U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen (photo courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A Maryland man who pleaded guilty in March to hitting a transgender woman multiple times with a handgun during an altercation in Northeast Washington was sentenced on Monday to 28 months, or two and one-third years, in prison, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Michael Phillips, 36, of Fairmount Heights, Md., had previously pleaded guilty to one count of bias-motivated assault with a dangerous weapon stemming from an incident in January that took place inside a convenience store in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue NE, located in the city’s Burrville neighborhood, on the District’s eastern border with Maryland.
On Monday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert I. Richter sentenced Phillips to 28 months in prison, a term that includes the bias enhancements, which are known colloquially as hate crime charges. Once he completes his prison term, Phillips will be placed on supervised release for three more years.
According to evidence provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Phillips approached the victim, who had entered the store with her friends, around 2:40 a.m. on January 27, saying, “Let me see who’s the real bitch here.”
Phillips pointed at the transgender woman and made a derogatory remark about her sexuality. When the victim told him to leave her alone, Phillips allegedly responded, “Well, you wasn’t born no female.”
The two continued to exchange words, at which point, according to the government’s evidence, Phillips approached the victim, took out a handgun, and beat her across the face with the weapon multiple times. At his plea hearing in March, Phillips admitted he had attacked the woman because of personal biases based on her perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. Neither Phillips nor the victim knew one another prior to the incident.
In touting the successful sentencing of Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen commended the work of the Metropolitan Police Department for investigating and arresting the defendant, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Long, the lead prosecutor, and paralegal specialist Richard Cheatham for their work on the case.
A federal judge has ordered Ruby Corado to be held in custody while she awaits sentencing on a federal wire fraud charge. The founder of the now-shuttered D.C. LGBTQ nonprofit Casa Ruby pleaded guilty in July 2024 and had been under house arrest at her niece's home in Rockville, Maryland, while awaiting sentencing.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden postponed Corado's October 15 sentencing hearing after Elizabeth Mullin, her court-appointed public defender, withdrew from the case, citing "an irreconcilable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship."
A new survey finds that many LGBTQ Americans -- especially transgender and nonbinary people -- have altered their lives in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ laws and rhetoric sweeping the country, with many reporting serious harm to their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Conducted from May 29 to June 13 by NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel for the Movement Advancement Project, the online survey polled 1,055 LGBTQ adults nationwide, including 111 who identified as transgender or nonbinary.
Operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to reflect the U.S. household population. Randomly selected households are contacted through mail, email, phone, or in-person interviews.
A video shows a Burger King manager -- who also owns the franchise -- ordering an irate female customer to leave after she tried to get an employee disciplined for allegedly misgendering her, despite the fact that she had repeatedly misgendered the worker first.
It’s unclear when the video was recorded, but it has been circulating widely in recent days.
The video, filmed from the customer’s point of view, opens with her at a Kansas Burger King demanding to speak with the manager. A male employee goes to get the manager, prompting the customer to demand the manager’s full name. The employee tells her he doesn’t know the manager’s last name.
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