Woman sues park ranger for alleged transphobic tazing
By Arturo Garcia
Sunday, November 11, 2012 15:52 EST
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/11/woman-sues-park-ranger-for-allleged-transphobic-tazing/ A California woman filed a lawsuit against both the U.S. and a Bureau of Land Management ranger she said tazed her twice because she used to be a man.
According to KGTV-TV, Brooke Fantelli's lawsuit (PDF) names both "the United States of America" and the ranger, identified only as "J. Peter" as defendants for their roles in an Oct. 27 2011 encounter where the ranger tazed her twice despite her not resisting arrest.
At the time, Fantelli said she did refuse to lay down on the ground, but cell phone video she provided the station showed she was standing away from the ranger with her hands up in the air, seemingly not threatening him.
"I've got plenty of money invested in myself in the area of $65,000 worth of plastic surgery, braces and other things that are important to me," she said last year.
Fantelli was arrested and charged with public intoxication for the incident, and said the ranger, upon learning she was transgender by looking at her identification, switched from referring to her with female pronouns like "ma'am" and "miss" to calling her "dude" and "sir," and tazed her a second time in the genitalia while restraining her on the ground.
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Transgender woman files lawsuit after being Tased twice
Posted: 11/10/2012
By: Joe Little
http://www.10news.com/news/transgender-woman-files-lawsuit-after-being-tasked-twiceRAMONA, Calif. - A Ramona woman Friday filed what could be a multi-million dollar lawsuit that accuses a federal ranger of tasing her twice because she used to be a man.
10News obtained video of the 44-year-old transgender woman last year, shortly after the incident happened on Oct. 22, 2011, in an Imperial County desert. The video shows a Bureau of Land Management ranger pointing his Taser at Brooke Fantelli, who is seen holding her arms and hands in the air. She is then knocked down by the voltage from the Taser.
"To me, it was probably one of the worst days of my life," Fantelli said on Friday.
It only got worse for her, as the Ramona business owner said the ranger thought she was resisting arrest, even though her arms were in the air. Fantelli said the ranger's attitude got drastically worse when he learned she used to be a man.
