Lawsuit: Male Rikers Island Inmate Identifying as a Woman Raped Female Prisoner

A male Rikers Island inmate identifying as a woman raped a female prisoner, according to a lawsuit.

The lawsuit also claims that the male inmate told a person at the women’s prison that he was not transgender and was just there “to get pussy.”

A former inmate at Rikers Island says she was raped by a male inmate who identified as a woman at the prison and that her repeated complaints to Department of Correction (DOC) staff were ignored, a lawsuit filed in November states, according to a report by the New York Post.

“The perpetrator informed [a transgender inmate] that he was not transgender, or gay, but that he was just there ‘to get p—y,'” the complaint reads.

New York City — along with correction officers Jennifer Cruz and Rashida King — are named as defendants in the suit.

The plaintiff, identified as Rose Doe, says she was sexually propositioned, groped, and raped by the male prisoner in April 2022 after he was moved to the “protective custody” dorm at Rikers Island’s Rose M. Singer (RMSC) women’s jail.

After female inmates expressed their concerns, “Defendant Cruz told Plaintiff and the other female inmates in no uncertain terms that she did not care what happened to them, saying, ‘I don’t give a f–k,'” the complaint alleges.

Within the first two days of the male inmate being transferred to the all-female dorm, he stared at Doe, then 21, “while he masturbated,” the lawsuit claims.

During a second alleged incident, the male inmate “exited the [restroom] stall with his erect penis exposed and groped [her] buttocks,” after which a jail guard “did nothing except yell” for the man to leave the restroom, the complaint adds.

Doe filed two complaints with DOC staff after those alleged incidents. The complaints were then reviewed by the acting warden of the RMSC, Floyd Phipps, who later sent an email to staff saying he believed the male inmate in question was “not a suitable fit for RMSC” and that Doe did “not want to remain in the unit due to feeling unsafe.”

However, correction staff did not remove the male inmate from the women’s dorm, the complaint claims.

That following morning, while Doe “was sleeping in her bed, the Perpetrator took the opportunity to sexually assault [Doe] again — pull[ing] down her pants while she was sleeping and begin[ing] to rape her,” the lawsuit reads.

After that, DOC staff, including Rivera and King, allegedly stopped Doe from seeking medical attention for most of the day and also refused to remove the male prisoner from the dorm, the complaint states.

The next day, the male inmate was “quietly” sent back to his original dorm, and Doe was ordered to the general population “as punishment for reporting her sexual assaults,” the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint also states that Doe believes the male prisoner was “instructed to claim that he was transgender by DOC staff so that he could stay in the female dorm where he would have access to female inmates.”

“We have some accounts from inside the prison that, as the [transfer] request was being made — the [DOC] officer said something along the lines of ‘If you want to go into the women’s facility, all you have to do is say you’re trans[gender],'” Doe’s attorney, Nicholas Liakas, told the New York Post.

Notably, the male prisoner in question had been implicated in at least five Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) claims, all of which were still open cases when he was being transferred to the all-female dorm, the complaint states.

In August 2023, he was transferred to state prison, according to a DOC representative.

Doe’s attorney said she chose to use an alias in the lawsuit because she has a criminal case pending against her and is afraid of retaliation if she is sent back to prison.

“She very well may be sent to prison. She’s afraid that if her name gets out there, there will be retaliation in the prison system,” Liakas told the New York Post.

Liakas added that his office and Doe do not necessarily have an issue with transgender people, saying, “This is more so a matter of safety and the fact that someone can use this hot button issue as essentially a loophole to gain access to women inside of Rikers.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.