California Policeman accused of raping transgender woman while on duty

A El Monte police officer has been placed on administrative while being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for allegedly stopping a transgender woman on the street and raping her.

A transgender woman is alleging in a federal lawsuit that a uniformed El Monte, Calif. police officer detained her without legal cause and raped her on his patrol car in a dark and empty parking lot.

The officer was in a marked patrol car and ordered the woman into an alley behind a business at Central and Garvey avenues, where he attacked her, the lawsuit said.

She later retrieved a condom he used and turned it over to authorities, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 18, names as defendants the city of El Monte and an unnamed police officer, seeking unspecified monetary damages.

The plaintiff, who used the pseudonym "Jane Roe" in court documents, alleges the attack happened early Oct. 23, 2012.

Source NBC Los Angeles and LA Times.

Watch "Losing Luke" Award winning documentary about first openly transgender student to graduate a Oklahoma High school

Source Newsday.com: Michael Clark, a freshman with The Film School at Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD), was recently awarded “Best Documentary” at the inaugural All-American High School Film Festival in New York City, where he also received nominations for Best Director and Best Overall Picture. Clark’s short film Losing Luke is about a transgender girl named Katie (previously known as “Luke”) and her experiences in an Oklahoma high school

Clark’s film was the only full-length student film to screen during the festival’s opening night. Tom Oliva, the festival’s executive director, said organizers wanted to give the 1,500 attendees a taste of the quality of films that would be screened that weekend.

“In the middle of the Bible Belt, many are raised to look down on transgender people,” he said. “With this film, I wanted to help stomp out this ignorance in the community by sharing her story and humanizing her.”



Among thousands of submissions, the top films from each category were sent to a panel of celebrity judges that included Edward Burns, Dylan McDermott, Morgan Spurlock, Diablo Cody, Danny Rose, Kristen Stewart, Carlton Cuse, Henry Winkler and festival founder Andrew Jenks.

Read more at News Day