Richard Kenneth Cox, 58, is a registered sex offender.
According to a March 3 report from WJLA-TV, Cox faces 12 counts in Arlington County, Virginia, of being a sex offender in proximity to children, three counts of a sex offender entering a school or child day care center, four counts of indecent exposure, two counts of taking indecent liberties with children, and one count of identity theft. His next hearing is on May 23, 2025.
Cox’s public defender wanted the hearing closed, WJLA reported. The judge asked the Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney whether they had an opinion on this and they didn’t. The judge asked why the public defender wanted the hearing closed. After that, the motion was withdrawn.
One might have asked why the Arlington County attorney didn’t have an opinion on the matter. Then again, prosecutors in Northern Virginia have plenty of blame to share for the fact that Cox was still out on the street — particularly since, in neighboring Fairfax County, the top prosecutor refused to go after the registered sex offender after he allegedly committed indecent exposure in a Planet Fitness women’s restroom.
Now, after allegedly exposing himself at two schools and three recreational centers on 10 different occasions since the previous charges against him were dropped, prosecutors seem to be playing a different tune. If only they’d have done so back in 2024.
Cox, WJLA reported, identifies as transgender; however, this seems to be one of the few cases in which the media is willing to address someone who very obviously looks like a male and is a male as a male, despite calling himself transgender — perhaps because, as the station reported last month, he’s “also a registered sex offender who has a lengthy criminal record.”
However, the alleged “indecent exposure” happened inside a Planet Fitness in Falls Church, Virginia, in June of 2024 — and Planet Fitness has a policy that allowed a registered child sex offender into whatever bathroom he pleases: “All members, including transgender members, may use Planet Fitness locker room facilities, bathrooms, showers, and all other facilities/programs separated by sex based on their self-reported gender identity.”
And apparently, to have stuff like this happen to them, according to this criminal complaint by an unnamed woman:
“I went to Planet Fitness in Falls Church on June 6, and around 4:30 p.m., I went to the restroom,” the complaint read. “I used the stall. Once I was finished, I went to wash my hands, and as soon as I was finished [with] my hands, I tried to walk out. I was startled by a man naked right in front of me in the restroom. I panicked and ran out to see if I’m in the right restroom. I looked at the sign outside the restroom and it was the female restroom.”
Another Fairfax County resident named Lyndsey, no last name given, said she canceled her gym membership because of Cox’s presence.
“I would just leave the gym when I was pregnant because I was so uncomfortable around him,” she said, noting that Planet Fitness is right next door to an indoor playground for children.
“And so we actually walked out of the gym and used the restroom at Aldi together, because we felt so uncomfortable that we couldn’t even use our own gym locker room,” she said.
“I canceled it, and then never went back after that,” she said.
WJLA asked Fairfax County’s top prosecutor, Steve Descano, why he hadn’t chosen to prosecute the case, given the criminal complaint and Cox’s long history.
“Prosecutors are not involved in pro se misdemeanor cases in Fairfax, and prosecutors were not involved in this particular case,” a spokesperson for Descano said in an email response. (Pro se cases are where the defendant does not have an attorney representing them.)
WJLA responded in kind: “If a misdemeanor sexual battery or DUI defendant was unrepresented, a Fairfax County prosecutor wouldn’t be involved? … Many jurisdictions prosecute indecent exposure whether the accused is represented by an attorney or not, so why doesn’t Steve Descano? Why is Descano giving people a free pass? Why did Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s office prosecute Cox for failing to register as a sex offender, but not for indecent exposure?”
Lyndsey agreed: “I can’t believe this nonsense,” she said. “I would like to see our prosecutors do their job, which is prosecute crimes. That’s it. Do your job. Prosecute crimes. That’s all moms want you to do.”
So did Fairfax County attorney Ed Nuttall: “In my 29 years of practice, I haven’t come across a case where a prosecutor in any jurisdiction refuses to prosecute an indecent exposure case because the accused is unrepresented by counsel or not represented by counsel,” he said.
After a spree of allegedly exposing himself at two schools and three rec centers, including to a 9-year-old girl, prosecutors finally decided to act.
Rather unbelievably, too, Cox tried to press charges against Planet Fitness employees for canceling his membership for using the female rooms and provided an astounding defense for himself against the indecent exposure charges that Descano refused to press on with.
“Gymnasiums have been places of social nudity dating back as far as the ancient Romans and Greeks,” Cox wrote in a July 15, 2024, motion to dismiss that was shared by WJLA.
“In fact, nudity among the ancients was not always segregated by gender either. It was not uncommon for a male to be naked around women or a female to be naked around men. But unless the event was something like an orgy, it was considered nothing but platonic to have this social nudity.”
Yes, well, here’s WJLA’s description of this platonic Planet Fitness nudist: “Cox is a Tier III sex offender, according to court documents. Tier III offenses are the most serious type of sex offense with a required registration period of life.
“On May 18, 1992, an Arlington County Grand Jury charged Cox with knowingly and intentionally exposing his genitals to a child under 14 years old,” the station noted.
“7News reviewed Arlington County Circuit Court documents from the 1990s and confirmed that Cox was convicted of taking indecent liberties with children in Arlington. In 1992, Cox visited a gymnasium and exposed himself to multiple children, according to the court records. … The court documents listed Cox as a male.”
He has also served five stints in prison from September 1988 up until January 2018, the longest stint being almost eight years between 1993 and 2001, WJLA reported.
An October 23, 2020, post on social media platform X by the Virginia Department of Corrections listed Cox as one of its “most wanted,” saying he was a registered sex offender “with outstanding warrants” and asking citizens to call with information on his whereabouts.
This is what keeping bathrooms segregated by actual, not imagined, gender was supposed to prevent. And even if that failed, a Fairfax County DA had every opportunity to lock this serial sicko up again. Now, how many other women and young girls have been exposed to this pervert by society’s madness?
If Richard Kenneth Cox’s name cannot become an incantation against this insanity, nothing can, I fear.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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