A transgender sex offender who sexually assaulted a disabled teen boy has lost a bid to remove his male identity from the registry after claiming “deadnaming” was a form of cruel and unusual punishment that prevented him from exercising his “right to self-expression as being a female.”
The offender, who is currently 22 years old, has only been identified as “Ella” due to his crime having involved a minor. “Ella” has been fighting for a name change for over a year, with his previous attempt being denied by the Wisconsin State Court of Appeals in January 2021.
According to court records, “Ella’s” criminal history is related to a sexual assault dating to May of 2016. Shawano Police department received a complaint from a 15-year-old boy who reported that “Ella,” also a teenager at the time of the offense, had held him down and forcibly performed oral sex on him. The victim, who has not been identified, is blind in one eye and has an Autism diagnosis.
After the assault, “Ella” cyber-bullied the boy on social media, who then faced widespread victimization as his peers became aware of the assault.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections records indicated “Ella” was 6-foot-5 and weighed 345 pounds, while the boy was 5-foot-10 and weighed 110 pounds.
At the time of his conviction, “Ella” was denied an attempt to not be required to register as a sex offender, with the court noting he was classified as a “high risk” offender. Within the period of his 6-to-10 month sentence, “Ella” began to self-identify as transgender.
In February of this year, “Ella’s” name-change case was heard before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which attempted to weigh whether self-declared gender identity should take precedence over transparency and public safety in regards to sex offenders. Wisconsin does not allow sex offenders to change their legal names as a measure of transparency, but does not prevent them from using the aliases of their choosing in civil settings.
The state Supreme Court announced the decision on July 7, upholding the previous denials — but the court had been heavily divided, with the decision coming from a narrow 4-3 majority.
“Consistent with well established precedent, we hold Ella’s placement on the sex offender registry is not a ‘punishment’ under the Eighth Amendment,” Justice Rebecca Bradley said in her majority decision. Justice Brian Hagedorn, who agreed with the decision, chose to write a separate concurrence rather than signing on to Bradley’s because he disagreed with the Court using ‘she/her’ pronouns for the offender, and obscuring his real name’s initials of “C.G.”
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote the dissent, saying that the name change denial would expose “Ella” to undue gender identity-based problems.
“… requiring Ella to maintain a name that is inconsistent with her gender identity and forcing her to out herself every time she presents official documents exposes her to discrimination and abuse,” Bradley noted, using feminine pronouns for “Ella.”
Elsewhere in the dissent, Bradley states that the majority decision was not taking into account the “evolution” of the law in line with issues of social justice, and stated it “discounts the burdens Ella faces.” Bradley also compares “Ella’s” need for a name change to that of religious converts, writing: “Both a religious name and a name that conforms to one’s gender identity involve fundamental aspects of a person’s identity that are conveyed through the medium of a name.”
“Ella” is ordered to be on the sex offender registry for a total of 15 years.
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