INDIANAPOLIS -- IMPD Sergeant Javed Richards was led into the fifth-floor courtroom at the Community Justice Center for an initial hearing on 14 charges of child exploitation and child pornography, any one of which could net him a prison sentence of up to 12 years and a $10,000 fine.
Unlike typical offenders attending their initial hearing, Richards was not shackled to other prisoners and advised of his rights in a basement courtroom, perhaps indicating his protective custody status as a police officer charged with sex offenses against children.
While Richards posted a $4,000 bond, he was held pending the surrender of three passports and four firearms to the IMPD property room before qualifying for pre-trial release, according to Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears.
”I think our motion here outlines some of the concerns that we have because there are ties outside of the United States that we certainly think are we were certainly concerned and wanted to make sure that we got ahold of the passports to hopefully keep this person in the country and give them an incentive to come back to court," Mears said.
Richards hails from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and prosecutors fear he could flee beyond the court’s reach.
Mears said it would be pro forma for Richards to be prohibited from accessing the internet by computer or cell phone as he awaits trial.
“We did a search of the cell phone and once we searched the cell phone we found additional images that met the definition of child pornography and we filed those charges as well,” said Mears, referring to the additional counts Richards now faces in addition to initial allegations he downloaded and shared images on July 14th. ”This probably wasn’t the first time, so as we do a deep dive into all the devices, not just the cell phone, we’re interested to see where that leads to, does that extend the time frame, are there other additional images out there?”
It took extensive tracking by IMPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit to gather evidence against Richards.
”We had a lot of individuals who were doing their best to cover their tracks. There were a lot of encrypted emails. There were encrypted apps. People were using VPNs or really looking for ways to cover up what they were doing on the internet,” said Mears, who added that he has found no proof that Richards utilized IMPD-issued equipment or accessed images while on duty. ”It wasn’t to protect an individual’s privacy. They were using that sort of encrypted information to try to conceal the fact that they were uploading and transferring images that depicted child pornography.”
Richards told the court he would hire his own attorney and a status hearing was set for Sept. 10 with a trial date scheduled for Oct. 21.
As a 12-year veteran of IMPD, Richards was an honored officer.
”You are beyond disappointed to see something like this, especially the nature of these allegations and the seriousness of these allegations,” said Mears, who praised the cooperation of IMPD Chief Chris Bailey and his staff during the investigation.
Bailey has referred Richards for termination.