Trans Woman Files Suit After Police Mishandling

A transgender woman is suing the city of Winnipeg, Canada, because, she says, she was yanked from her car and mocked by police officers investigating a possible break-in nearby, Metro Winnipeg reports.

Nikki Cox, who is in her 30s, filed a claim Monday in Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench against the city and police officials, alleging she was subject to unlawful and unjustified detention in the early morning of June 14.

Cox says she was driving by herself and stopped to have a cigarette. After this, she spotted a police helicopter, then squad cars, which proceeded to block her car in. She claims officers then forced her from her car, kneed her in the back, roughly handcuffed her, and then placed her in the back of the police car.

Her lawsuit says the police searched her car under the impression that someone was in the car and that she "could hear some officers talking in chuckling voices saying 'he's a tranny.'" She was released shortly afterward and says the officers extended an apology with reasoning that she was "in the wrong place at the wrong time," the suit states.

Cox says she suffered physical injuries, anxiety, and humiliation, and she is seeking an undisclosed amount of financial compensation,