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A transwoman claims that she was raped by a San Antonio officer; the city police department has taken swift action in the case.

Officer Craig Nash was accused by a transgendered prostitute of picking her up while on duty and in uniform, handcuffing her, and then driving her elsewhere in a police car, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her. Nash was placed under arrest on Feb. 25, after the alleged victim went to police, reported local newspaper the San Antonio Express-News in a Feb. 27 article.

Authorities used GPS records to pinpoint Nash’s car at the time of the alleged assault, which took place around 3:00 in the morning. The victim also identified Nash in a lineup, the article said.

"This is a slap in the face to every good police officer, every command officer, to the public and to the victim," Police Chief William McManus said, adding, "We will not for a second tolerate this or make any excuses on behalf of anyone who is found guilty of misconduct in this department." Nash is on administrative leave with pay while the investigation proceeds.

Last year saw ten or more San Antonio officers lose their jobs over an array of misconduct offenses, the article noted.

The gender of the victim was unclear in some media reports, with a Feb. 27 Examiner.com article clarifying that she was a "transwoman," meaning that she was born male, but transitioned to female at some point.

The Examiner article also noted that there is some trepidation in the trans community around the issue of going to the police to report assaults and other crimes. As others in the GLBT community have experienced historically, the police and other authorities have not always been helpful when trans citizens have come to them with complaints. In some instances, the police themselves have been accused of raping or otherwise sexually assaulting prisoners in their custody, as in the 1997 case in which several officers allegedly assaulted Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

In another case, a New Yorker named Michael Mineo claimed to have been held down and sodomized by a group of officers in a subway station. The accused officers were later exonerated.

A May 8, 2008 Pink News article reported that three Peruvian police officers became the focus of an international letter writing campaign when they were accused of raping a gay man named Luis Alberto Rojas Marín while he was in their custody.

In another case, the New York Daily News reported on Jan. 28 that Angelina Mavilia, who is transgendered, said that after being arrested for trespassing, she was subjected to a humiliating examination at the hands of a police woman and then, after being forced to strip for a second officer, locked up in a cell together witha male prisoner. The officer reportedly told Mavilia, "You’re not fooling me; I know you were not born a woman. I can see your plastic surgery."

Mavilia also claimed that in a separate incident last year, she was sexually assaulted by Eric Green, an NFL football player, when Green was with the Arizona Cardinals.