As of January, the federal government of Arlington County, Virginia, was working with the county faculty board to formulate responses to Cox’s incidents on the pool, the activist group Defending Schooling informed Fox Information Digital.

Nevertheless, in keeping with studies, Cox was individually banned from the property after his arrest.

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Arlington, Virginia, stated Superintendent Francisco Duran a Washington Post reporter that the district follows state regulation and federal authorized precedent from the Fourth Circuit requiring protections towards discrimination primarily based on gender id and intercourse in locations of “public lodging.”

Defending Schooling Vice President Sarah Parshall-Perry stated in an announcement that as a resident and legal professional of Arlington, Virginia, she was “saddened and outraged” by the incident.