Crime & Safety
Lesbian Sues Sheriff's Office
The woman says she was taken for gay conversion therapy instead of a psychiatric hospital for drug abuse treatment, as ordered by the court.
A woman transported by authorities filed a lawsuit alleging officials set in motion a plan to convert her from being a lesbian, according to The GA Voice, an Atlanta lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publication.
The suit, which is attached to this article, alleges a sheriff's official paid three individuals using county funds to either "watch" the 25-year-old Amanda Ann Booker or "convert her from being a lesbian."
According to the lawsuit, a friend of the officer was asked to watch Booker and paid $200 for doing so up to a week, and a couple who describe themselves as evangelists were paid $600 to "convert" Booker.
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Further, the suit alleges narcotics detectives bought clothing for Booker, broke her cellphone so she could not contact her partner and tried to intimidate her into cooperating.
In addition to alleging false arrest and harassment based on sexual preference, the suit claims the Sheriff's Office had normal procedures to “harass homosexuals taken into custody, to mandate that homosexuals taken into custody refrain from living as homosexuals, and to forbid them from maintaining any homosexual relationships.”
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See more details in The GA Voice here. Cartersville Patch on Friday was unable to reach Sheriff Clark Millsap, but he had no comment on the lawsuit when he spoke with The GA Voice, which reported Millsap said it "is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life."
Booker is currently serving part of a 10-year sentence for a theft conviction. She was apparently on probation in April last year when her family—after being granted a court order—called the to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital for drug addiction treatment.
The suit alleges that instead of transporting Booker to Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital, authorities harassed her and took her to the individuals' homes and, when she escaped, attempted to arrest her without a warrant.
Cartersville lawyer Anthony Perrotta is representing Booker. The suit asks for a monetary award to be determined by a jury.
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