A judge has ruled that the trial of a transgender woman accused of indecent exposure at a Los Angeles spa can proceed. Darren Merager faces five felony counts of indecent exposure stemming from an incident in the women’s section of Wi Spa in June 2021. The trial is set to continue after a pretrial hearing last Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Witnesses testified that Merager had gone around the spa with her genitalia exposed “with a nonchalance that they found unnerving.” A woman identified only as Claudia told Los Angeles Magazine that Merager’s penis was erect, which caused her to fear for her daughters’ safety. Merager’s attorney called for dismissal of the charges, but the judge ruled that the testimony about an erection was evidence that the trial should go ahead. The spa’s antidiscrimination policy, which includes gender identity, “was not an affirmative defense.”
Merager disputed the testimony, noting that an erection was not mentioned in the videos that went viral shortly after the incident. Witnesses who were absent from the hearing included two who had filed police reports regarding the incident. The accusations against Merager led to protests outside the spa, sometimes marked by violence between anti-trans and trans-supportive demonstrators.
