DMV clerk suspended for sex-change admonition

(12-10) 18:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Motor Vehicles employee who handled a transgender woman's application to register her sex change was suspended shortly after the woman reported that he had sent her a letter condemning her to hell, the state agency said Friday.

Spokesman Michael Marando said the employee was placed on administrative leave with pay in October while the DMV investigates his conduct.

The reported behavior was "unauthorized, outside the course and scope of this employee's duties and expressly prohibited by department policy," Marando said. "We have taken all possible steps, and will continue to do so, to prevent a situation like this from recurring."

The suspension didn't go far enough for Christopher Dolan, the attorney who filed a damage claim with the state this week on behalf of Amber Yust. Dolan said the employee's actions not only violated Yust's privacy and civil rights but could also be grounds for criminal prosecution.

"So he gets to sit at home and collect money on the taxpayers' dime while he violates the law," Dolan said. "What is there to investigate? ... What they should do is fire him, not only to end his behavior once and for all but to send a message to other state employees that this will not be tolerated."

Yust's lawyers identified the employee as Thomas Demartini. Attempts to reach him for comment have been unsuccessful.

Yust, a 23-year-old software engineer, said Thursday she went to the DMV office on Fell Street in October to change her driver's license. Four days later, she said, she received a letter from Demartini, who had processed her application, pleading with her not to go through with her sex change and quoting biblical condemnations of homosexuality.

Homosexual acts, the letter said, were "an abomination that leads to hell."

He referred her to the website of the Most Holy Family Monastery, saying it contained "critical information for your salvation." The same day, she said, she got a parcel in the mail that bore the church's name and contained a DVD warning of eternal damnation for homosexuals.

Attorney Kristina Wertz of the Transgender Law Center, which is also working on the case, said Demartini had refused to handle the name-change application of another transgender woman in August 2009 and had told the woman she was bound for hell.

The DMV apologized to the woman and ordered staff training, led by the Transgender Law Center, focusing on the California law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual identity.

But Dolan said the 2009 incident showed that the DMV had knowingly allowed a prejudiced employee to stay on the job and should be responsible for the pain he inflicted on Yust. Dolan said Yust will seek damages for emotional distress, penalties provided by civil rights laws, and a court order prohibiting future violations.

Marando, the DMV spokesman, said the department takes the latest incident seriously and has incorporated it into weekly staff training sessions.

The DMV also issued a statement saying it "does not condone, nor tolerate, anyone advocating their personal beliefs upon customers, and also does not tolerate the access or use of personal information for non-work-related purposes."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle