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Superior Court Judge Martha Lynes has the authority to order the training as a remedy for discriminatory treatment of a shoplifting suspect, the Appellate Division ruled Friday.
Lynes, however, should have allowed both sides to file briefs addressing how far such training should go, the appeals judges emphasized.
The original suit was filed in Superior Court in Jersey City by Shakeem Holmes, who claimed that he was subject to anti-transgender discrimination after he and a friend were arrested and charged with shoplifting in February 2013.
Holmes was born Malika Holmes, with female anatomy, but transitioned to male and officially changed his name, according to court records.
After fingerprinting him following the arrest, police put Holmes in a holding cell for males while accusing him of lying about his identity based on fingerprints that once had been taken under his former name, he argued in court.
Holmes also accused police of making threatening transphobic remarks while he was in the cell for males and after they placed him by himself in a cell for females, where he said the abuse continued until he was eventually released.
Jurors in 2018 found city police liable for discrimination. They denied Holmes pain-and-suffering damages, so he requested a new trial.
Lynes denied the request but ordered the department to begin annual transgender bias training.
The judge acknowledged an antibias policy adopted by the department regarding transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.
But Lynes said the policy didn’t specifically address trans-inclusive sensitivity training for all 900 or so current officers or future departmental personnel.
The Appellate Division ruled last week that a judge in such instances “retains wide discretion” in determining the “breadth and scope” of relief in lieu of a financial award.
However, Appellate Division Judges Jack Sabatino, Thomas Sumners Jr. and Richard Geiger agreed that Lynes didn’t give both the police department and Holmes “a fair opportunity to brief the reasonableness and scope of court-mandated transgender sensitivity training,” the New Jersey Law Journal reported.
“Citing the judge’s statement that additional briefing would be accepted on the scope of training, and her failure to allow such evidence, the court said a remand was necessary,” the Law Journal reported.
Police in New Jersey’s second-largest city already have transgender sensitivity training for officers but not on an annual basis, the appeals court said.
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