Nov 28, 2003  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

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.

Domestic dispute led to arrest
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.

No procedure for gender change
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 ...