Judge with career prospects transfers serial rapist and pedophile to women’s prison

At a meeting of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Judge Sarah Netburn was heavily questioned about her recommendation to transfer a serial sex offender and pedophile to a women’s prison.

background

The Biden administration nominated Netburn to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – the legal equivalent of a promotion. The Senate Judiciary Committee must confirm Netburn’s nomination before she can join the higher court.

Netburn appeared before the committee to answer senators’ questions about her career and qualifications.

Senators John Kennedy (LA) and Ted Cruz (TX) immediately bombarded Netburn with questions about a report she wrote in 2022 in which she advocated transferring William McClain, a man who identifies as a woman, to a women’s prison.

William McClain

William McClain committed numerous sexual crimes against children over more than two decades.

In 1994, McClain pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a nine-year-old boy and raping a 17-year-old girl. He served 18 years in an Indiana prison, followed by six years for violating his probation.

After his release in 2015, McClain began undergoing medical procedures to “treat” his diagnosed gender identity disorder. He received Depo-Provera injections – also known as chemical castration – for six months before beginning treatment with cross-sex hormones.

He then changed his name to “July Justine Shelby” and began dressing as a woman.

Although he later testified in court that he had been given Depo-Provera injections because he “wanted to make sure he never committed a sex crime again,” McClain pleaded guilty in 2017 to acquiring and distributing child pornography, a federal offense.

According to an affidavit filed by cybercrime investigator Darin Odier, McClain admitted to finding several images of child pornography and sending them to a man named Beau Thornburgh, a sex offender he met in prison and developed a romantic relationship with.

Of the two images listed in the affidavit – although Odier said there were “several” – one showed the sexual abuse of an infant.

McClain began his sentence in a men’s prison in southern New York State, where he received regular psychiatric care and continued to take cross-sex hormones. In 2022, he moved to a women’s facility in Texas.

Netburn’s recommendation

In 2020, McClain accused the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to transfer him to a women’s facility – a request that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Transgender Executive Council rejected no fewer than four times.

The case landed on Netburn’s desk in 2022. In August of that year, she released a report finding that McClain’s rights had been violated and recommended that he be transferred to a women’s prison.

Based on Netburn’s report and recommendation, U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick ordered McClain to be transferred to a women’s facility in 2022.

The hearing

Senator Kennedy opened the investigation into McClain and asked Netburn if she remembered him and the crimes he had committed.

When Netburn confirmed that she had dismissed McClain, Kennedy clarified:

So (McClain) said, “I don’t want to go to a men’s prison, I want to go to a women’s prison.” And the prison authorities said, “What planet did you fly in here from? With a criminal record like that, you’re going to go to a men’s prison.” And you sent him to a women’s prison, didn’t you?

Netburn steadfastly stated that she based her report on the facts presented to her, but Cruz felt that she had missed one crucial factor.

A minute ago you said this person was “sober and a pure woman.” That statement struck me as remarkable. Did this person have male genitalia?”

Netburn admitted that this was the case and clarified that he had become “hormonally a woman”.

Cruz summed up:

So you took a 6’2″ serial child molester with male genitalia and he said, “You know, I’d like to be in a women’s prison.” And you said, “That sounds great to me.” Let me ask you something – do the other women in this prison have any rights?

The report

Netburn assured Cruz that female prisoners did indeed have rights – but a closer look at Netburn’s 2022 report suggests she wasn’t too worried about it.

Netburn is candid in pointing out that prisons are free to decide whether to transfer inmates who identify as transgender to a prison for the opposite sex, based on factors such as “security level,” “criminal history,” and “likelihood of having committed abuse.”

But despite the BOP’s statement that McClain’s transfer would jeopardize its responsibility to “protect female prisoners from sexual violence and trauma,” Netburn overruled their decision and came to the simple conclusion:

There is no indication that (McClain) would reoffend.

Your reasoning?

• “(He) has not sexually harassed anyone since 1993.”
• “(McClain) is a different person than he was in 1993 … and has maximized and stabilized (his) target hormones within the target ranges for transgender women.”
• “The record contains no evidence of incidents of violence or assault during the plaintiff’s detention in which he was the perpetrator.”
• “The BOP presents no evidence that (McClain) has sexually harassed or would harass other prisoners in a women’s prison or that (he) poses a greater threat to women than any other prisoner.”

Netburn also ignores the BOP’s concerns that McClain refused to participate in a sex offender rehabilitation program, pointing out that he had already participated in a similar program while incarcerated in Indiana.

Netburn does not take the following into account at any time:

• McClain traded in child pornography after to take chemical castration injections, to complete a rehabilitation program for sex offenders and during participate actively in psychotherapy and the intake of opposite-sex hormones.
• His acquisition and distribution of explicit child pornography may indicate an ongoing pattern of predatory behavior.
• His spotless past came from a men’s institution – far away from his preferred victims.
• His stature (1.88 m) and greater bone density by definition make him a greater threat to women than other women in a women’s facility.

Instead, Netburn simply called the BOP’s concerns “exaggerated,” “hypothetical” and based on “prejudice and fear” and called for McClain to be placed in a women’s facility as soon as possible.

Why it is important

Judge Sarah Netburn used her position to transfer a man guilty of multiple crimes against teenagers and children to a women’s prison. Two years later, she petitioned the Senate for a promotion.

The Daily Citizen is extremely concerned about this reality.

It is cruel and unusual punishment to place a male inmate, let alone a sex offender, in a women’s prison. Regardless of whether Netburn’s recommendation reflects her personal ideology, it is a grim reflection of what our citizens have learned to tolerate – and even celebrate.

And that’s not all: it’s becoming more common every year.

As of August 2023, there were 1,980 inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons who identified as transgender, a 23% increase from October 2022.

Of the 1,295 men who say they are women, a staggering 47% are in prison for sexual offences, compared to just 12.2% of the general population. Of this group, 37% are in maximum security prison, more than three times the rate of the general population.

This is the path that gender ideology has paved – a creeping descent into a world where the mental illness and desires of a child-abusing man are placed above the physical and emotional well-being of an entire group of women.

This is not an acceptable worldview, let alone a virtuous one. Do not give it a place in your homes, in your schools, and in your hearts.

More articles and resources

Transgender Resources

New documentary series paints a terrifying picture of women forced to live with men in prison

Female prisoners are asking for help in the face of California law that allows men who identify as women to be housed in all-female prisons

Lawsuit filed against California over admission of men to women’s prisons