NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A man who dresses as a woman is suing Metro Nashville and the company that runs one of the jails.
Fifty-two-year-old Carla Brenner, also known as Lamonda Fuller, has filed a $20 million dollar suit in federal court. Brenner said jailers violated his constitutional rights by forcing him to live with female inmates.
Brenner is a man who dresses up as a woman. He lives in the St. Louis area.
"I was born male, and I'm still male. I have no intentions of being a female. I'm a female impersonator. I'm an entertainer. I do drag shows," Brenner said.
In 2011, he pleaded guilty to a theft charge in Nashville and was sentenced to spend several months in the Metro jail run by CCA on Harding Road. Brenner said he was purposely placed in the female facility even after telling jailers he was a man.
"I was strip searched, completely naked, with the women. I was showered with the women. I was sexually assaulted on two separate occasions in the shower by women," said Brenner.
His attorney James Roberts filed a $20 million federal lawsuit against Metro and CCA. The lawsuit said they violated Brenner's federal constitutional rights resulting in physical and emotional trauma.
"Metro pretty much told her if she told anybody she was really a male that they were going to lock her up in what they call the hole, which is solitary confinement, that they would punish her if she revealed her true identity,' said Brenner's Attorney, James Roberts.
CCA issued a written statement, but wouldn't talk about Brenner specifically.
Public Affairs Director Steve Owen said, "For security and privacy reasons, we cannot address specific details of an inmate's housing or custody."
He also said the company's goal is to house inmates in the safest environment possible.
Brenner said CCA and Metro failed in a big way.
This is not the first time Carla Brenner has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a jail. He filed a sexual discrimination suit against a sheriff in Kansas 20 years ago. Brenner eventually dropped the case.
