Tavoy Malcom, charged with conning several elderly women of their savings, is suing the federal federal government for housing her, a trans woman, with male inmates. (Instagram)
After her pleas were repeatedly ignored, a trans woman is suing the American federal government after she was raped by two inmates after being housed with men.
Tavoy Malcolm, 29, is taking legal action after administrators ignored her request to be housed with female inmates.
She was arrested in 2017 for wire and bank fraud after allegedly conning several pensioners out of their life savings totalling around $600,000, according to the New York Daily News.
Trans woman raped by male inmates before being degraded by correction officers, lawsuit says.
Malcolm bankrolled her lifestyle of Christian Louboutin heels and Mercedes Benz rides by conning senior citizens into thinking they had won the lottery to swipe their banking details.
While awaiting trial at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Malcolm detailed in the suit the degrading and abusive treatment she suffered from male inmates.
Malcolm, alongside her accomplice Lorindo Powell, both pleaded guilty to charges. At the time of her pleas, she said, she was in the middle of going through gender affirmation surgery.
However, Malcolm claimed authorities nevertheless housed her with male inmates. Two of whom, she said, raped her over the course of two months.
“I served the first five months of my sentence on the ‘male’ side because they needed some form of classification as it relates to my gender, although my documents state that I am a female,” Malcolm told the STAR last year.
I was sexually assaulted by other inmates, it was very difficult.
“They didn’t move me over to the female side when the abuse initially happened but they did when the guys had started fighting over me and after my lawyer got involved.”
But even after her request was answered and she was moved in with female inmates, the lawsuit states, male correction officers subjected her with harassment and abuse.
“Only after plaintiff was assaulted and then raped did Bureau of Prisons transfer plaintiff to a female housing unit,” the lawsuit said.
“Even after her transfer, plaintiff continued to be subjected to harassment and intimidation by BOP correction officers.”