Transgender woman left with broken jaw after guards put her in male prison, lawsuit claims

Guards repeatedly misgendered her before the assault took place

A transgender woman was badly beaten after being forced to share a jail cell with three men last year, leaving her with a jaw fractured in two places, according to a lawsuit.

Kristina Frost is suing San Diego County and its sheriff’s department for damages, accusing them of negligence and failure to protect or deliberate indifference to safety risks and needs.

According to the lawsuit, Ms Frost’s driver’s licence and other paperwork said she was a woman, and she had been wearing “feminine” clothes at the time of her booking.

However, she was placed against her wishes in a “minimally monitored” cell with three men, as deputies allegedly repeatedly misgendered her both verbally and on official reports.

One of the men she was forced to share a cell with viciously assaulted her in her sleep, breaking her jaw with “closed-fist punches" to the face during the attack, the lawsuit claims.

According to Ms Frost, none of the deputies who witnessed the assault “immediately intervened” to help, reports Insider.

Ms Frost needed two surgeries for her broken jaw and now has to wear dentures as a result of her injuries, according to the lawsuit.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Policy says the gender identity of arrestees should be respected, and training documents specify that people spending time in jail should be taken to prison facilities that are suitable for their gender identity.

However, a 2020 NBC News investigation showed that this is rarely the case, with transgender people in US prisons almost always placed in cells according to the gender assigned to them at birth.

NBC News’s research tracked 4,890 transgender state prisoners and was able to confirm just 15 cases in which a person was housed according to their lived gender.

Ms Frost’s daughter is currently running a fundraising effort to pay for her mother’s hospital bills at gofundme.com.