Transgender Woman Sues After Alleged Assault By Officers

When Makyyla Holland was arrested and brought to a New York jail, she told corrections officers she was a transgender woman and feared being housed with men. The 23-year-old training nurse’s assistant in Binghamton also disclosed to the jailers that she had trauma from being sexually assaulted by a man when she was young.

But the day she arrived at the Broome County Jail in January 2021, jailers allegedly didn’t heed her concerns. Instead, Holland claims, officers repeatedly punched and kicked her, breaking her tooth and giving her a head injury that resulted in migraine headaches, and refused to provide her medications including hormone treatments. They also placed her in a men’s unit, where she spent most of her stay in a glass-walled medical “segregation” cell and was visible to other inmates at all times including while using the toilet.

On Tuesday, Holland detailed her accusations in a federal lawsuit against the county, its sheriff, jail administrator and multiple corrections officers.

According to the complaint, the jail’s intake officers ordered Holland to go into a room and strip in front of them, despite her telling them she was “a woman and was afraid of stripping in a separate room in front of a group of men.” Because she didn’t immediately obey the order, the deputies allegedly cuffed her, threw her to the floor and physically assaulted her. “She started crying and calling for help, saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll take my clothes off,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that five of the cops “ignored her cries and continued punching and kicking her.” Several other officers were present but declined to intervene until one of them declared, “That’s enough,” the filing states.

The lawsuit names multiple defendants, including Broome County Sheriff David Harder, the jail’s chief administrator Mark Smolinsky, and several corrections officers. In an email to The Daily Beast, Harder said he was on vacation and didn’t know anything about the suit.

The attorney for Broome County didn’t return a message seeking comment.

“Among other things, defendants beat Ms. Holland; placed her in a men’s housing unit despite her objections and her requests to be housed with women; isolated her in segregation; delayed and denied her access to healthcare; routinely harassed and misgendered her; and ignored her repeated pleas for help and for protection from the threats and sexual victimization to which they had exposed her. All of this caused her painful and long-lasting harm,” the complaint states.

“Until defendants change their policies, practices, and customs, Ms. Holland and other transgender people and people with disabilities will experience similar mistreatment in the future,” adds the lawsuit, which was filed by attorneys from the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF), the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

In a video statement, Holland said she was “scarred” by her treatment within the jail.

“When they found out that I was trans, I instantly was a target,” Holland said. “I felt like the jail was not equipped for a trans woman and definitely a trans woman of color.”

Holland was in custody at the Broome County Jail (BCJ) from about Jan. 22, 2021 to Feb. 5, 2021 and June 1, 2021 to July 2, 2021.

TLDEF spokesperson Khadijah Silver declined to comment on the circumstances of Holland’s arrest but said “her daily interactions with police stem from Makyyla being low-income, Black and living in a highly-policed community.”

“As to her charges, she pled guilty to contempt of court (sentence was time served), and her criminal case is over,” Silver told The Daily Beast.

Indeed, Holland’s lawsuit points out: “Ms. Holland encounters law enforcement officers in her daily life. Because of her past experiences and her awareness of high rates of arrest for Black transgender women … she reasonably fears future arrest and mistreatment at BCJ.”

Jail staff allegedly informed Holland there was “nowhere else to put her” but the medical unit because she was transgender. They allegedly refused to house her with female inmates because of “what was between [her] legs” and in jail records noted that her “gender dysphoria” was one reason she was kept in medical segregation.

The lawsuit states that detention officers “gratuitously revealed Ms. Holland’s transgender status widely within the jail,” and one jailer in particular, identified as officer Parris George, “relentlessly harassed” her including by calling her a “tranny,” “transformer” and “faggot.”

Because the jail housed her in the men’s unit, Holland “was forced to shower in full view of male staff and men in custody,” the complaint adds. Some of those men exposed themselves to her and masturbated, putting Holland at risk of physical, sexual, and emotional harm, the lawsuit alleges.

Holland repeatedly asked to shower privately and brought up the trauma of her past assault, but jail staff declined her request.

When Holland was arrested a second time, in June 2021, staff again denied her request to be housed with women, strip searched her, and forced her to tear off her wig and acrylic nails.

This time, however, the jail also allegedly refused to provide her medications for four weeks. Holland had prescriptions for an antidepressant and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, and she says going without them caused her to experience severe withdrawal symptoms, depression, and suicidal ideation. Days before her release, they provided her with one estrogen injection.

“From the first day of Ms. Holland’s June 2021 detention, Defendants were aware that she had prescriptions for HRT—specifically, daily testosterone blockers via pill and weekly estrogen injections—and for daily anti-depressants,” the lawsuit alleges. “Defendants were also aware that they had previously provided these medications during Ms. Holland’s January to February 2021 period of incarceration.”

Holland claims that George again harassed her, wouldn’t respect her gender identity or use correct pronounces and announced, “You’re a fucking man.” On one occasion, he allegedly threatened her and said, “If you say the wrong thing to me, I’m going to slam your neck.”

She reported George to the jail’s grievance coordinator, who said her complaint would be reviewed by the sheriff, but she never received a response.

Holland’s lawsuit also highlights multiple other transgender women who’ve experienced discrimination within the jail and were denied medical care.

“All of them were housed in a men’s unit; all of them were denied access to gender-affirming undergarments and hygiene products; all of them were routinely misgendered; all of them were subjected to harassment based on their gender identity; and at least one of them was denied her prescribed HRT,” the complaint alleges.

In a statement, Holland said, “I was humiliated by Broome County jail staff because I am a transgender woman.”

“No person’s gender identity gives jail staff the authority to harm them, and Broome County law enforcement and jail staff must be held accountable for their actions,” she added “The abuses that police and jail staff across New York state commit against transgender New Yorkers must end.”