Subject: [iyf] IYF-Winchell/Brandon Teena Verdicts
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 21:44:26 -0500
From: owner-iyf-online@gpac.org

MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Editor: Clare Howell, clare@gpac.org

.GUILTY VERDICT IN WINCHELL MURDER CASE
.BRANDON TEENA'S MOTHER WINS WRONGFUL DEATH 
 SUIT

GUILTY VERDICT IN WINCHELL MURDER CASE
======================================

[Fort Campbell, KY: 9 Dec 99] PVT. CALVIN 
Glover was found guilty of premeditated 
murder by a military court here yesterday 
in the killing of PFC. Barry Winchell. 
Winchell was beaten to death with a baseball 
ball as he slept in his barracks on 5 Jul 99.

	PFC. Winchell had been the target of 
anti-gay harassment for several months prior 
to the killing after he began dating trans-
gender woman Calpernia Adams, who was 
identified in the New York Times today as 
a female impersonator.

	National gay and lesbian groups seized 
on the killing as an illustration of how the 
military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy 
does not work. 

	The presiding judge named Spec. Justin 
Fisher as an accomplice in the murder for 
giving Glover the baseball bat and encouraging 
him to attack Winchell. Fisher is to be tried 
in a separate court-marshal that begins on 
Monday. 

	Pvt. Glover is to be sentenced this 
week. He could receive life in prison.

		###

Contact: Gwendolyn Ann Smith, 
	   gwen@gwensmith.com

BRANDON TEENA'S MOTHER WINS WRONGFUL DEATH 
SUIT
==========================================

[Falls City, NE: 9 Dec 99] JO ANN BRANDON 
won a wrongful death suit against Richardson 
County, Nebraska this week and was awarded 
$17,360, a amount characterized by her lawyer 
as "so insignificant that it tends to 
trivialize the whole matter."

	The "whole matter" was the murder of 
Brandon Teena, a 21 year-old transgender man, 
who was stabbed and shot to death on 31 Dec 
93 by John Lotter and Thomas Nissen after 
having been raped by the two men six days 
earlier. Brandon went to County Sheriff 
Charles Laux and reported the rape, but Laux 
took no action against the rapists. As Lotter 
and Nissen promised Brandon they would if he 
reported the rape, they returned the following 
week and killed him. Thus Jo Ann Brandon's 
wrongful death suit against Richardson County.
 
	The Lincoln Journal Star quotes District 
Judge Orville Coady as saying that former 
Sheriff Laux "should apologize to [Brandon's] 
family, her friends, and to his community" for 
referring to Brandon as an "it" while inter-
viewing Brandon after the rape. Judge Coady 
ruled that Richardson County should have 
provided protective custody for Brandon after 
the rape, or at least transported him to 
Lincoln and the safety of his family. In trial 
testimony, investigators who worked with Laux 
questioned his decision not to arrest Brandon's 
attackers and characterized his interview with 
Brandon as "intimidating and abusive."

	Despite the evidence, the judge ruled 
that Laux did not inflict intentional emotional 
distress on Brandon and imposed no judgment 
against Laux. 

	Ms. Brandon's attorney called the judge's 
ruling a legal and moral victory, although he 
said they would most likely appeal the decision 
saying that the award should have been several 
hundred thousand dollars.

		### 

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