Dominican woman classified as man sues US prison

A Dominican woman wrongly classified as a man in a Miami prison and put in a cell with 40 male inmates is suing the authorities and seeking USD 750,000 in compensation.
The woman, Fior Pichardo de Veloz, a lawyer and mother of three children, was arrested in November 2013 on a charge related to drug trafficking.
She is suing the prison authorities on charges of violating her constitutional rights, negligence and violation of privacy after being harassed and threatened with rape in a 10-hour ordeal at the facility.
Months later, the authorities dismissed the charges and she returned to the Dominican Republic, where she lives.

In her suit filed this week in a US federal court in Miami, a medical examination at the time of her arrest determined that Pichardo had "non-traditional male characteristics" that warranted further review.
Questioned by AFP, the lawyers for the 54-year-old Dominicana did not explain the nature of those characteristics.

Three male nurses of the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department examined Pichardo and determined she was a man, according to the document obtained yesterday by AFP.
Afterward, three prison officials reclassified her as a man after initially identifying her as a woman, and ordered her transfer to a male cell.

"After a 'review' by a nurse employed by Miami-Dade County, it was then determined that Pichardo had male reproductive organs and she was sent to a male-only facility. This identification was outrageously incorrect," her lawyers wrote in the court document.
"Pichardo is quite feminine and lacks any characteristics of someone who even remotely resembles a man," they said.
Confined with 40 male inmates, she was subjected to bullying and rape threats. According to the document, a prison official said to her in Spanish as he was locking her up: "Lucky if you live to see tomorrow."
Pichardo was forced to undergo two examinations of her genitals, which were photographed.

Finally she was sent to a solitary cell, where she feared for her life when male guards ordered her to disrobe, leered at her and took pictures.
About 10 hours later, the prison authorities reexamined her case and admitted the gender error.
"Pichardo continues to suffer emotional distress, fear for her life, hopelessness, despair, mental anguish, fear for her safety, and fear of being raped," the document said.
In addition, Pichardo, who is a public official in the Dominican Republic, was publicly humiliated by the experience, it said.