Calif. Police Falsely Arrest Transgender, Class Action Says

A transgender woman recently filed a class action lawsuit against the San Jose Police Department, claiming she was discriminated against and unlawfully arrested.

Roxanne Bohren says she arrived in downtown San Jose via public transit in July 2019. Roxanne, who reportedly works as an attorney, had allegedly spent her day speaking on behalf of transgender women in San Francisco before returning to the city with another transgender woman.

Both Roxanne and her companion reportedly walked to Roxanne’s home in San Jose, after which her companion left for the store and Roxanne went for a walk.

After an hour of walking, Roxanne says, she returned home. When she neared her house, Roxanne allegedly noticed a vehicle “moving strangely.”

Roxanne says she started to grow concerned and hoped the vehicle would leave after she stopped at a neighbor’s fence. After the vehicle failed to leave, Roxanne allegedly kept walking past her house and stopped behind a laundromat.

Finally, the vehicle seemed to leave – prompting Roxanne to cautiously return to her home. However, the vehicle reappeared and Roxanne started to rush home.

A marked San Jose police car reportedly sped towards Roxanne, going the wrong way on a one-way street.

The police officers inside allegedly ordered Roxanne to come toward the vehicle. After she complied, Roxanne was allegedly told she was under arrest. When she asked the officers why, one of the officers simply said: “You know.”

After being taken to a local holding area, Roxanne asked to speak to a supervisor, who allegedly insulted her repeatedly by using her dead name – or the name she was given at birth but no longer uses. Even when Roxanne told the San Jose police officers she lived on the street and owned the house she lived in, the officers allegedly “laughed and ridiculed her.”

Later on, Bohren was allegedly told that a directive had been issued “from the top” requiring officers to take street walkers to jail. Based on this, Roxanne says she reasoned that the officers considered her to be a prostitute.

“Plaintiff believed, and on the basis of that belief, alleges that she was arrested solely because she is transgendered and was walking at night,” the San Jose Police Department class action lawsuit alleges.

Bohren says she was later taken to jail. When passing her house, she claims to have requested that she be allowed to lock her house and close her gate. Again, the officers allegedly laughed at her request and refused, causing her to agonize “for the duration of the night and worried about her home being left unsecured.”

Once at the jail, the San Jose police officers allegedly processed Roxanne as a male despite her request to be held with other transgendered women. As a result, she was allegedly placed in a filthy cell covered in excrement and vomit.

In the morning, Roxanne was allegedly released and charged with a violation of a California penal code that focuses on loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution.

At the same time, her friend who rode the bus with her and hadn’t been seen since she left for the store, was released — she had been picked up during the same sweep. When the women left the jail, the jail personnel allegedly continued to disrespect them by laughing at them as they started to walk home.

Although Roxanne was told to appear in court in September 2019, she was told after appearing that no complaint had been filed. Despite not facing charges for doing nothing wrong, Roxanne argues that she was discriminated against and had her rights violated.

Roxanne claims the San Jose Police Department has encouraged their officers to unlawfully target suspected sex workers, arrest people for prostitution without warrants or probable cause and discriminate against transgender people due to a lack of training, supervision and discipline.

The San Jose police class action lawsuit argues that the officers violated Roxanne’s constitutional rights under the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. According to Roxanne, many other transgender individuals may have had their rights similarly violations.

Roxanne seeks to represent a Class of transgender people who have been criminalized for “appear[ing] in public wearing the dress not assigned to their sex,” falsely arrested for loitering or prostitution, otherwise hassled or incarcerated against their will with self-identified males by the San Jose Police Department since 1882.

Have you or someone you know been wrongly detained by police officers? Let us know in the comment section below.

Roxanne is represented by Bruce W. Nickerson.

The San Jose Police Transgender Arrest Class Action Lawsuit is Roxanne Bohren v. City of San Jose, et al., Case No. 5:20-cv-04529, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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