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Trans Man Files $1 Million Lawsuit Against Houston Cops Who Said He Wasn't A "Real Man"

After his arrest, Kris Smith also alleges he was taken to a men's jail after he requested a women's.

A transgender man who was arrested on trespassing charges last December is suing Houston police for $1 million, alleging he was "bullied" by two officers who caused him physical harm during "a pretty rough ride" in the back of a police cruiser.

To add insult to injury, 38-year-old Kris Smith claimed the officers also taunted him for not being a "real man" and refused to take him to a women's jail after he expressed safety concerns about being in a men's facility.

Smith told the Houston Chronicle that he believes his arrest in the parking lot of a Montrose-area Burger King was all a misunderstanding to begin with.

"My girlfriend lives around the corner from there," Smith told the paper, "and I was leaving her house when I took a phone call for a job and walked around back behind the Burger King."

Smith said he was talking on the phone in the parking lot for 15 minutes before he was suddenly handcuffed by two officers who showed up, Smith thought, to make contact with another man in the parking lot "who appeared to be homeless."

According to police and staff at Burger King, officers were called to the scene because Smith was allegedly drinking a beer and panhandling at cars in the drive-thru. Both men were arrested.

Smith said the officers purposely took him on a "rough ride" to the men's jail, even after he requested to be taken to a women's facility, citing safety concerns.

"They told me they don't care if I [don't] have a penis, they'll put me in the guys' side anyway," he said.

Smith said that because he was handcuffed and not buckled into his seat, he ended up with "a bruised nose, swollen and bruised wrists and a swollen bicep."

ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

The trespassing charges were later dropped and police vehemently deny Smith's claims that he was bullied or roughhoused.

Smith's own lawyer admitted to the Chronicle that his case would be "difficult" to win.

"That's a severe bullying technique that they use and they think they can get away with it because it's just conversation," Smith said.

"They think it's OK, and it's not OK. It's bullying, and no one deserves that."

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