D.C. resident Patti Shaw says she was forced to wait for a court date in a jail
cell with men because police had no procedure for changing her gender identity
in their records. Shaw claims she was sexually assaulted while waiting.
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LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, November 28, 2003
A transsexual woman arrested last month in a domestic dispute was placed in a
male cellblock at the D.C. Superior Court after authorities determined they had
no procedure for changing her gender from male to female in the court’s
criminal records system.
The incident, in which one or more male prisoners reportedly sexually assaulted
the woman, has prompted D.C. police and court officials to consider changing
a record system that failed to recognize her correct gender, despite the fact
that she had undergone sex-change surgery and a legal name change.
“This shows we still have a long way to go,” said D.C. transgender
rights activist Earline Budd, who has been monitoring the case.
The transsexual woman, D.C. resident Patti Shaw, contacted the Blade about
the incident, saying she hoped that press coverage would draw attention to
a problem that the city and the federally run D.C. court system should take
immediate steps to correct. Last week, Shaw pulled back on discussing the incident,
saying an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National
Prison Project instructed her not to release further details until a criminal
charge pending against her is resolved.
But public court and police records of Shaw’s case offer a glimpse into
what transgender activists say is one of the many hurdles transgendered people
must overcome in their role as either victims or defendants in the criminal
justice system.
Court records show that D.C. police arrested Shaw on Sunday, Oct. 26, on a
charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. A police statement filed in Superior
Court says the arrest took place after members of the D.C. Fire Department
contacted police about a man who claimed to have been stabbed by Shaw during
a domestic argument.
According to the police statement, the man, who identified himself as Shaw’s
husband, told police Shaw stabbed him in the wrist after she punctured all
four tires on his car outside the couple’s home in Northeast D.C. The
statement says Shaw, when approached by police at the home, told police her
husband was the one who punctured the tires as a means of preventing her from
using the car for “going out.” She denied she stabbed the man and
claimed he cut himself while puncturing the tires, the statement says.
The statement says police decided to arrest Shaw after a crime scene search
and an interview with at least one other witness led investigators to believe
Shaw committed the stabbing.
Court records show that Shaw was taken to the Fourth District Police station,
where she was booked and fingerprinted. It was at that time, according to court
records and a Superior Court spokesperson, that police discovered that Shaw,
who turns 38 on Nov. 30, had a prior record of arrest in D.C. under the name
of Melvin Lee Hammond.
Lea Gurowitz, a public information officer for the Superior Court, said the
court always identifies defendants by the name submitted to the court by the
D.C. Police Department under the department’s criminal record system.
That system assigns a Police Department Identification Number, known as the “PDID
Number,” to anyone arrested in the District of Columbia, Gurowitz said.
While the PDID system makes little or no difference to most defendants passing
through the court system, Budd and other transgender activists said it has
the potential to create unnecessary hardship for transgendered defendants,
whose genders change between the time of their first arrest and subsequent
arrests.
A court official said the court system has no procedure for changing a defendant’s
name or gender identification unless a judge orders such a change. Court officials
have said the only other means of making such a change would be if police change
a defendant’s name and gender in the police records system. Sgt. Joe
Gentile, a police spokesperson, said he would make inquires with police department
attorneys to determine how, or whether, such a change is possible.
Court records show that police took Shaw to the city’s Central Cellblock,
located at 300 Indiana Ave., N.W., where she spent the night. At some point
on the morning of Oct. 27, court records show, authorities took Shaw to a holding
cell in the D.C. Superior Court building, located next to the Central Cellblock,
to await arraignment.
Budd, a longtime advocate for prison reform policies for transgendered people,
said she learned through her own sources that Shaw appears to have been placed
in an isolated cell at the Central Cellblock separate from male prisoners.
D.C. police, who operate the Central Cellblock, have said they have a policy
of separating transgendered prisoners from the general prison population, although
transgender activists say the policy is not always followed.
Court records nevertheless show that Shaw was listed in the police “lock
up” files at the Central Cellblock as Melvin Hammond, based on her prior
arrest, even though the arresting officer noted that Shaw’s driver’s
license identified her as Patti Hammond-Shaw.
Budd said the problems encountered by Shaw apparently began when police transported
her to the Superior Court holding cell. Despite her protests, Budd said, officials
with the United States Marshall’s Service, which operates the holding
cells at the Superior Court, placed Shaw in a male cellblock.
Shaw, while declining to comment on other aspects of the case, told the Blade
this week that a male prisoner sexually assaulted her in the courthouse cellblock.
Later in the day on Oct. 27, court records show, a Superior Court hearing
examiner released Shaw on her own recognizance while she awaits a trial.
Todd Dillard, the U.S. Marshall in charge of security at the Superior Court,
said he was not aware of the incident involving Shaw, saying he could find
no record or report of any problems she may have encountered while staying
in a court holding cell.
“We get hundreds of prisoners in here every day,” he said. “We
don’t keep anyone here overnight. We hold them just for the day they
go to court.”
Dillard said anyone showing “an unusual concern,” such as a male
cross-dresser, is placed in a separate cell “where we can keep an eye
on them.”
When told that Shaw has reported being placed with male prisoners at the court
cellblock, Dillard said, “I would have no record of that happening.”
Records show that the man whom Shaw allegedly stabbed came forward to drop
charges against Shaw, but the United States Attorney’s office refused
to honor his request. Channing Phillips, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s
office, said the office routinely invokes a D.C. law related to domestic violence
that gives prosecutors powers to continue to prosecute domestic violence cases
regardless of whether the victim presses charges.
Amy Fettig, Shaw’s attorney with the ACLU, declined to comment when
asked about Shaw’s case, saying she would release a statement on Shaw’s
behalf at a later date. Shaw was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary
hearing on her criminal case on Tuesday, Nov. 26.
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