A transgender woman who murdered a lesbian couple in a so-called hate crime has been sent to a girls’ prison under a brand new California law.
Dana Rivers, 68, was convicted in November 2016 of murdering Oakland resident Charlotte Reed, 56; her spouse, Patricia Wright, 57; and Wright’s adopted 19-year-old son, Benny Toto Diambu-Wright.
An Auckland courtroom heard Rivers served as an “enforcer” for a female biker gang and was angry with Reed for leaving the gang.
Judge Scott Patton called the triple slaying “the most depraved crime I have dealt with in my 33 years in the criminal justice system” and on June 14 sentenced Rivers, a former high school teacher, to life in prison.
But Rivers has now been sent to the Central California Women’s Center in Chowchilla because California law, which took effect in 2021, allowed inmates to request that their gender identification determine where they are held.
Dana Rivers, 68, was sent to a girls’ prison earlier this month after she killed a lesbian couple and their son in their California home on November 11, 2016.
Patricia Wright (left) and her partner Charlotte Reed (right) were found stabbed and shot multiple times in their Auckland home. In addition, their son, Benny Diambu-Wright, 19, was discovered shot dead at the entrance of the house.
Activists have said it’s harmful to keep a variety of female inmates alongside Rivers, a trailblazing transgender woman who was open about her transition in 1999 and recounted her 2001 surgical procedure on ABC News’ 20/20.
Rivers shot Reed twice and stabbed her 40 times in the home she shared with her household; shot her spouse again in the left breast and hit her in the neck and shoulders; then shot and killed their son.
Called the sound of gunfire, officers arrived at the home to find Rivers covered in blood with a gas can, knives, brass knuckles and ammunition in his pockets.
She has been in custody since then.
Creator Kara Danska, who describes herself as a “feminist who fights for women’s and girls’ rights to have sex,” mentioned that Rivers was not sure about being placed with different girls.
“They made it,” she tweeted.
“2023. On June 16, 2016, CDCR transferred her to the Central California Women’s Division.”
Danski said female inmates have been threatened by Scott Wiener, the San Francisco senator who introduced the prison bill, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed the bill into law.
“But it’s not over yet,” Danski said. “We will never stop fighting.”
Dansky, whom Rivers called “him,” said The New York Post: “There was something really disgusting about the way it was executed and his obvious hatred for her.
“My feeling, based on what I know about this case, is that he killed her because it couldn’t be her, and he shouldn’t be in prison with other women.”
The Central California Women’s Center in Chowchilla is the premier women’s prison in the state
Rivers has already been transferred to the Chowchilla prison, which houses more than half of all female inmates in California.
Amiya Ichikawa, 41, who spent five years in the same prison in Chowchilla where Rivers is, said the law was “lesbophobic” and threatened half of the inmates of California’s women’s prison.
There are currently 3,158 girls behind bars in California, more than half of the 5,849 girls.
Ichikawa mentioned that the law “allows over 50% of women in prison to be forcibly housed with #lesbian killer Dana Rivers. 100% of these #women are at risk.
She said Rivers committed a “hate crime” and was not safe among a variety of inmates who feared transgender people.
“They get very anxious when a trans woman is accepted,” she told The New York Post.
“If they’re angry even after the surgery, they go right back into angry man mode.”
Wright was a semi-retired instructor at Esperanza Elementary School and had been married to Reed, a United States Air Force veteran and businessman, for more than a year.
Reed and Wright jointly adopted Diambu-Wright from Africa, but Wright also had another son separately. He was not injured in the triple murder.
That son, Khari Campbell-Wright, previously mentioned that Rivers was an acquaintance.
In a 2016 interview with the East Bay Times, he said it was a random act of violence.
My mom had no half of it. My brother had no half of it. Wrong place, wrong time,” Campbell-Wright said.
The couple are pictured on Facebook using a bicycle after hooking up. Upe tried to flee on an identical motorcycle during the night of the murders.
Wright, left, and Rivers, right, knew their killer
Wright and Reed have two different children together. Their son, Diambu-Wright, who was additionally killed, was from Africa
Rivers is formally known as David Warfield. After transferring, she was fired from her job at Center High School in Antelope
Rivers is a United States Navy veteran and former award-winning instructor when she flew under the identity of David Warfield in the 1990s.
The Antelope Center High School veteran, known for her plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery, was given the option to leave early rather than being fired.
Rivers gained media attention in 1999 after her termination and the start of a lawsuit against the university, which reached a $150,000 settlement.
The alleged assassination was briefly in the spotlight and featured in several television specials, as well as today.
