Men charged with sex crimes in three states get in girls' locker rooms by invoking gender identity

The deep-blue suburbs of Washington, D.C., have surprising company among areas where men charged with sex offenses have been reportedly granted access to government-owned girls' locker rooms based on gender identity: a Republican-trending Wisconsin metro between Milwaukee and Chicago.

Case High School Aquatic Center staff invoked Racine Unified School District's gender-identity policy to justify letting 64-year-old Rohan de Silva use the girls' locker room, a pool user allegedly told a local activist with Moms for Liberty, which previously sued the district to block its implementation of the Biden administration's gender-identity regulations.

RUSD's Administrative Regulation 5145.4 on its face does not apply to adults, however, only granting opposite-sex locker room access to "students who are transgender and students who do not conform to gender role stereotypes."

Registered sex offender Richard Kenneth Cox, by contrast, used adult-inclusive policies in Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia to enter female facilities and get near children. 

Arlington is prosecuting 58-year-old Cox, who identifies as a woman, for exposing himself in high school girls' locker rooms during community pool hours. A mother testified Cox masturbated in front of her daughter, and a detective said he had children's swim schedules for Fairfax County Public Schools and child pornography on his phone.

A public records request by Defending Education revealed that Cox, who goes by "Riki," complained to Arlington School Board member Kathleen Clark in 2024 that pool staff had asked him to use a single-use facility, treating him like "some kind of freak," in Cox's words.

“Inconceivably, after these email exchanges, Cox went on to expose himself six more times before his ultimate arrest," Defending Education said.

Cary, Illinois, police arrested De Silva more than a year ago in the parking lot outside the Sunburst Bay Aquatic Center, where he allegedly masturbated in his car with the door open and "visible to the public," the Lake & McHenry County Scanner reported.

McHenry County court records show De Silva – not to be confused with the Sri Lankan pianist who twice performed at the White House – has been in "sexual offender treatment" since March under a negotiated guilty plea for "public indecency/sex conduct," a class A misdemeanor. He is on supervised release, probation and conditional discharge. 

"For weeks, De Silva reportedly wore a women’s bathing suit and used the women’s locker room, prompting multiple complaints" at the RUSD pool, Moms for Liberty said Saturday after De Silva was identified as the swimmer.

It said "sources" told its social media manager Scarlett Johnson, a Wisconsin activist and White House new-media journalist, that police arrested De Silva again when he was "allegedly found pleasuring himself in his car across from Case High School" this past week.

Racine County was already prosecuting De Silva for "lewd, lascivious behavior - exposure" and disorderly conduct this summer, court records show. He was in court Monday and has a bail/bond hearing Oct. 28. 

District Attorney Tricia Hanson provided Just the News the June 19 Racine County criminal complaint against De Silva and his July 10 bond, which "prohibited him from being at schools or the parking lots of schools," she wrote in an email.

The complaint says Mount Pleasant police were dispatched to a hotel parking lot across the street from Case High School, where the pool is located but the parking lot was full. A hotel employee claimed a "man wearing a blonde wig was masturbating himself inside a red Fiat vehicle in the parking lot with the door open," and police verified it was De Silva. 

"Police observed De Silva to not be wearing pants while seating [sic] in the driver’s seat and to be wearing stockings (very light see through stockings along with a female thong)," the complaint says. "De Silva was also observed to be wearing a bra, a jacket, and a blonde wig."

He apologized for "touching" himself, claiming he was "lonely and believed to be away from everyone," in the police report's paraphrase.

"I am not licensed in Illinois, so I cannot say for sure, but we do not have an indication that he is required to register from his criminal history," DA Hanson said when asked whether De Silva's conditions in McHenry County required him to register as a sex offender.

The pool user who first tipped off M4L's Johnson, "Prescott," incorrectly guessed De Silva's age, calling him a "very obvious late 40s adult male dressed as a woman." De Silva left the pool after all-ages swim time, which included children's swim lessons and girls' swim team practice, and went to the girls' locker room, according to Prescott.

The front desk allegedly told Prescott that RUSD policy "prevents us from telling anyone which bathroom they have to use," or else they would tell De Silva to use the family locker room based on his gender identity, Prescott told Johnson.

RUSD did not answer Just the News queries for its response to the allegations about its directions to the pool staff and applicability of the student gender identity policy.