BALTIMORE-
A transgender thief described by one prosecutor as an “incorrigible” con artist is in trouble with the law again–despite being released from prison last year to die of AIDS at home.
Joseph Murphy, Maryland Court of Special Appeals chief judge, said he released Dee Dierdre Farmer on probation in February 2005 “in the hopes that that might encourage him to remain crime-free while he was out with what little time he had left.”
Those hopes appear to have been dashed. Farmer, 41, of Baltimore, was charged Wednesday in Baltimore with trying to use a forged death certificate to avoid prosecution on identity theft charges.
Farmer was born male and underwent a sex-change operation to become female. According to court documents, she legally changed her birth certificate to reflect that she was a woman named Dee Deirdre Farmer.
Farmer was sentenced in 1986 to 20 years in federal prison for credit-card fraud and 30 years in state prison for theft. While awaiting sentencing, she was caught participating in a telephone jewelry theft scheme from jail, Murphy said.
While in federal prison, Farmer was at the center of a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court decision that forced prisons to take more responsibility for protecting inmates from one another.
The lawsuit was filed after Farmer was raped in a federal prison for men in Terre Haute, Ind. At the time, Farmer had breast implants and male sex organs and was undergoing estrogen therapy. The lawsuit claimed prison officials had violated Farmer’s constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment by ignoring the risks faced by an inmate wearing women’s clothing and makeup in an all-male prison.
The Supreme Court ruled that prison officials can sometimes be held liable for inmate assaults. But after the decision, Farmer lost her lawsuit at trial.
Having served her federal sentence, Farmer was serving the Maryland sentence imposed by Murphy when he was a judge in Baltimore County.
Murphy said he thought Farmer’s “life expectancy was very, very short” when he released her in February 2005, but she has gotten in trouble at least five times since then. The charges include five counts of mail fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft in federal court, as well as identity theft, identity fraud and theft in Baltimore County.
She was charged Wednesday in Baltimore with presenting false information for entry on a death certificate to commit identity fraud and other offenses. According to charging documents, Farmer used a similar scheme to get unrelated charges against her dismissed in Virginia.
Farmer also goes by the names of Douglas C. Farmer and Larry G. Prescott. The person whose death certificate she allegedly tried to change was male, and Farmer identified herself as Larry Prescott when she was arrested in December at a department store and accused of applying for and using store credit cards in other people’s names. She has appeared in court on those charges dressed as a man, Baltimore County prosecutor Michelle Samoryk said.
“He is just a con man. Incorrigible,” Baltimore County prosecutor Steve Roscher said.
Defense attorney Nicholas Szokoly, who helped secure Farmer’s release from prison, said he was saddened to learn of the new charges against his former client.
“I was hoping he would get some peace,” Szokoly said. “I was looking forward to Dee being able to return home (last year) and have some quiet time with his family.”
Other lawyers who formerly represented Farmer would not comment Thursday on her current representation.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
