Transgender woman brutally abused in prison wins historic settlement

When DeAnna LeTray, a trans woman from New York, was arrested after calling the police during a domestic incident at her home, county jail authorities ripped off her wig, subjected her to a cavity and searched her, and sexually assaulted her. and housed her with male inmates.

She was arrested, she said, after responding officers misgendered her and verbally abused her, stating, “We can’t let you walk the streets looking and dressed like a woman.”

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“That night when it happened, my life completely changed,” LeTray said. City and State. “When I was in the cell after the attack, I wanted to die. It was that horrible.”

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She subsequently won a historic lawsuit.

Following his arrest and assault in 2017, LeTray filed suit against the Watertown Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Under the terms of the agreement, both entities were mandated to prevent discrimination and violence against transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary and/or intersex (TGNCNBI) people.

“I was abused for who I am by those who were supposed to protect me, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” said LeTray, who was represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Legal Services of Central New York. “These settlements make me feel heard and will allow me to move on with my life despite the trauma I have suffered. Most importantly, they will warn other counties and police departments so that the abuse I suffered never happens to anyone else again.”

“I was lucky to survive that,” she said. “But other trans people may not be so lucky.”

The agreement requires the Watertown Police Department to adopt clear guidelines to ensure the proper treatment of TGNCNBI people, including the appropriate use of their names, titles and pronouns. It also states that the department must ensure that searches and registration procedures are done in a way that respects a person’s gender identity and that disciplinary action is taken against officers in the case of sustained complaints of discriminatory gender-based profiling. .

The Jefferson County Correctional Center must also house TGNCNBI persons consistent with their gender identities, with limited exceptions; conduct research consistent with their gender identities, with limited exceptions, and ensure that correctional staff respect a person’s gender identity in other contexts, including the use of names and pronouns.

Medical and mental health care free from discrimination based on sex, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation is also mandatory, including access to medical care for treatment of gender dysphoria and gender-affirming items.

“It is our position that every county and every police department should have a policy like this,” said NYCLU attorney JP Perry. “They really should be standard practice these days in New York.”

The agreement comes as state lawmakers try to pass a long-stalled bill that would enact uniform statewide training policies addressing the treatment of transgender, non-binary and intersex people in custody, but the legislation has not yet been approved. approved.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Julia Salazar (D), would require correctional facilities across the state to implement policies similar to those Jefferson County has agreed to adopt.

Salazar said the resurgence of anti-trans rhetoric, inspired in part by Trump’s campaign and his Republican allies, made reform even more urgent, and she had a message for people who support other fundamental rights, such as reproductive freedom, but oppose bills that help trans and gender-conforming people.

“These struggles are inextricably linked,” she said.

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