A prominent trans activist has been convicted in a 2016 triple homicide involving a lesbian couple and their son. Dana Rivers, 67, born David Chester Warfield, was found guilty of murder in the first degree for the killings of Charlotte Reed, Patricia Wright, and Benny Diambu-Wright.
According to police reports, Rivers “began to make spontaneous statements about [his] involvement in the murders” while being arrested. Rivers ultimately confessed to killing the two women and their son, but entered a plea of not guilty on charges of triple homicide in 2017.
The case had first been set for trial in 2019, but was repeatedly delayed in order to accommodate an investigation into Rivers’ mental health. The trial finally began on October 31.
Prior to the slayings, Rivers was a prominent trans activist known for fighting against “gender discrimination.”
Rivers became known in 1999 after he was fired from Center High School in Sacramento County, California, for openly discussing his “sexuality and the importance of gender self-determination” in class with students.
According to a 1999 article in The New York Times, one parent stated that “[Rivers] said he had been sodomized as a youth and that he always felt he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and that he was going to be changing into a woman in the fall. He should have gotten permission from the parents to say this.”
Following the administration’s decision not to renew his employment, Rivers subsequently initiated a widely-publicized discrimination lawsuit that launched his career as a trans activist and resulted in a compensatory award of $150,000. He appeared on the Today Show and Good Morning America, and had even been profiled in the New York Times, quickly elevating his profile as a respected LGBT advocate.
Prior to the murders, Rivers also spoke as a guest lecturer at several universities, including Stanford and UC Davis, and served as a Board Member for the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE).
Under current California law, Rivers, if sent to a prison, would likely find his way into a women’s correctional institution, if not accommodated immediately due to his legal sex being “female.”
Male inmates do not need to identify as transgender to request transfer, and can simply identify gender non-conforming, or non-binary.
Earlier this year, Reduxx reported that a pedophile who had molested a 4-year-old girl had been moved to the California Institution for Women despite having been denied a gender and name change, and still legally being a male.
Source: Prominent Trans Activist Found Guilty for 2016 Triple Homicide of California Family – Reduxx