A transgender woman named Deairra Michelle Venable who was arrested on Monday amid chaos that erupted in Baltimore was released Friday, according to her lawyer, four days after she was locked up.
Venable, whose identification lists her as a female, was initially booked as such before officials at Central Booking in Baltimore discovered she had been assigned male at birth. She was then transferred to a holding cell with about a dozen men, and forced to remove her bra, which has an underwire.
“It’s been hell for her,” Astrid Munn, the lawyer representing Venable, told Mashable. “She asked to have the ‘she’ pronoun, but the commissioner refused.”
The woman’s bail was originally set at $75,000, though she was charged with fourth-degree burglary, a misdemeanor. Her bail was later bumped up to $100,000.
Venable was recording video of police activity around her when she was swept up in a mass arrest while people around her looted an apparel store, Munn said.