The first time the Gay & Lesbian Times heard the name Vanessa Facen was in a short three-paragraph article by The Associated Press. According to the article, a 35-year-old, HIV-positive, pre-operative transsexual women died following a melee with sheriff’s deputies at the downtown jail.

Facen was arrested for breaking into her neighbor’s second-story window and became combative with sheriff’s deputies. Sgt. Rick Empson, a sheriff’s homicide investigator, told The Associated Press there was “nothing to indicate that the use of force caused [Facen’s] death.” The article went on to say the coroner’s office was awaiting the results of the toxicology report before announcing the cause of death.

That caused some head scratching here in our editorial department. It seemed a bit too convenient that Facen just up and died following a scuffle with sheriff’s deputies. However, due to her erratic behavior when arrested, we expected Facen’s toxicology report to reveal drug use as a factor in her death.

We didn’t hear about Facen until months later, when Jennifer B. Miller, a member of the Transgender Community Coalition and of the Gay & Lesbian Times’ editorial board, wrote a guest commentary about the likelihood Facen’s death was a result of being transgender. Miller, armed with the medical examiner’s investigative report, which included Facen’s toxicology and autopsy reports, came to the Gay & Lesbian Times requesting our help. Handing over the file, we sat for several hours going over the details of the case.

At the end of the meeting, it was obvious that Facen didn’t just happen to die while in sheriff’s custody. The toxicology report revealed that cannibinoids (THC) were the only drugs present in her body; not cocaine or methamphetamines, which could have led to a cardiac arrest. The detailed summary of the night leading up to her death was filled with gruesome reports of the force used against her, which included four shots from a tazer gun, beatings and several doses of pepper spray. Prior to becoming unresponsive, with her arms and legs chained, Facen was sprayed with one last shot of pepper spray, her head was wrapped in sheets, and she was hit in the arm and leg with a baton before being forced face down on a gurney. Sheriff’s deputies held her down using body weight and force; it was at this moment Facen became unresponsive.

At that point, did sheriff’s deputies throw up their hands and exclaim, “We didn’t do it!” as their statement to the press suggests?

It was then that we knew this was an unjust death of a transgender person at the hands of law enforcement. What’s also criminal, however, was that few people – including those of us at the Gay & Lesbian Times – gave Facen’s death a second glance. Why did the community assume Facen to be a drug user instead of what she was: a victim?

A call to Christopher Swalwell, M.D., the deputy medical examiner who performed Facen’s autopsy, confirmed our suspicions. In a detailed interview, which later led to a news story in our May 4 edition, Swalwell said the deputies use of force had to have played a role in Facen’s death, contradicting statement’s made by the Sheriff’s Department.

On Tuesday, Miller phoned to inform us that Facen’s family filed a claim against San Diego County, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff William Kolender, the city of La Mesa, the La Mesa Police Department and La Mesa Police Chief Alan Lanning.

Facen’s behavior from the time of her arrest was characterized as psychotic by both the deputies and Grossmont Hospital, where she was held before being transferred to the county jail. Instead of being admitted to a psychiatric hospital for observation pursuant to California Welfare & Institutions Code 5150, the claim charges she was inexplicably released from the hospital and sent to county jail. The claim contends Facen was subjected to excessive force, and was killed in an unjustifiable manner that could have been prevented through the exercise of common sense and appropriate police practices by the officers and deputies involved. Facen’s mother further contends that her daughter’s death was the proximate result of customs, policies, practices and usages of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and the La Mesa Police Department, as well as deliberate indifference in the training and supervision of officers, deputies and other personnel.

Because Facen was a transsexual, her death and the subsequent investigation were nearly swept under the rug. The Gay & Lesbian Times’ own apathy toward Facen’s death serves as yet another example of the transgender community’s lack of visibility and equality within the greater GLBT community. We’ll be working with the District Attorney’s Office to find out what happened to Facen’s investigation. If her case was simply pushed aside, they too will have some explaining to do.