San Diego Sheriff’s Department logo. (Photo by Tristan Loper)
SAN DIEGO | Kristina Frost, a transgender woman, was “viciously attacked” after being placed in a men’s holding cell by the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, according to court documents.
Frost was a book-and-release detainee at the San Diego Central Jail in November of 2020. After informing the jail staff that she is a trans woman, she was placed in a holding cell alone. Frost’s DMV records and driver’s license state her gender is female, according to a civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
But she was later moved to a “minimally monitored” cell with three men “without any reasonable justification,” according to the lawsuit.
“No reasonable deputy would have put Ms. Frost in a minimally monitored cell with three men,” her lawyers wrote. “She was forced into the cell anyway.”
Frost eventually fell asleep in the cell but awoke to one of the men striking her head with closed fist punches, resulting in a broken jaw that has required two surgeries.
The lawsuit alleges that deputies observed the assault but didn’t immediately intervene. Frost said one or more deputies paused before they entered the cell and removed the assailant.
Frost then had to wait upwards of 12 hours without medical care before she was released, according to the complaint.
San Diego Sheriff’s Department Deputy Mason Cassidy, who is named as one of the defendants in the case, is believed to be the one who placed Frost in the men’s cell. The lawsuit states that Cassidy “was deliberately indifferent to Ms. Frost’s safety risks and needs as a pretrial detainee.”
The County of San Diego, San Diego County Sheriff William Gore and other unknown San Diego Sheriff’s Department personnel are also named as defendants in the case.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department told the Los Angeles Blade that they “are committed to an inclusive environment within our agency and the communities we serve.”
“The incident occurred in November 2020 in a temporary holding cell during the Intake process, not a housing unit,” the department said. “It was in the Intake area of the facility, where people are waiting to complete the booking process or pending release. Miss Kristina Frost was temporarily placed in a holding cell with other individuals who were also identified as being in protective custody status. The person who allegedly assaulted Miss Frost stated he was assaulted by Miss Frost first and stated he acted in self-defense. Additionally, Miss Frost declined to press charges.”
The Blade attempted to reach the County of San Diego for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publishing this article.
The complaint also alleges that the incident involving Frost was “foreseeable” as department personnel have shown a pattern of failing to keep people in custody safe.
“The mortality rate in San Diego County jails is the highest among California’s largest counties,” Frost’s attorneys wrote. “At least 140 people died in County custody from 2009 to 2019.”
Frost’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment, but one of Frost’s lawyers, Brody McBride, told ABC 10 News San Diego that he hopes some good comes out of the case.
“Hopefully the sheriff’s department takes this incident serious and makes the changes necessary to ensure people in their care are kept safe and treated with dignity,” McBride said.
According to a 2020 NBC News report, trans people are often housed according to their sex assigned at birth, not their gender identity. Out of 4,890 trans prisoners across the U.S., NBC News could only confirm 15 cases in which a trans prisoner was housed according to their lived gender.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law this past September requiring prisons in the state to house trans people according to their gender identity.
