Transgender Arizona prison inmate attacked by cellmate wins $10,000 in civil rights lawsuit

TUCSON, AZ (AP) — A transgender woman who was attacked by a male inmate in the men’s section of an Arizona prison has been awarded $10,000 in compensation in a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Grace Pinson, 38, listed in court documents as Jeremy Pinson, represented himself in a four-day trial in federal court in Tucson.

She demanded nearly $300,000 in damages.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez closed the case on June 20, awarding Pinson $10,000 “for her physical injuries, her pain and suffering, and her emotional distress resulting from the physical injuries.”

In court documents, Pinson said her cellmate attempted to rape her in July 2019 and then beat her with clenched fists for several minutes.

Pinson was taken to hospital for treatment of a broken nose.

Marquez discovered that prison staff had no advance knowledge that Pinson was being threatened by her cellmate.

However, the judge said the Tucson prison was negligent in failing to ensure that Pinson’s cell had a working panic alarm to notify staff in the event of an emergency.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement Wednesday that the agency does not comment on litigation for privacy and security reasons.

“FBOP takes our duty to protect the individuals entrusted to our care and to ensure the safety of correctional officers and the community very seriously,” the statement continued. “We make every effort to ensure the physical safety and health of individuals housed in our facilities through a controlled environment that is safe and humane.”

Pinson was accused of writing threatening letters to politicians and a federal judge in Oklahoma and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2007.

In her online blog, Pinson said she was transferred from a prison in Minnesota to the U.S. maximum security prison in Tucson after filing a lawsuit for “gender reassignment surgery.”

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