Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be confirmed for a promotion.
Senators Kennedy (LA) and Cruz (TX) questioned Netburn about allowing a man into a woman’s prison
William McClain, now known as “July Justine Shelby”, is serving the remainder of his sentence for obtaining and distributing pornography in a women’s prison.
McClain previously pled guilty to molesting a nine-year-old boy and raping a 17-year-old girl.
Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn faced heated questions at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday regarding her recommendation to move a serial sex-offender and pedophile to a women’s prison.
The Biden administration nominated Netburn to join the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York — the judicial equivalent of a promotion. The Senate Judiciary Committee must confirm Netburn’s nomination before she can join the higher court.
Netburn appeared before the committee to answer senators’ questions about her record and qualifications.
Senators John Kennedy (LA) and Ted Cruz (TX) immediately peppered Netburn with questions about a report she wrote in 2022 advocating William McClain, a man who identifies as a woman, be moved to a women’s prison.
William McClain committed multiple sex-offenses against children over more than two decades.
In 1994, McClain pled guilty to molesting a nine-year-old boy and raping a 17-year-old girl, for which he spent 18 years in an Indiana prison, followed by six years for violating his parole.
After his release in 2015, McClain began transgender medical interventions to “treat” his diagnosed gender dysphoria. He received injections of Depo-Provera — otherwise known as chemical castration — for six months before adopting a regimen of cross-sex hormones.
He subsequently changed his name to “July Justine Shelby” and began dressing as a woman.
Though he later told a court he took Depo-Provera shots because he “wanted to make sure [he never committed sex-offenses] again,” McClain pleaded guilty to obtaining and distributing child pornography in 2017 — a federal offense.
According to an affidavit submitted by cyber-crimes detective Darin Odier, McClain admitted to finding and sending multiple images of child pornography to a man named Beau Thornburgh, a sex-offender he had met in prison and formed a romantic relationship with.
Of the two images detailed in the affidavit — though Odier testified there were “multiple” — one showed an infant being sexually abused.
McClain started his federal prison sentence in a men’s facility in southern New York, where he received regular psychiatric care and continued taking opposite-sex hormones. He moved to a female facility in Texas in 2022.
In 2020, McClain accused the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment for refusing to move him to a female facility — a request the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Transgender Executive Council denied no less than four times.
The case crossed Netburn’s desk in 2022. She released a report in August of that year finding McClain’s rights had been violated and recommending he be moved to a female prison.
U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick ordered McClain be moved to a female facility in 2022 based on Netburn’s report and recommendation.
CUT SHORT
Netburn told the committee the only reason the BOP prevented McClain from transferring to a female prison was because his hormone levels weren’t acceptable. In her report, however, Netburn acknowledges that the BOP feared McClain could pose a threat to incarcerated women.
When Sen. Cruz attempted to question Netburn about the contradiction, Senator Laphonza Butler (CA) denied him extra time.
Senator Kennedy initiated the inquiry into McClain, asking Netburn if she remembered him and the crimes he had committed.
When Netburn confirmed she recalled McClain, Kennedy clarified,
Netburn steadfastly explained that she based her report on the facts given to her — but Cruz felt she failed to consider one critical factor.
Netburn admitted he did and clarified he had become “hormonally a female.”
Cruz summed up:
Netburn assured Cruz female prisoners do have rights — but a closer look at Netburn’s 2022 report suggests she wasn’t overly concerned with them.
Netburn freely notes that prisons have discretion to choose whether to move transgende- identified inmates to an opposite-sex prison based on factors like their “security level”, “criminal history” and “likelihood of perpetrating abuse”.
But despite the BOP’s testimony that transferring McClain would compromise its responsibility to “protect female prisoners from sexual violence and trauma,” Netburn overrode their decision, concluding simply,
There are no signs [McClain] is at risk of reoffending.
Her reasoning?
“[He] has not sexually assaulted anyone since 1993.”
“[McClain] is a different person than [he] was in 1993 … and has maximized and stabilized [his] target hormones within the target ranges for transgender women.”
“The record is devoid of evidence of incidents of violence or assault during Petitioner’s incarceration where [he] was the perpetrator.”
“The BOP puts forth no evidence that [McClain] has or would sexually assault other prisoners at a women’s facility or that [he] poses a greater threat to women than that posed by any other prisoner.”
Netburn further disregards the BOP’s concern that McClain refused to participate in a sex-offender rehabilitation program, noting he had previously completed a similar program while incarcerated in Indiana.
At no point does Netburn consider that:
McClain trafficked in child porn after taking chemical castration shots, completing a sex-offender rehabilitation program and while actively participating in mental health therapy and taking opposite-sex hormones.
His acquiring and disseminating graphic child pornography could point to a continuing pattern of predatory behavior.
His squeaky-clean record occurred in a men’s facility — far away from his preferred victims.
His stature (6’2’’) and greater bone density by definition make him a greater threat to women than other women in a women’s facility.
Instead, Netburn simply called the BOP’s concerns “overblown”, “hypothetical”, and based in “bias and fear,” calling for McClain to be placed in a women’s facility as soon as possible.
Judge Sarah Netburn used her position to transfer a man guilty of multiple crimes against teenaged girls and children to a women’s prison facility. Two years later, she appeared before the Senate for a promotion.
The Daily Citizen is greatly disturbed by this reality.
It is cruel and unusual punishment to house a male inmate, let alone a sex offender, in a female prison. Regardless of whether Netburn’s recommendation reflects her personal ideology, it’s a grim reflection on what our citizens have learned to tolerate — and even celebrate.
What’s more — it’s happening more frequently every year.
As of August 2023, the Federal Bureau of Prisons had 1,980 transgender-identified inmates — a 23% increase from October 2022.
Of the 1,295 men claiming to be women, and astounding 47% are incarcerated for sex-offenses, compared to just 12.2% of the general population. Of this same group, 37% are designated high security, more than three times the percentage of the general population.
This is the road paved by gender ideology — a creeping descent into a world where the mental illness and the desires of a man who preys on children are elevated above the physical and mental wellbeing of a whole group of women.
This is not an acceptable worldview, let alone a virtuous one. Do not give it any quarter in your home, your schools and your hearts.
Additional Articles and Resources
New Docuseries Paints Chilling Picture of Women Forced to Live with Men in Prison
Lawsuit Filed Against California for Allowing Men Into Women’s Prisons
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