Transgender woman brutally abused in jail wins landmark settlement

When DeAnna LeTray, a trans woman in New York, was arrested after she called the police during a domestic incident at her home, authorities at the county jail tore her wig off, subjected her to a cavity and strip search, sexually abused her, and housed her with male inmates.

She was arrested, she said, after the responding cops misgendered 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 that happened, it completely changed my life,” LeTray told City&State. “When I was in the jail cell after the assault, I wanted to die. That’s how horrible it was.”

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She’s won a landmark lawsuit in the aftermath.

After her arrest and assault in 2017, LeTray filed a lawsuit against the Watertown Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office. Under terms of the settlement, both entities have been mandated to prevent discrimination and violence against transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and/or intersex (TGNCNBI) people.

“I was abused because of who I am by those who were supposed to protect me, and I don’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 forward with my life, despite the trauma I endured. Most importantly, they will put other counties and police departments on notice so that the abuse I endured never happens to anyone again.”

“I was lucky enough to survive this,” she said. “But other trans people might not be as lucky.” 

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

The Jefferson County Correctional Facility must also house TGNCNBI people consistent with their gender identities, with limited exceptions; conduct searches consistent with their gender identities, with limited exceptions, and ensure that jail staff respect a person’s gender identity in other contexts, including name and pronoun use.

Also mandated is medical and mental healthcare free from discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, including access to medical care for treatment of gender dysphoria and gender-affirming items.

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

The settlement comes as state lawmakers try to approve a long-stalled bill that would enact uniform training policies statewide addressing the treatment of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people in custody, but the legislation has not yet passed. 

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

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

“These fights are inextricably linked,” she said.

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