DanaRivers-11Nov2016-AlamedaCountyMugshot

Dana Rivers (born 1954 or 1955) is an American transgender advocate and convicted murderer. In 1999, Rivers was fired from her job as a teacher at Center High School in

Antelope, California Antelope is a census-designated place in Sacramento County, California, United States located approximately northeast of downtown Sacramento and southwest of Roseville. The population was 45,770 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the ...

, after she revealed to the school that she soon intended to live her life as a

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

. Her subsequent suit brought national attention to the case. In 2022, Rivers was convicted of the 2016 murders of Charlotte Reed, 56, and her wife Patricia Wright, 57, and their son Benny Diambu-Wright, 19.

Early life and career

Rivers grew up in the San Francisco area. She served three years in the US Navy before pursuing a career in education. Rivers was a labor leader in

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

for the American Federation of Teachers, and in the 1980s was twice elected to the board of the

Huntington Beach Union High School District The Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) is a public school district serving portions of the Orange County cities of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, and Westminster. It oversees eleven sites, offering courses f ...

. She was also a baseball coach and a white-water rafting instructor. Rivers had problems with

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

and three failed marriages. She was diagnosed with

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

after moving to Antelope and becoming a teacher in 1990.

Discrimination case

Rivers gained global attention in 1999 when she was fired as a teacher because she came out as a transgender woman to her students at Center High School. Before coming out, she had been recognized as an outstanding teacher by the school. When she started to discuss her transition, she was warned not to discuss such matters at the school, and ultimately the board voted 3–2 to fire her. Rivers sued

Center Unified School District Center Joint Unified School District (CJUSD) is a school district, located at the northern edge of Sacramento County, California, in the town of Antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indige ...

for the dismissal; the case was eventually settled out of court, with Rivers agreeing to resign and receiving a $150,000 settlement. She subsequently moved to the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

to resume her teaching career.

Activism

After settling her case, Rivers travelled the country to speak to groups about her experience. In 2004, Rivers appeared on the news magazine program ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

''. She discussed her discrimination case, as well as the gender confirming surgeries she received in 2000.

Murders and trial

On November 11, 2016, married couple Patricia Wright and Charlotte Reed and their nineteen-year-old son, Benny Toto Diambu-Wright, were killed at their house in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. Wright and Reed were both stabbed and "riddled with bullets" in their bed, though Reed was stabbed dozens more times than Wright, to the point of being "unrecognizable". Diambu was shot and was found lying in the street after leaving the house. When police arrived at the scene following 911 calls, they found Rivers running from the house, which was on fire, while covered in blood. She was in possession of knives, ammunition, and metal knuckles; when arrested, she "began to make spontaneous statements about her involvement in the murders", according to police. Rivers was formally charged with three counts of murder, arson, and possession of metal knuckles on November 14, 2016. In 2017, she pleaded not guilty to the charges; in 2018 she was ordered to stand trial on the murder charges. After years of delay, Rivers' jury trial on charges of murder began in late October 2022. The prosecution alleged that, motivated by Reed's exit from the women's motorcycle club they had both been members of, Rivers had gained Reed's trust in order to be allowed to spend the night in her and Wright's home. Rivers then shot the couple to death in their sleep, stabbing the corpses afterwards; she set fire to the garage in an attempt to remove evidence of the crime. On November 16, 2022, a jury found Rivers guilty on all charges. In January 2023, a judge ruled that she had been legally sane at the time of the murders. The same judge later sentenced Rivers to life in prison without the possibility of parole, calling it "the most depraved crime I ever handled in the criminal justice system in 33 years."

References

External links

Official website (archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivers, Dana Transgender women American transgender people American LGBT rights activists Living people People from Orange County, California People from Sacramento County, California 1950s births American people convicted of murder American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment People convicted of murder by California Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by California