Watertown trans woman strip-searched, probed, ridiculed by police over 2 misdemeanors, lawsuit says
Updated Mar 06, 2021;
Watertown, NY A Watertown transgender woman says she was strip-searched, hog-tied and had a wig ripped from her head before being anally probed during a 2017 arrest on two misdemeanors.
DeAnna LeTray’s legal case has been championed by Legal Services of Central New York and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She’s now suing Watertown police, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and several officers involved in the incident in federal court.
LeTray, 54, says that police and jail deputies humiliated her simply because they couldn’t get over the fact she was born a man and had for nearly a decade identified as a woman.
While Mayor de Blasio publicly supports disclosure of police disciplinary records, lawyers with the Special Federal Litigation unit in the city Corporation Counsel’s office have continued to demand blanket non-disclosure agreements on the same documents in federal court.
Jamaican American lawyer first black woman to lead American Civil Liberties Union jamaicaobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamaicaobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In 2018, there were 40,000 solitary confinement sanctions in New York state, including about 30,000 in special housing units (SHU) and another 10,000 keep-lock sanctions where people are confined to their cells for up to 23 hours per day, according to a report by the New York Civil Liberties Union. (Unsplash/Marco Chilese)
He used to imagine he was in a park, sitting by the water, basking in the sunlight.
In reality, Victor Pate was in solitary confinement alone in a 6-by-9-foot prison cell with no windows, the fluorescent lights flickering harshly around the clock.
All around him, he could hear other men screaming, crying, wailing calling for help. It wasn t long before he started seeing things, hearing voices that weren t there.