Female impersonator Carla Brenner (pictured), who also goes by the name of Lamonda Fuller, has filed a federal $20 million lawsuit against the city of Nashville and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the company that owns the Metro-Davidson Correctional Detention Facility, for placing him with female inmates after revealing he was a male, reports the Daily Mail.
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The 52-year-old entertainer, who performs in drag, pleaded guilty last year to a Nashville theft charge and was sentenced to do a three-year stint at a city jail. Even though Brenner was examined by two facility physicians before he began serving time, he was still placed among female inmates despite his constant protests.
The performer told the Daily Mail, “How can you not tell a vagina from a penis? They had two doctors — someone from the Board of Health and a Metro administrator — come to the jail. And they had me get on the table and examined me and everything. They also said I was female. I don’t understand that,” Brenner contends.
The St. Louis resident insists that even though prison officials knew he was a female performer, who was still anatomically male, they still made the decision to categorize him as “female.”
Brenner states in his lawsuit that he was sexually assaulted on two occasions in the shower at the jail. He also claims that whenever he tried to lodge a complaint, he was threatened with solitary confinement by prison heads. Brenner also contends that his three-month jail term was so emotionally debilitating that he even entertained taking his own life, “I survived it through the grace of God, because it was hell. I had contemplated suicide. It was horrible.”
Watch his/her unfortunate “situation” here:
According to Brenner’s attorney, James Roberts, his client’s constitutional rights were violated, and because of this, he endured both physical and emotional harm. Metro’s decision was, “Let’s do it the easy way. She looks female on the outside. We will lie to everybody and say she’s a female,” even though they knew she was a male the entire time,’ Roberts said. When Metro takes shortcuts like that, people get hurt, people get killed, and people’s rights get violated,’ he added.
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An unidentified CCA spokesperson told WSMV-TV that Brenner checked a box on his admission form that indicated he was categorizing himself as “female.” The company also issued a statement with regards to Brenner’s accusations:
Our goal is always to house inmates in the safest environment possible. This includes a professional, individual assessment of both the risk factors of their own unique circumstances and the safety needs of those around them.
