Memphis fires cop who beat transgender woman

Department fires officer after videotaped beating


A Memphis Police Department spokesperson said late Wednesday afternoon that Officer Bridges McRae has been terminated from his employment with the department.

McRae was the officer at the center of controversy after he was caught on tape beating a trangendered prostitution suspect in the prisoner intake area at 201 Poplar.

The incident has received national attention and sparked outrage from many groups.

In the video, recorded by a surveillance camera last February, McRae was seen beating Duanna Johnson, a transgendered woman in custody on suspicion of prostitution. Johnson was born a man but lives as a woman. She claims McRae called her derogatory names before assaulting her.


McRae also filed an assault charge against Johnson, saying she punched him several times.

Wednesday, Action News 5 examined McRae's personnel file. Though he was never officially cited for any misconduct, McRae's personnel file contains a list of complaints, including racial slurs and a reference to the Aryan Nation.

The complaints against McRae date back to July of 2005. Then, McRae said he found drugs on a man riding his bicycle on Elvis Presley and Dolan where McRae. But the suspect claimed McRae threatened to donate his bicycle to charity and never tagged it to go into evidence.

Internal Affairs found the allegation of improper "Inventory and Processing Recovered Property"..."Unfounded."

The next incident happened four months later, when a mentally challenged man claimed McRae took him behind a liquor store on Cazassa, removed his handcuffs, and beat him up. McRae claimed the man came out of his cuffs and officers had to fight him back into the cuffs....

View video of beating from previous blog post here.