Queens court dismisses hundreds of prostitution cases after request from DA

Queens DA Melinda Katz. Eagle file photo by Caroline Ourso

By David Brand

A Queens judge dismissed hundreds of open prostitution cases at the request of District Attorney Melinda Katz on Tuesday, weeks after New York state repealed a statute that had long fueled the profiling and criminalization of transgender women of color.   

Judge Toko Serita granted Katz’s motion to dismiss and seal more than 670 cases and warrants for people charged with prostitution and related offenses, including loitering for the purpose of prostitution. The piece of penal law had come to be known as the “walking while trans” ban because it allowed police officers to use arbitrary observations, like a person’s clothing, gender identity or gender expression, as grounds to make an arrest. The law led to the profiling of trans women of color as sex workers, particularly in Corona and Jackson Heights, arrest data shows.

“Repealing an inherently and unfair statute was a first step in our ongoing commitment to justice,” Katz said. “Our commitment requires as a next step freeing targeted members of our community from the collateral consequences of their arrests.”

She said many of the cases being dismissed involved people whose records were “stained” by decades-old prostitution arrests and open warrants.

Judge Toko Serita granted motion to dismiss hundreds of prostitution cases filed by Queens DA Melinda Katz and defense attorneys from Legal Aid and Queens Defenders. Screenshot via NY Court stream

State legislators voted to strike the loitering misdemeanor from penal law last month following years of activism by transgender women of color and their allies. Katz had advocated for the repeal of the law during her time as borough president and early in her tenure as DA. 

Serita, the presiding judge in Queens’ Trafficking Intervention Court, thanked Katz and said she fully supported the “righteous” motion to dismiss and seal the cases. 

“This is an incredibly emotional moment for me as I have seen thousands of cases over the years in my role as presiding judge in the Queens trafficking intervention court,” Serita said. “We have seen first hand the damaging effects of these laws on the lives of women and transgender individuals, many of whom have been victims of trafficking, severely exploited in the commercial sex trade or arrested merely for walking while trans, as the loitering law is known.”

“Each of the individuals whose cases will be dismissed today have been impacted by the criminal justice system and your decision will allow them to move on with their lives,” she added.