INDIANAPOLIS — A federal grand jury has indicted an IMPD sergeant on multiple child pornography charges, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
Javed Richards, 42, was charged with five counts of distribution of child sexual abuse material and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material. He had an initial appearance in federal court set for Oct. 10, the DOJ said.
In August, Richards, a 12-year veteran of IMPD, was charged with 13 counts of child exploitation and one count of possession of child pornography in Marion County. He pleaded not guilty to all counts. His trial in that case is scheduled to begin Oct. 21, according to online court records.
"According to the indictment, on July 14, 2024, Richards allegedly distributed at least five videos of minors under the age of 12 engaged in sexually explicit conduct to other individuals via the Kik messenger application," the DOJ said of the federal indictment. "Richards is further charged with possessing numerous images and videos of child sex abuse material on his iCloud account."
IMPD Chief Chris Bailey suspended Richards from the department, pending a recommendation of termination to the IMPD Civilian Police Merit Board.
The FBI and Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is investigating the federal case, "with cooperation from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department," the DOJ said, adding that Richards could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Tip leads to veteran officer's arrest
On Aug. 6, a detective with Internet Crimes Against Children received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploitation Children, which is a national clearing house for missing and exploited children and alerts law enforcement to material uploaded or download of sexually exploited children on the internet.
A week later, detectives received evidence that an IP address came back to a personal home router with the same name as Richards, who has been with the department for 12 years and was most recently assigned to the Internal Affairs Unit.
On Aug. 16, the detective obtained additional evidence through search warrants, which confirmed the alleged suspect was Richards. At that point, detectives from IMPD's Special Investigation Unit were notified and joined the investigation.
According to court documents, during that investigation, detectives put together a timeline of a weekend in which Richards' body camera GPS data showed a stop outside his apartment followed by child pornography files uploaded by a Kik Messenger app account first using a VPN, then switching to a home internet IP address located at Richards' address.
Records from Kik Messenger obtained via a search warrant revealed the Kik account had been involved in the trading of child pornography files, according to court documents.
Additional investigation indicated a VPN IP address used to access Richards' personal email account was later used to share child pornography.
When interviewed by detectives Monday, Aug. 19, Richards allegedly acknowledged having previously had a Kik account but denied having one at that point. When asked about the specific Kik account in the investigation, Richards allegedly said, "Whatever happened in that moment, whatever it was, is not who I am, right? It is not who I am."
While Richards was being interviewed, detectives served search warrants at his apartment, according to court docs, collecting documents and finding a router which was broadcasting the same IP address used in the Kik child pornography uploads.
Richards was taken into custody and arrested that day.
