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Indianapolis, Indiana – A decorated Black police officer was federally charged with one count of possession of Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM) and five counts of distribution of CSAM, the Justice Report has learned.
According to reports, 42-year-old Javed Richards is alleged to have sent five or more videos of female minors performing sex acts on adult men to “other individuals” in July of this year. The charges were made public on October 11th by the US Attorney in the Southern District of Indiana.
Richards—who is Black—allegedly accessed the KiK app using a VPN. The program disconnected, however, leading to 14 charges of child exploitation and possession of child ‘pornography’ filed by the state the same day.
For the alleged crime, Richards was arrested at work nearly one month later and held for three days pending a bond hearing scheduled on August 21.
According to WRTV in Indianapolis, Richards called the charges “super embarrassing” and felt the allegations should not define his character. He was then said to have pled not guilty to all charges.
“Whatever happened in that moment,” Richards said “whatever it is, it is not who I am, right? It is not who I am.”
After the hearing, Richards posted a $4,000 bond and agreed to surrender his firearms and passport. He was then released on his own recognizance. Since then, Officer Richards has been out on bond for about two months, where, on October 10, he attended a federal hearing.
At this hearing, a U.S. Attorney charged him with federal offenses for possession and distribution of CSAM. These new charges could add up to 20 years to his sentence if convicted. Additionally, he faces 14 state felonies, each carrying a potential sentence of 1 to 6 years or 2 to 12 years.
The IMPD has since suspended Richards following these allegations. Ironically, his last assignment was to the agency’s Internal Affairs department, where he was tasked with investigating acts of police misconduct. The city’s Civilian Police Merit Board is now reviewing a request for his termination.
Richards—a 12-year veteran of the force—has participated in numerous media interviews throughout his career. For his conduct in the line of duty, he was once decorated with a Purple Heart and a Medal of Valor.
The veteran Black cop is part of a troubling statistic within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, which currently boasts approximately 1,500 officers under its command. Richards is the second Black officer, the third non-White officer, and the fourth such officer in the IMPD to be charged with a sex crime this year.
The city of Indianapolis is the capital of the Hoosier State. The Census Bureau estimates that 51% of the city’s approximately 879,000 residents are non-Hispanic White, with Blacks and Hispanics making up 28% and 10% of the population, respectively. The remaining population is made up of mixed-race people, Asians, and other races.
In 2010, the Census Bureau asserted that Indianapolis once stood at 62% White. This drastic 11% decrease in just 15 years has not gone uncelebrated by Black community leaders like Ben Tapper, Indianapolis’ first-ever so-called “Diversity Officer.”
“Given that Indianapolis is the most diverse it’s ever been racially, ethnically, and probably linguistically,” Tapper said in an interview this past February, “it’s crucial we think about whether our city services are meeting the needs of all our residents.”
Tapper explains that the IMPD’s community outreach to non-Whites—especially Blacks—is crucial to “meeting the needs of all our residents.”
“…I’ll measure my success by whether we are continuing to see improvements in community relationships,” Tapper said, “like between IMPD and our Black neighbors…”
Despite only being 28% of the population in Indianapolis, “Black neighbors” accounted for around 50% of UCR-cleared, violent offense arrests by the IMPD over the past five years. It is also notable that IMPD did not specify a race or ethnicity in at least 47% of its homicide arrests between the years 2019-2023.
To improve relations between non-White communities and the IMPD, a so-called “inclusion council” of 30 officers was formed in 2021. This bureaucratic engine was hatched to significantly diversify the IMPD by the year 2024, a task that has yet to be updated or confirmed.
This latest 3-year scheme appears to originate from the IMPD Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI). The ODI was formed in 2017 after the fruits of an affirmative action hiring blitz from the 1990s began to dry up, reducing the percentage of Black officers from 17% to 14% Black. Reportedly, half of those Black officers in 2016 were eligible for retirement.
With only three months left in 2024, it’s uncertain if the IMPD’s diversity initiatives can sustain the potential loss of three non-White officers to sex crime convictions.
So far, only one White officer has been arrested for sex crimes this year, making it difficult to offset the impact of these losses.
In early September of this year, then IMPD Officer Kamal Bola was suspended with a recommendation to be fired after being charged with a slew of child molestation and public voyeurism charges. Bola—who was booked as an American Indian—was accused of violently coercing and filming his victim. He was also alleged to have written her an apology note before his arrest.
“I have done something horrible and ruined everything,” Bola allegedly wrote, “please don’t think of me as a monster.”
In April of 2024, former IMPD officer Myron Howard—who is Black—was fired from his position after being charged with rape, official misconduct, criminal confinement and a slew of other charges. After an official call, Howard is alleged to have leveraged a threat of arrest at a domestic violence victim if she did not have sex with him.
“You know you could’ve went to jail too,” Howard is alleged to have said, “but I didn’t say anything, so I need you to do something for me.”
Howard was also informally accused but not charged with coercing a different woman into having sex after finding her stranded on the road. The victim claimed that then-Officer Howard offered a much-needed ride but demanded sex or money. When money was offered, Howard is accused of insisting on repayment with sex.
In January, a White IMPD officer named Paul Humphrey was charged with multiple counts of child seduction, attempted obstruction, voyeurism, and sexual and official misconduct.
IndyStar reports that Humphrey may have successfully accessed secured details about the complaint using official channels. On the second alleged attempt, Humphrey was blocked from further access. Police also allege he was tracking the girl’s phone via GPS.
Humphrey later attempted suicide using carbon monoxide but was revived at a local hospital. He was arrested and charged shortly thereafter.
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