Transgender woman faces deadname ordeal after reporting Vallejo assault

VALLEJO – After Jeriann Guzman reported that she was assaulted to the Vallejo Police Department in August, she’s faced a new ordeal as the district attorney’s office filed legal paperwork referring to her by a name that she hasn’t gone by for more than a decade.

Guzman, a transgender woman who legally changed her name in 2012, received a letter from the Solano County District Attorney’s Office addressed to her previous name – referred to in the transgender community as a deadname – at her son’s address, where she hasn’t lived for 15 years. The letter had information about her assailant and how to file a claim for restitution.

“I'm frustrated. I'm angry, because deadnaming a trans person, that leads us into depression can lead to suicidality, can lead to anxiety, and this is why we don't like dealing with authorities,” Guzman said.

Police departments across the country have often used deadnames for crime victims, causing further anguish in their communities. A review by ProPublica in 2018 found that in 85 murders of transgender people over three years, police had referred to them by deadnames 74 times. Meanwhile, a 2021 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that transgender people are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime.

In Vallejo, the importance of treating transgender crime victims with respect is especially pronounced as it has long had a significant LGBTQ population and is home to the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive.

In Guzman’s case, being deadnamed in government documents is not only a personal transgression, it can have legal consequences as well, and Guzman has had difficulty correcting the error.

When Guzman reported the error in person at the DA's office on the morning of Oct. 4, she said the woman at the front desk would not allow her to speak to anyone else at the office. The woman looked up the case on her computer and told her that both the county’s case against her assailant and the Vallejo police report referred to her as James. According to Guzman, the woman told her to just sign and turn in the claim for restitution form as James Guzman. Guzman said she was not willing to do that. 

“So you're telling me to commit fraud, because that person no longer exists,” Guzman said.

Guzman then went to the Vallejo Police Department and found the doors closed. Nobody answered the after-hours phone by the door. She said she called and left a message. So far, over a week later, no one from the Vallejo Police Department has returned her call. 

Guzman then reached out to Tom Bartee, district director for state Sen. Bill Dodd, who she said promised to contact the DA’s office on her behalf. 

The Vallejo Sun emailed both the Vallejo Police Department and the DA’s office on Monday for clarification.

Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis responded to the Sun on Tuesday. “Please have Ms. Guzman contact Vallejo PD’s records division or talk to our records clerks in our lobby to correct any discrepancies,” Hollis wrote in an email.

On Tuesday afternoon, Guzmann received a call from Solano County Deputy District Attorney Jordan Karmann, who apologized for taking so long to call her and for the court’s use of the wrong name. “They're claiming they have no idea how it got there,” Guzman said.

Guzman said that Karmann told her the name on the police report is correct, but that both the court document and cover letter have her listed as James, and that the DA’s receptionist didn’t look beyond the  cover letter when Guzman visited the office. Karmann assured Guzman that she’ll address the name discrepancy in court with a note to the judge. A district attorney's spokesperson told the Sun on Wednesday that the DA's office had advised the Vallejo police of Guzman's concerns.

Yet it is still a mystery how Guzman’s deadname appeared on the court documents if the police report, which presumably would have triggered the court action, is correct.

Guzman said she has been unable to get a copy of the police report. The Vallejo Police online report form requests details like the reporting officer’s name, which she does not have, and the date and time of the incident. Guzman initially thought that the report request form didn’t work because it was in James Guzman’s name, and police reports are generally only released to people who have a personal interest in the case. 

“It's not just me now, being transgender. There are 250,000 of us in the state of California,” Guzman said. “How many DAs aren't willing to do the extra legwork and say, ‘No, this is so and so.’? How many people in the state of California are getting information sent to addresses that they haven't looked at in 15 years?”

Guzman said she’s had similar problems with other government agencies having difficulty with her name change. 

"When I applied for a hunting license they said that I didn't exist. James existed,” she said. They told her they got the information from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Guzman reached out to Mel Orpilla, senior district representative for U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who put her in touch with the head of DMV in Sacramento, who confirmed that she’s listed as Jeriann Guzman. “So then he kicked it over to the Department of Fish and Game, the head of Fish and Game called me, and we did everything over the phone to get my record so I could actually be getting my own license,” she said. 

Guzman has also had problems being billed twice for the same procedure under her Medicare account, with identical bills sent to both James and Jeriann. “I've gone again with Mel all the way to Social Security to figure out what the hell is going on,” she said.

Guzman said that the formal name change process is expensive. “Every time we deal with DMV or anybody else, we have to have the original, certified copy from the court of our name change and our gender change, that's $40 bucks a pop,” she said. 

When Guzman filed for unemployment benefits she was told she doesn’t exist. “Yes I do, you’ve been taking money out of my account – here’s my Social Security card,” Guzman said. It took four managers, another court certificate and almost six weeks to get her unemployment benefits straightened out.

“Every agency wants an original copy,” Guzman said. “I had to spend over $400.”

Guzman said that expense is hard on trans people. “We are the poorest of the poor, the most educated, but the poorest of the poor.” 

Finding employment has been difficult for Guzman since her name change. “I had 300 applications out, and the best job I could get at the time was Savers in Vacaville at $8.50 an hour, after I had been managing the Marriott Hotel in Napa.”

“If I was found dead, are they going to use my deadname, even though I legally changed my name?” Guzman said. “Deadnaming trans people not only disrespects them in death, but in life we fight so hard to be our authentic selves, and for something like this to happen, shows me that no matter what I do, I can never be me.”