A U.S. Circuit Court has upheld the conviction of a trans-identified male found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing his 7-year-old stepdaughter. Robert William Perry II, who changed his pronouns to “she/her” during the trial, is planning to demand another rehearing in protest of his conviction.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Perry was sentenced to life in federal prison following a conviction for the aggravated sexual abuse of a minor. The victim was Perry’s 7-year-old stepdaughter, but she referred to him as “dad” and “daddy” and viewed him as a biological parent due to their close relationship.
According to court transcripts, Perry would coerce the girl into performing sex acts in exchange for candy, toys, and the opportunity to play video games in what Perry termed as a “man cave,” a closet where he regularly played video games and watched pornography. The abuses took place from 2017 to 2018 on the Muscogee Nation reserve in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The sexual abuse first came to light after the victim divulged some of her ordeal to a close friend at school. The conversation was overheard by another student who immediately went to a teacher and reported what she had heard. The teacher informed the school’s principal who did not take any action and instead dismissed the child’s revelations as “gossip.”
The principal who refused to act, Jene’ Carpenter, is still listed as being employed at Patrick Henry Elementary School. Reduxx reached out to Tulsa Public Schools for comment on Carpenter’s apparent safeguarding failure, but did not receive a response. This article may be updated in the event a response is received.
Despite the abuse revelations being dismissed by Carpenter, the teacher was persistent in her support for the girl, and spoke to her the next school day in private. During the conversation, the girl was hesitant to speak about what had happened because Perry had told her to “keep secrets,” but she would go on to draw pictures of what had happened to her.
The child began to write down descriptions of her abuse, including in one drawing where she wrote “my dad lets me suck on his privates every night.” In another, she repeated the claims she had said to her school friend.
Her teacher then gave the drawings to the school’s counselor, who immediately contacted the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner further interviewed the child and began to liaise with police.
Perry was initially arrested and charged in 2018 and he was convicted in an Oklahoma state court in 2020, but the conviction was later dismissed because it was determined that the state lacked the jurisdiction to prosecute the case. In the United States, only the federal government or tribal councils have jurisdiction to prosecute cases that occur in Indian Country that involve Native American defendants. Because Perry is Indigenous and the crime had been committed on Muscogee land, the case was turned over to the federal government.
During the repeat trial, Perry admitted to having a number of untreated psychiatric conditions, and disclosed that he was struggling with an “addiction to pornography,” including of the “transsexual” genre. It was during his federal hearings that Perry announced that his pronouns were “she/her” and that he identified as a “female.”
After a lengthy trial during which the young girl gave extensive testimony on the sexual abuse she endured, Perry was sentenced to life in federal prison for his crimes in February of 2023.
A subsequent Department of Justice press release on his sentence was edited to include a note on his revised pronouns.
Earlier this year, Perry filed an appeal agains his conviction, with his defense team arguing that the prosecution had inappropriately led the jury to favor the testimony of the child victim.
“The government’s Answer Brief argues there was overwhelming evidence to convict. There was not. Instead, the case rose or fell based on [the victim’s] credibility versus Perry’s credibility. If the jury believed [the child], it could convict. If it believed Perry, it could not,” Perry’s attorney wrote.
In the appeal, Perry’s lawyer argues that the prosecution made improper statements that lended too much credibility to the child victim.
“The government used the phrase ‘kids don’t make this up’ no less than three times in its initial argument,” the appeal states, continuing: “… any vouching for the credibility of [the victim] or any other improper argument to unfairly bolster her credibility or diminish Perry’s would have an outsized impact on the jury here.”
On December 5, the United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit rejected the defense’s arguments, affirming the conviction.
In his summary, Judge Joel Carson III wrote that none of the prosecution’s comments were erroneous or made the trial “fundamentally unfair.”
In response, Perry’s defense has filed an intention to request a petition for a rehearing, challenging the appellate court’s decision. In his submission, defense attorney Blain Myhre used “she/her” pronouns throughout to refer to Perry, a deviation from previous records where it was noted that Perry had changed his pronouns but that masculine pronouns would be used to avoid confusion. Myhre also included a footnote reminding the court that Perry identifies as a female.
Perry’s attorney has requested until January 16 to file a petition for a rehearing.
Perry is currently incarcerated under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Prisons at USP Terre Haute, a men’s prison, but under current Bureau of Prisons guidelines, he is able to request housing on the basis of his self-declared gender identity, if he has not done so already. In the original sentencing order, the judge requested Perry be accommodated in a facility where he can access “gender affirming” care.
On January 13 of 2022, the Bureau of Prisons revised its Transgender Offender Manual, which included guidelines previously scrubbed by the Trump administration with respect to gender self-identification for federal inmates. Under Trump, inmates were housed based on biological sex as a sole consideration, but the Biden administration re-invoked Obama-era guidelines requiring gender identity be considered when making housing assignments.
There are currently 1,500 federal inmates who identify as transgender. According to Keep Prisons Single Sex USA, almost 50% of trans-identified male federal inmates are in custody for sex offences. This is compared to just 11% of the non-trans male federal inmate population.
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