A transgender woman arrested during the Baltimore protests this weekis being held in a male holding cell and forced to wear a revealing tank top, according to her lawyer.
Astrid Munn, a criminal defense attorney with the law firm Seddiq Law, told Mashable that she represents the 30-year-old protester, who has identified as a woman since she was 14.
Munn, who didnβt want to name the woman out of concern for her safety, said police initially booked her client as a woman but that when her client was transferred to Baltimoreβs central booking facilities, officials discovered old paperwork showing she had been assigned maleat birth. Officials then forced the woman to remove her bra and hand it over to officials, giving her a semi-transparent tank top that reveals the outline of her nipples, the lawyer said.
βIn every respect, sheβs a woman,β Munn said. βShe stood in stark contrast to the [men] in the jail.β
She added that officers and detainees in Baltimoreβs central booking facility bullied her client, and that the judge told her client, βyou donβt look like a man,β when she entered the courtroom.
Mirriam Seddiq, who heads up the law firm Munn works for, said officials seemed unconcerned that the woman had been βharassedβ and was being held in an inappropriate location. Β
βThey were like βtoo badβ,β said Seddiq.
The womanβs bail was originally set at $75,000, but was pushed up to $100,000 shortly thereafter, though she was charged with fourth-degree burglary, a misdemeanor. She earns about $300 a week in a salon and is also on public assistance.
The woman was at a clothing store on Pennsylvania Avenue, in the midst of Monday nightβs riots, when looting began. According to Munn, the woman was recording video on her phone while others were looting around her when police swooped her up in a mass arrest of 14 people.
Baltimore police has arrested 235 people since Monday night, according to city officials. Maryland law requires arrestees to receive a court hearing within 24 hours of their arrest, but the majority of those 235 did not received one in that time frame.
On Thursday morning, nearly 200 people were freed after a local criminal defense attorney filed a Habeas Corpus petition. But dozens of others still remain in the cityβs jails.

















