Transgender woman beaten after being jailed with 3 men, lawsuit says
San Diego County sheriff’s deputies placed a transgender woman in a cell with three men, one of whom beat her so severely that her jaw was fractured, according to a lawsuit filed against the Sheriff’s Department.
The plaintiff, identified in court papers as Kristina Frost, required multiple surgeries and has yet to fully recover, her complaint alleges.
“Sadly — and foreseeably — one of the men in the cell viciously attacked Ms. Frost,” the lawsuit states. “His closed-fist punches to Ms. Frost’s face resulted in serious bodily injuries, including a broken jaw, so far requiring two surgeries to repair.”
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit or the incident at the jail.
The litigation also names Deputy Mason Cassidy as a defendant. It says he was one of the people believed to have made the decision to transfer Frost into the cell with three men.
Cassidy did not respond to a request for comment placed through the Sheriff’s Department media office.
The decision to move Frost into a cell with three men appears to violate a training bulletin issued by the Sheriff’s Department in February that says “an arrestee should be taken to a facility that coincides with the arrestee’s gender identity.”
The bulletin’s first sentence reads: “It is the policy of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to receive, evaluate, house, and provide secure, safe and humane custody of all persons, including transgender, intersex, and non-binary persons. Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) community, are among those most at risk for incidents of sexual abuse.”
Prosecutors have charged a suspect with assault in an attack on a member of the media during a protest outside an L.A. spa this summer, according to court records.
It was not clear from the complaint what led to Frost’s detention by law enforcement.
When she was arrested and booked into custody, Frost was wearing women’s clothing, the lawsuit states, which also notes that California’s DMV records and her driver’s license identify her as a woman.
“Despite this, deputies repeatedly mis-gendered Ms. Frost, both in person and in official reports documenting the assault giving rise to this case,” the lawsuit said.
According to the suit filed in U.S. District Court earlier this month, Frost was supposed to be a “book and release” defendant, meaning she was accused of a minor crime and should not have been in custody for an extended period of time.
But after arriving at the Men’s Central Jail on Nov. 25, 2020, Frost was moved from a holding cell to another cell with three men inside. She kept to herself and eventually fell asleep but was awakened by a man beating her, the lawsuit says.
According to the complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, a deputy or deputies watched the assault and did not immediately try to stop the attack.
“Ms. Frost saw one or more deputies pausing outside the cell before entering to intervene,” the complaint says. “Deputies eventually removed the assailant from the cell and put him alone in another holding cell.”
Frost then spent more than 12 hours in custody without receiving medical attention, court documents show.
After she was released, the lawsuit says she went to a hospital and was diagnosed with two fractures in her jaw. She required two surgeries and had her mouth wired shut.
“Ms. Frost continues to suffer from these injuries and must now wear dentures,” the lawsuit states.
The Justice Department is reviewing how to take gender identification into account when assigning inmates in the prison system.
The 12-page lawsuit accuses Sheriff Bill Gore and his senior command staff of fostering a dangerous environment throughout the San Diego County jail system.
The complaint notes San Diego County had the highest mortality rate among California’s largest counties, with more than 140 inmates dying behind bars between 2009 and 2019 — findings published in a six-month investigation by the San Diego Union-Tribune two years ago.
Sheriff’s Department officials have disputed the methodology of the jail mortality rate statistics, saying San Diego County’s jails are not outliers compared with comparable jail systems in the state.
The lawsuit also cites specific details about inmates profiled by the Union-Tribune, including cases that resulted in multimillion-dollar legal settlements paid by San Diego County taxpayers.
“Ms. Frost’s assault was a foreseeable result of department personnel ignoring critical information, failing to protect people in the county’s care and failing to adequately monitor individuals in the county’s care and custody,” the lawsuit says.
San Diego County has yet to respond in court to the federal lawsuit.
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