Trans Woman Attacked in Hollywood Hate Crime Speaks Out, Cops Offer Reward

Los Angeles police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of four men who brutally assaulted a transgender woman last month.


The Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood division is offering a substantial reward for information leading to the arrest of four men allegedly involved in a brutal attack on a transgender woman in Hollywood last month. In hopes of identifying the suspect, the LAPD released video and still images of the assault and assailants.

Vivian Diego, a 22-year-old transgender woman, was walking toward the Metro transit station on Hollywood Boulevard at about 2:30 a.m. on May 31 when a group of four men jumped her and began punching and kicking her, Diego says. Diego spent a week in the hospital after the attack.

CBS's Los Angeles affiliate spoke with Diego, whose mouth is wired shut as she recovers from a broken jaw, shattered cheekbone, and two cracked ribs suffered as a result of the attack.

“Right when they see me, they started being malicious, verbally, abusing me verbally with words,” Diego told the station. Mere minutes later, one man shoved Diego from behind while others began beating her. “I was being kicked on and punched on,” she said. “And then, I wake up in the hospital.”

Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, and offering a $25,000 reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest. LAPD investigators have set up a special email account for anyone with information to contact them: hollywoodcrimetips@gmail.com. Anyone with knowledge of the attack can contact LAPD's Hollywood Area Detective Division at (213) 972-2967, or (877) LAPD-24-7 during non-business hours or weekends.

Despite the assault, Diego says she is resilient. "I'm not letting this incident, this attack, stop me from living my life," she told the station. "As you can see, I'm still fabulous. You guys didn't stop no show."

Charges Dropped in Transgender Woman Islan Nettles' Murder: What Now?

(Huffington Post)  In the early hours of Aug. 17, Islan Nettles, a 21-year-old transgender woman, was beaten to death. She was attacked across the street from New York City's Police Service Area 6 precinct in Harlem, the life pummeled from her in a fit of violence.

In the days that followed, the police arrested a suspect, 20-year-old Paris Wilson.
According to reports, Wilson knocked Nettles to the ground and began beating her with his fists as she lay helpless on the ground. Witnesses alleged that Wilson's outburst began when he realized that Nettles was transgender, and that he continued hitting her as he hurled transphobic and homophobic slurs at her. The attack ultimately resulted in her death in the hospital days later.
Wilson was charged with misdemeanor assault. Many in the transgender community were outraged. How could such a violent act be considered a misdemeanor?

Yesterday, even the tiny bit of justice that would have come from a misdemeanor assault conviction was taken from us. Judge Steven Statsinger announced that the charges against Wilson would be dropped as the prosecution didn't have clear evidence that Wilson was the man who had committed the crime. Mind you, there were several witnesses at the scene, with multiple people identifying Wilson as the perpetrator. Still, this wasn't enough for Judge Statsinger and prosecutors.
After his arrest, Wilson's mother sought out another man who had allegedly committed the crime. This man offered a confession, though claiming that he could not remember much detail of the incident, as he was supposedly intoxicated at the time of the crime. This was enough to sway prosecutors away from pursuing charges against Wilson, even though police initially believed this man's confession to be false.

Too often, this is what happens when someone dies at the hands of anti-transgender violence. Victims are forgotten, perpetrators are let free, and the world moves on as though nothing happened.
Today is the 15th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day when we can reflect and memorialize those who were so unjustly taken from the world for no reason other than being themselves. We look back on so many lives cut so short.

What happened to Islan Nettles is neither unique nor remarkable. What happened to her happens far more often to trans women of color than we will ever truly know. The official body count this year is 238, though that number is likely a gross underestimate.

There are days to fight on other important transgender-specific issues like housing discrimination, employment discrimination, harassment and media representation. This is not that day. This is the day that we need to look at the violence that so many of our trans sisters of color fall victim to and ask, "What can we do to stop this?"

I wish I had an answer to that. I wish there was something I could say or do to protect the lives of victims past, present and future, but I find myself lost and near speechless. No one should die because of who they are, ever.     Read more Hate

Hate crime charge for California boy accused of setting transgender teen on fire

By Ronnie Cohen

OAKLAND, California Thu Nov 7, 2013 9:36pm EST

(Reuters) - A 16-year-old California boy accused of setting fire to a transgender teen's skirt as the victim slept on a public bus in the city of Oakland earlier this week was charged as an adult on Thursday with committing a hate crime.

Richard Thomas was charged with aggravated mayhem, felony assault and a hate-crime "enhancement" after telling a police officer he committed Monday's attack "because he was homophobic," according to the criminal complaint.

The 18-year-old victim, Luke Fleischman, who was born male but identifies himself as gender neutral and goes by the name of Sasha, remained hospitalized in San Francisco with severe burns on Thursday and was listed in stable condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The teen will require several surgeries to recover, according to a website posted by family members to raise money for the victim's medical treatment.

"The intentional and callous nature of the crime is shocking and will not be tolerated in our community," Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said in a statement.

Thomas stood in a glass cage in Superior Court out of view of observers and told Judge Gregory Syren that his relatives were trying to hire a lawyer to defend him against the charges.

A woman who identified herself as the suspect's grandmother begged the judge for more time to find an attorney. Syren postponed proceedings for entering of a plea until Tuesday and ordered Thomas to remain in custody without bail.

Outside the courtroom, Thomas's mother, who gave her name only as Ms. Jackson, denied that her son was homophobic or that he meant to hurt anyone.

"My son is not a hateful person," she said. "He's not homophobic. He was joking, and he didn't know it would go that far."

"I am very sorry, very sorry for my son's actions," Jackson told reporters, adding that her son, too, was remorseful and was drafting a letter of apology to the burn victim. "I did not raise him that way."

Police arrested Thomas at Oakland High School, where he is a student, on Tuesday after examining surveillance video from the city bus that allegedly showed him setting the victim's skirt on fire.

Tiffany Woods, a liaison between the transgender community and Oakland police, said Fleischman identified as gender neutral or "agender" and was a "well-liked kid."

Trevor Cralle, director of the Maybeck High School in Berkeley, where Fleischman is a senior, described the teen as a "wonderful, exceptional student."

(Reporting by Ronnie Cohen; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Steve Gorman and Ken Wills