The City of New York will pay $750,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by a young transgender woman who was sexually assaulted twice by City employees while in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction.

She was first assaulted by an aide at Bellevue Hospital, who has already been convicted of that crime. Two months later, she was sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at Rikers Island, even though she had reported his sexual harassment to City officials prior to the attack. The officer has been indicted on felony charges. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York in 2010, included claims for assault and battery, cruel and unusual punishment, deliberate indifference, negligence, and for gender-motivated violence under the New York City Human Rights Law. The Plaintiff’s experience is reflective of the abuse that transgender prisoners in New York, and across the country, face on a daily basis.

The Plaintiff was represented by ECBAWM attorneys Ilann M. Maazel, Elizabeth Saylor and Adam Pulver, along with Anthony Cecutti of the Law Office of Anthony Cecutti. For more on the case, see “Guard Held in Sexual Attack on Transgender Inmate.”