A convicted sex offender with a history of sex crimes against minors petitioned to be transferred from a Connecticut men’s prison to a women’s prison because the individual now identifies as an intersex female.
Brandy Wood also goes by the aliases Kyle Bailey, Steven Bennett, Kunani-Brady Moanam, and Kalakaua-Wood. However, Connecticut’s sexual offender registry officially lists Wood’s gender as female. Yet, Wood is currently housed at Cheshire Correctional Institution – a men’s prison.
On Wednesday, Wood’s attorney announced that he plans to request that his client be transferred to a women’s prison. Attorney Michael Miller said that Wood wants to be housed in a gender-appropriate prison. During Wood’s sentencing on March 14, Miller will request that his client be transferred to the York Correctional Institution in Niantic – Connecticut’s only women’s prison.
Judge Hillary Strackbein responded by saying that prison accommodations are the decision of the state’s Department of Correction.
The Day reported, “In 2018, the state passed a law that establishes standards for treatment of prisoners with gender identity that differs from their assigned sex at birth, including provisions that give them the right to be housed in a facility that matches their gender identity. The law also allows prisoners to have access to prison commissary items, clothing and programming consistent with the prisoner’s gender identity and to be searched by a staff member whose gender matches the prisoner’s.”
The Connecticut Department of Correction’s policy states that it “shall identify, diagnose, treat and manage inmates who identify as gender non-conforming, and/or who have an intersex condition.”
Wood, 28, wants to be transferred to the women’s prison because Wood identifies as an intersex female.
The Intersex Society of North America defines intersex as:
Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside, but having mostly male-typical anatomy on the inside. Or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types—for example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia. Or a person may be born with mosaic genetics, so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY.
The organization compared the sex spectrum to the color spectrum, and argued that there are a myriad of colors as well as a plethora of genders.
Wood was in New London Superior Court to plead no contest to the charge of risk of injury to a minor.
In 2015, Wood was convicted of two counts of risk of injury to a minor and second-degree sexual assault of a minor for “forcible sexual contact with a 15-year-old female.” At the time, Wood violated parole.
Wood violated parole again with the latest child sex abuse allegedly committed in 2021.
Wood purportedly engaged in an inappropriate online relationship with a 13-year-old girl in Park City, Utah. Wood sent nude photos and lewd videos to the girl and coerced the minor to send naked photos, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Wood also masturbated on video for the girl, according to police. Wood allegedly groomed the victim by sending her gifts such as a “fur body suit.” The girl’s parents were reportedly tipped off of the inappropriate relationship when they discovered the fur suit.
Reduxx reported, “During a police interview, the girl told authorities that Wood had ‘both a penis and a vagina.’ However, law enforcement officials discovered photos of Wood wearing a latex full-body suit designed to resemble a woman, which could account for the child’s confusion regarding Wood’s anatomy.”
Wood allegedly lied to the victim, and claimed to be a private investigator. Wood threatened the girl that Wood knew the victim’s address and would “get on a plane and come find her,” police wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit. Wood purportedly demanded, “If you don’t send me nudes I’m going to come to your house and have sex with you.”
Wood is expected to be sentenced to 30 months in prison followed by five years of probation and be placed on the state’s sex offender registry.
However, the family of the victim wants Wood to be sentenced to a longer prison sentence, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Anne Ferryman. The family said the girl was left “feeling suicidal” after the traumatic experience. The girl is currently receiving psychiatric treatment, according to the parents.