Lawsuit alleges LA County Sheriff’s Department housed trans woman with men

This story was originally reported by Kate Sosin of The 19th. Meet Kate and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

Coretta Simo Love Monk’s California ID said she was female. She had been living as a woman for years. She had breasts. When she was arrested in September 2023, she asked jail guards to place her with other women. But the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department jailed her with men and forced her to shower with them. In custody, she attempted suicide.

That is according to a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department working its way through Superior Court of California, alleging that the department violated Monk’s right to safe housing. The case is set for trial in May.

Monk is a transgender woman. Her case raises serious questions about how the County of Los Angeles, often held up as a national standard for transgender policy, adheres to the law when it comes to detaining transgender individuals.

According to her attorney, Carlos Hernandez, Monk’s detention from September 2023 to March 2024 was the second time she was housed with men. The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act requires jails and prisons to make decisions about housing transgender people on a case-by-case basis, taking into account where they feel safest.

Monk was held in the county’s Twin Towers facility, a mental health jail in downtown Los Angeles. She was detained without formal charges or conviction, following a nuisance violation related to a mental health crisis, Hernandez said.

Her detainment only exacerbated her symptoms, according to the lawsuit.

Monk’s “only opportunity to shower was with men, a dangerous, degrading, and humiliating situation because of her sex/gender identification,” the suit claims. Monk skipped showering for months altogether, the complaint alleges.

It goes on to claim that “in a state of complete despair and agony, [she] attempted to end her life by drowning herself in a filthy toilet while at Twin Towers.” Monk was hospitalized at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center following the incident before ultimately being released.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the department “takes all allegations of discrimination, including those related to gender identity, seriously and is committed to upholding the safety, dignity, and rights of all individuals in our care.”

The spokesperson said the department was not immediately familiar with Monk’s case and did not respond to follow-up requests to comment, but did state that the department complies with federal law for placing transgender detainees.

“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department continues to reaffirm our commitment to creating an environment that is fair and respectful for all individuals, regardless of their gender identity,” the statement read.

The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act bars detention centers from placing transgender people based on genitalia alone. But research shows that most prisons and jails have long ignored the federal mandate when it comes to placing transgender people.

Monk, however, has identification stating she is legally female, which her lawyer believes strengthens her case.

Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Monk’s case is not the first time that the LA County Sheriff’s Department has been accused of abusing or mistreatingtransgender people. Last year, a sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty to beating 23-year-old Emmett Brock, a transgender man who had not been implicated in a crime. Eight other deputies were also relieved of their duties following the incident.

Hernandez said that LA County has improved some of its policies for placing transgender detainees in recent years, working in partnership with local LGBTQ+ organizations.

“When you have a trans individual, they're generally put into a special population, like an LGBT population, sort of separated from the general population,” Hernandez said.

The lawsuit asserts, however, that didn’t happen to Monk at Twin Towers mental health jail.

“You have here an individual where they knew that she already had vulnerabilities,” said Hernandez. “Despite that, she's placed in a situation … subjecting her already to the kind of degradation that would break anyone down.”