Killer Wants State to Pay for His Surgery to Become a Woman

By Linda Orlando

Robert Kosilek was sentenced to life in prison without parole nine years ago for murdering his wife, Sheryl. He wrapped a wire around her neck three times and strangled her, dumped her in the back of car, and left her at a mall. At the time he killed her, he sported a beard and dressed and acted like a man. When Kosilek was tried for her killing, he came to court dressed in women’s clothing, with his fingernails long and painted. After his conviction, Robert Kosilek changed his name legally to Michelle. Now Kosilek is suing the state of Massachusetts, demanding that taxpayers fund his sex-change operation.

A state judge ruled earlier that Kosilek is entitled to treatment for a condition called "gender identity disorder," and the court granted the 57-year old Kosilek the right to have the state pay for his female hormone treatments and laser hair removal. Kosilek claims that his condition is equivalent to "biological claustrophobia," and he says that the universally accepted treatment for his disorder involves psychotherapy, hormone therapy, and finally "surgical correction of the offending genitalia."

John Moses, the Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted Kosilek, says that prisoners are not supposed to be sexual in the prison, so he is surprised by Kosilek’s lawsuit. As for the surgery being cruel and unusual punishment, Moses is adamant that nobody is punishing Kosilek. "He is doing life without parole for murder. The fact that he is serving a sentence, anybody serving a sentence is deprived of certain choices in his life. He was 41 years old when he killed Sheryl Kosilek. He didn't try to get a sex change operation at that time. Now he's 53 years of age, and he wants the state to pay for that?"

There are currently 12 prisoners in federal prisons who have been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, and four are receiving hormone treatments. So far their medical care and lawsuits for these conditions have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. Sex change operations for all of them—operations that insurance companies won’t even pay for—would cost at least a quarter of a million dollars. If Kosilek is granted the operation, the results would cause a nightmare for prison officials, who will then have to decide whether to house him in a men’s prison or a women’s prison, and either situation would certainly disrupt the prison and cause problems for other inmates as well as Kosilek.

Kosilek claims that the Corrections Department is violating his civil rights and subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to provide him the treatment he deserves. He says that as a result of being denied treatment, he suffers constant depression, anxiety, and a high level of stress. A psychiatrist testified that "Michelle" is likely to commit suicide if he doesn’t get the operation. Perhaps the state could save a lot of money and time by just letting him do that. Or maybe they could just treat him the same way he treated his wife—wrap a wire around his neck three times, dump him in a car, and leave him at a mall.