Anonymous Transgender Woman - Florida - August 2006

In July 2006, a 17-year-old male attacked a 39-year-old transgender woman on Palm Beach, after discovering that the victim was a pre-operative transgender woman.

Note: Both the victim's and assailant's names were withheld in this case.

On July 29, 2006, the assailant and his best friend were out on Clemetis Street in West Palm Beach “to pick up girls,” when they met the victim outside of a bar. The teenager said she performed oral sex on him in his friend's car¹⁾, while his friend drove them to Palm Beach.²⁾

The victim has denied that there had been any sexual contact, but said in a later deposition that there “might have been some kissing.”³⁾ She said that she agreed to go to a party with the young men – whom she thought were in their early 20s – because she needed time to sober up after have several drinks that evening. She said the assailant came on to her, touching her breasts and putting his face into her lap, and seemed more upset that she rejected his sexual advances than that she was transgender.⁴⁾

As they were “making out on the beach,” the assailant said the woman was on top of him when he saw a male sex organ in her bikini bottom, and discovered that the victim was a pre-operative male-to-female transgender. (She had breast implants but her other surgery was scheduled for later that year.)⁵⁾ At that point he began to beat the victim. After realizing that he'd left his cell phone in his friends car, he retrieved it and started beating the victim with it.

A witness at the scene said he saw the assailant force the victim to her knees while he punched her in the face. The victim did not resist or fight back. He then grabbed her head and slammed it into the lifeguard stand where the witness was sitting, hard enough to shake the entire stand. ⁶⁾

In a deposition, the witness said he was sitting on the lifeguard stand when the assailant, wearing only boxer shorts, approached and asked for help. He was “hysterical, freaking out, crying, upset,” saying that “he said he picked up a girl, he thought it was a girl; it was a guy,” and that the victim tried to rape him. The witness advised him to go home and tell no one.

Half an hour later, the assailant returned, dragging the victim up the beach. According to the witness, he screamed that he was going to kill her and slammed her head against the lifeguard stand. The police arrive shortly afterwards.⁷⁾

The victim was covered in blood, had lost teeth in the attack, and was taken to a hospital.

Officer Jennifer Sandman interviewed the assailant afterwards and said he seemed arrogant, and that he said he beat the victim until his hand was sore. The teenager said he had no injuries, except some “sissy scratches. The assailant was placed on house arrest.⁸⁾

On July 2, 2007, Judge Peter Blanc ruled that the assailant was guilty of aggravated assault, but not a hate crime, saying that he did not believe the teenager beat the victim because of her sexual orientation [sic] but out of anger and a desire for retribution.⁹⁾

On August 30, 2007, Judge Peter Blanc sentenced the assailant, now 18, to four and a half months of probation. The judge also ordered him to finish high school, get a part-time job, go to counseling, perform community service, and avoid the victim. The victim did not testify or respond to calls or a certified letter from the prosecution asking what sentence she thought he should receive.¹⁰⁾

The assailant claimed that he had acted in self defense, because the victim threatened to kill him and his family if he ruined her reputation by telling people she was transgender. The judge dismissed that claim, pointing out that once the young man walked away, he did not have to return to beat the victim.¹¹⁾

The victim told The Palm Beach Post that she did not consider herself a hate crime victim and, while she wanted him to face some consequences for the beating, she did not want to see him charged as an adult.¹²⁾

Judge Blanc rejected recommendations that the assailant was likely to commit more crimes and should be locked up. In 2003, he was charged with mooning another boy while they were wrestling. After being put on house arrest for the beating, he was charged again for violating a judge's orders by going out drinking with a friend. ¹³⁾