DMV worker who warned of hell for gays quits job

(12-16) 16:57 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Motor Vehicles employee who sent a letter to a transgender woman warning of eternal damnation after she sought to record her sex change on her driver's license has quit his job, the DMV said Thursday.

Thomas Demartini, who had worked as a customer service representative at the department's San Francisco office for about two years, submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday evening, DMV spokesman Michael Marando said.

The department placed Demartini on administrative leave, with pay, shortly after the woman reported the incident in late October. Marando said the DMV has nearly completed an investigation and will make its findings public.

Demartini's resignation "in no way diminishes the severity of the situation," Marando said. "He acted well outside the course and scope of his duties" and engaged in "unacceptable and wholly unauthorized behavior."

Marando said the incident appears to be unprecedented in the department's history.

Attempts to contact Demartini for comment have been unsuccessful.

Amber Yust, a 23-year-old software engineer, filed a damage claim against the DMV last week in what her lawyer said was the precursor to a lawsuit against the department and Demartini.

Yust said she went to the DMV office on Fell Street in October to change the name and gender on her driver's license. She said Demartini, who processed the application, sent a letter to her home four days later advising her that "the homosexual act is an abomination that leads to hell."

The letter also referred her to the website of a fundamentalist church, the Most Holy Family Monastery. That same day, Yust said, a parcel arrived from the monastery with a DVD that warned of death and damnation for those "possessed by demons" of homosexuality.

Yust's lawyers said they learned that Demartini had refused to process an application from another transgender woman in August 2009 and had told her God would send her to hell. The DMV apologized to the woman for that incident, but let Demartini keep his job, Yust's lawyers said.

Citing the earlier incident, attorney Christopher Dolan said the DMV's criticism of Demartini's behavior won't shield the department from legal responsibility.

"It's a statement designed to try to avoid responsibility for their wrongful acts in continuing to employ this fellow after he had already violated the civil rights of another person," Dolan said.

He also said Yust has obtained a temporary restraining order from a judge prohibiting Demartini from contacting her or coming within 300 yards of her.

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

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