INDIANAPOLIS — Court documents reveal an Indianapolis police sergeant accused of sharing dozens of files of child sex abuse material online attempted to cover his tracks using knowledge gained from his time as an investigator in the Internal Affairs Unit.
Javen Richards faces 12 preliminary counts of child exploitation, all Level 4 felonies.
Once a hero
Sgt. Javen Richards was once hailed as a hero, earning the Medal of Valor and the Purple Heart after he was injured in a deadly gun battle on the city’s east side in November 2015.
In 2016, Richards was again applauded for his heroic actions, this time by the Indiana State Police. If not for Richards, state police said a crash victim would’ve died had the officer not leaped into action and helped tourniquet her arm — which was amputated in an awful crash on I-465.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said that Richards was a 12-year veteran who worked mostly within the Internal Affairs Unit. There, Richards was tasked with catching cops who stepped outside the law and broke the very oath they were sworn to uphold.
Now, Richards is accused of doing the very same thing — and using his knowledge to attempt to cover his tracks.
The fall
The fall of Sgt. Richards from hero cop to alleged criminal began on Aug. 6–though no one yet knew it.
On Aug. 6, a detective from IMPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. According to the cyber tip, 44 files of suspected child sex abuse material had been uploaded and shared by a Kik account with the user name “chasepleez”.
Investigators reviewed the images and videos and confirmed it featured young children being sexually exploited. Investigators also found that the user, “chasepleez,” was sharing the illicit material with other users in group chats.
But “chasepleez” — whom police would eventually identify as Richards — attempted to throw officers off his tracks by obfuscating his online presence.
According to court documents, Richards used a Switzerland-based email service that specializes in privacy and end-to-end encryption in order to sign up for his Kik account in an attempt to cover up his transgressions.
Richards also connected to out-of-state servers in Chicago via a Toronto-based company to upload the illegal child porn images to his Kik account. He added yet another layer of separation by using a VPN based out of California to connect to the server.
But Richards slipped up.
The slip-up
One of the IP addresses he reportedly used to connect to his Kik account came back to a Spectrum Home Internet IP address. After police filed a subpoena to the company, they learned the Spectrum IP address linked back to Richards’ apartment in Indianapolis.
Court records show investigators then used Richards’ own bodycam to trace him back to his apartment on the day of one of the uploads to Kik. Police said at 3:28 a.m. Richards’ bodycam arrived at his apartment. Eighteen minutes later is when the first reported login on his Kik account occurred from the Spectrum IP address associated with that same apartment.
Richards then reportedly switched to his out-of-state IP addresses to upload the child sex abuse material. But investigators said he slipped up at 8:13 a.m., perhaps accidently uploaded two files from his Spectrum home-internet IP address before realizing and switching back to a VPN from out-of-state.
Court documents show that after police gained access to his Kik account, investigators found messages sent by Richards’ account with other users where they discussed trading, and participated in trading, images and videos of children.
“What u got?” Richards asked one user.
“Everything,” they answered.
Police ended up applying for search warrants related to all of Richards’ digital accounts including his email, court records show. Police found one instance of Richards logging into the Chicago-based server from his personal email — the same server company that was tied to the Kik account uploads.
On the other end of an interview
On Aug. 19, Richards was taken into custody at his IMPD office and interviewed by investigators.
When asked if Richards had a Kik account, he reportedly answered, “Yeah, this is embarrassing to talk about.”
When police questioned him about the messages with other users and asked what he was doing on the Kik account, Richards told them, “You’re an investigator, you know everything that you need to know about this.”
Richards went on to call his actions “so dumb” and “super f***ing embarrassing” while lamenting that, “whatever this investigation turns out to be, no matter what it is, it creates an impression. People don’t remember s*** about you except your tough moments, right?”
When investigators again asked about the messages Richards is accused of sending in Kik and the group he was speaking with, the IMPD sergeant responded:
“You have my logs, you have whatever things you say you’ve verified. Whatever happened in that moment, whatever it was, is not who I am, right? It is not who I am.”
Richards ended up then ending the conversation, telling police he was done “yapping.”
Police then searched Richards’ home and confirmed his router was broadcasting the same IP address tied to the Spectrum account that was linked to some of the child porn uploads. Richards’ electronic devices were also taken into police possession.
‘A betrayal’
After the announcement of Richards’ arrest on Monday, IMPD Chief Chris Bailey was quick to recommend the once-hailed hero be terminated from his position as an IMPD officer.
“I am profoundly shocked and disturbed by the allegations involving an IMPD officer. His alleged actions constitute a betrayal of the sacred oath we take to protect and serve our community,” stated IMPD Chief Chris Bailey.
“These actions do not reflect the character of the brave men and women who serve Indianapolis with integrity and dedication every day,” Bailey continued.
Richards was suspended from the department on the day of his arrest. While Bailey sent along a recommendation for Richards’ termination, it falls on the IMPD Civilian Police Merit Board to approve the firing.
