A federal judge has ordered the Indiana Department of Corrections to arrange urgent “gender affirming surgery” for a trans-identified male convicted of murdering a baby. In a shocking decision handed down last week, Judge Richard Young ruled that Autumn Cordellioné, born Jonathan Richardson, was suffering from “irreparable harm” from not having the various plastic surgeries he had requested, despite the fact that a psychiatrist testified that Richardson was not suffering from gender dysphoria.
The order is the latest update in a lengthy case that Richardson first filed in 2023 with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The suit was intended to challenge House Bill 1569, which took effect in July of 2023 and bans the spending of state dollars on sexual reassignment surgery for inmates. The bill, the ACLU argues, “mandates deliberate indifference to a serious medical need and therefore violates the Eighth Amendment.”
In the suit, ACLU lawyers refer to Richardson as an “adult transgender female prisoner confined in a male institution,” and complains that “the total ban on gender-affirming surgery violates [his] right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.”
Among a list of demands prepared by Richardson and presented as evidence in court was a document titled “Surgeries to Reach My Ideal Self.” The first item on the list, the court heard, was a “vagina,” followed by: breast implants, a brow lift, a brow reduction, a tummy tuck, gluteal implants (BBL), a uterus transplant, hair removal, and wigs.
However, during court proceedings Richardson stated that he had amended his demands to two surgeries, an orchiectomy and a penile inversion. In September of 2024, the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) was ordered to arrange the surgeries, but quickly encountered issues as the only provider of “gender affirming” surgery in the state refused to accept incarcerated patients.
IDOC later filed a motion to further challenge Richardson’s demands and the ACLU’s claims, this time entering testimony from an independent psychiatrist they had retained to offer a comprehensive analysis of Richardson’s preparedness for surgery.
After meeting with Richardson to perform an evaluation, Dr. Kelsey Beers concluded that Richardson was not suffering from gender dysphoria, but instead had “attention seeking” personality disorders that were not indicated for any medical interventions.
ACLU lawyers immediately disputed Dr. Beers’ findings, arguing that she was not competent on matters of “gender” for her testimony to be taken into consideration by the court.
On March 5, Judge Richard Young ruled that Richardson “has demonstrated that she is suffering irreparable harm and will continue to suffer such harm unless she is provided gender-affirming surgery. When balancing this harm against the harm Defendant would face if preliminary relief were granted, and when the impact of preliminary relief on the public is considered, the court finds that the balance of harms favors the issuance of a preliminary injunction.”
He then renewed the injunction demanding the IDOC seek to arrange Richardson’s surgery at the earliest possible opportunity.
Richardson is currently serving a 55-year sentence for the murder of his 11-month-old stepdaughter. As previously reported by Reduxx, Richardson had been left to care for the child while her mother was at work. That night, he was visited by friends who observed he was “acting strangely” and refused to invite them in the house as he normally would.
Despite claiming the little girl was sleeping, Richardson had loud music playing in the home, and his guests noted that he appeared to have a fresh, bleeding tattoo of the child’s name carved into his arm.
Later that night, after his friends left, Richardson went to his neighbor and asked him to call 911, claiming the child was unresponsive. When emergency personnel arrived, they were briefly able to resuscitate the girl, but she died shortly after being rushed to the hospital.
Richardson was interviewed by police, who noted he was “calm and unemotional” during questioning, and his story about what happened to the baby changed dramatically over the course of the two interviews conducted.
At first, Richardson claimed he found the baby unresponsive after doing some household chores. But in the next interview, Richardson said the child was being “fussier than usual” and he attempted to throw her up in the air repeatedly in an effort to calm her down. He said her “head bopped forward and back up in a rough type of a manner,” and that the child continued to cry so he proceeded to shake her aggressively in an effort to calm her down.
During a failed appeals hearing, detectives from the case recounted how Richardson “physically showed” how he had manhandled the girl, getting up out of his chair and demonstrating the action in a rough manner.
An autopsy subsequently found that the baby had died of asphyxiation by manual strangulation.
Richardson was booked awaiting a court hearing, and would later tell a prison official “all I know is I killed the little fucking bitch.” He was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to 55 years in prison for the horrific crime.
Richardson is currently incarcerated at the Branchville Correctional Facility, a men’s institution.
Last year, Richardson filed a complaint against the prison’s chaplain, Tony Gray, after he converted to non-denominational Islam and was allegedly denied access to a hijab.
Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% independent! Support our mission by joining our Patreon, or consider making a one-time donation.
