A trans-identified male who was found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing his 7 year-old stepdaughter in their Tulsa, Oklahoma home is appealing his conviction, arguing the prosecution had made “improper remarks” against him when they labeled him an “abuser” in court. Robert William Perry II, 32, changed his pronouns to “she/her” just after he was sentenced.
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.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 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 child divulged some of the details of her ordeal to a school friend, and 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, distressingly, did not take any action and instead dismissed the child’s revelations as “gossip.”
But the teacher was persistent in her support for the girl, and interviewed 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 teacher gave the drawings to the school’s counselor, who then 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.
After a lengthy repeat 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.
Disturbingly, shortly after his sentencing, the U.S. Department of Justice amended their press release on Perry’s crimes, adding a bold note at the end revealing that he now went by “she/her” pronouns. Previous releases had described Perry as a “man.”
Court documents reveal that Perry’s change in gender identity appears to have been declared around the same time he was being sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. A sentencing outcome signed by the judge in the case requested Perry be sent to a medium security facility in the Tulsa area with explicit provisions for “gender-care treatment programs.”
Other than the sentencing document, Perry’s gender identity was never mentioned during the trial.
Perry was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal before being transferred into a federal prison. Initially, he was placed at USP Florence, a medium-security men’s facility, but he has since been transferred to USP Terre Haute, a high-security men’s prison.
Immediately after his sentencing, Perry made his intentions to appeal the conviction clear. In court documents filed after his conviction, Perry was referred to by “she/her” pronouns, with some filings making special note that he identified as “female.”
On March 15, the Government submitted a response to the stated appeal, standing firm behind the conviction and outlining the extensive testimony that had been given by the child and other witnesses that led the jury to find Perry guilty.
On May 3, Perry’s lawyers submitted their case of appeal to the United States District Court For the Northern District of Oklahoma, dismissing the evidence that had been provided by the Government prosecutors.
“The government’s Answer Brief argues there was overwhelming evidence to convict. There was not. Instead, the case rose or fell based on L.A.’s credibility versus Perry’s credibility. If the jury believed L.A., 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.”
The attorney goes on to write that Perry’s right to a fair trial had been violated by the prosecution’s insistence of the victim’s credibility, and that the court “should reverse Perry’s conviction and order a new trial.”
Perry is currently incarcerated under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Prisons, and, under current Bureau of Prisons guidelines, he will be able to request housing on the basis of his self-declared gender identity.
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.