Family, LGBTQ+ group react to release of New Bedford man pardoned for killing transgender woman

NEW BEDFORD - While members of Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton’s family are happy he’s been released from a Phillippine prison, a local LGBTQ+ group is concerned that the U.S. Marine may choose to resettle on the SouthCoast.

Pemberton was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude, a Filipino transgender woman, in a motel northwest of Manila in 2014 after finding out she was transgender, and sentenced to six to 10 years in prison.

In September, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pardoned Pemberton, a New Bedford native, saying the Marine was not treated fairly after opponents blocked his early release for good conduct in detention.

“I was happy that he was out and the president from their country gave him the pardon,” Pemberton’s grandfather Joseph Pemberton said Monday, adding that the whole family is happy.

According to Joseph, there’s more to the story than what people have been reading about his grandson in Philippine papers.

When he initially heard about his grandson’s involvement in a homicide, Joseph said he was shocked, because he’s known him since he was born and, “he was such a good good kid I couldn’t fathom him doing anything like this.”

While he hasn’t talked to Pemberton since his release, and didn’t say where in the U.S. Pemberton has settled after his deportation from the Philippines, Joseph said he talks to Pemberton’s sister almost every day and she always says, “He’s doing OK, Grandpa.”

The South Coast LGBTQ+ Network sent a statement to the Standard-Times when Pemberton was pardoned, stating, “Imagine the outrage in the LGBTQ+ community when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte subverted his own country’s judiciary and fully pardoned and freed Mr. Pemberton."

Pemberton’s actions, according to the statement, highlight the obstacles may trans individuals face in our country, including extreme levels of ridicule, discrimination, violence, and greater difficulty finding employment and adequate health care.

“He should have stayed in jail,” Joan Stratton, a transgender woman and board member of the South Coast LGTBQ+ Network said. “ I don’t know why they pardoned him, it doesn’t make sense to me.”

Violence against transgender people has been an ongoing issue, according to Stratton, who said she remembers when she was first transitioning Chantelle Pickett, a transgender woman, was strangled to death in Boston in November 1995.

“For the larger LGTBQ+ community it’s a symbol of what’s happened to the trans community in this country,” Andy Pollock, president of The South Coast LGBTQ+ Network said Monday, noting that national suicide and murder rates are extremely high for transgender people.

The Human Rights Coalition reports that at least 33 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed so far in 2020 - a majority of which were Black and Latinx transgender women, the most at this point in a year since the organization started tracking the data in 2013.

According to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality, nationally 40% of transgender adults attempted suicide, nearly nine times the rate of the general population.

Pemberton’s record of violence against trans people is of concern to the LGBTQ+ community, according to the South Coast LBTQ+ Network’s statement, because while Pemberton’s plans back in the United States are unknown, he may choose to resettle in New Bedford.

“I’m hopeful that his time in prison has given him some self-reflection and he is a changed person, but the reality may not be the same,” Pollock said. “I hope that this was something he truly does regret and he’s a model citizen from here on in.”

A message issued through Pemberton’s lawyer Rowena Garcia Flores stated the 25-year-old wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret.

Pemberton’s grandfather said if he comes back to the SouthCoast, he doesn’t think anyone should fear him.

“He’s not a violent person,” Joseph said. “He would never harm anyone, there is more to the story than what we’ve read.”

Joseph said he’s the type of kid that wouldn’t kill a ladybug, he would just blow it away.

Other members of Pemberton family either didn't respond to the Standard-Times' requests for comments or said they had no comment.

Pemberton was an anti-tank missile operator in the Philippines participating in joint exercises in 2014 when he and a group of other Marines were on leave and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo.

Witnesses said Pemberton and Laude had checked into a motel room where Laude, 26, was later found dead, her head slumped in a toilet bowl.

During his trial, Pemberton’s lawyers used a "trans panic" defense.

USA Today reported that Pemberton told the court he acted in self-defense after he discovered that a man, not a woman, was performing a sexual act on him.

“It’s bull, it’s garbage,” Stratton said of the trans panic defense.

“People use it as an excuse to get away with murder,” Stratton said. “It’s not a valid defense at all.”

Pollock said his organization plans to honor Laude in particular at a vigil it’s planning for Transgender Day of Rememberance on Nov. 20.

At the vigil, Pollock said there will be a few speakers who will highlight the difficulties the trans community faces and offer some solutions.

Trans people in the SouthCoast face the same issues they do everywhere else, according to Stratton, including discrimination, difficulty finding medical care since very few doctors are educated about how to deal with trans people, and difficulty finding jobs.

The pandemic has also exacerbated the struggles the trans community face, Stratton said, because there are a lot of younger trans people that live with family members who may not accept them, but they can’t go anywhere else because of the virus.

They also might not be able to get the external support they’re used to because either they don’t have the Internet access necessary for virtual support groups or they don’t feel like they can share how they’re feeling openly when they are talking in their homes.

Pollock said the South Coast LGTBQ+ Network will honor Laude’s memory by working to address the issues the trans community faces and some of that work will include coordinating with local law enforcement to ensure programs are in place to help the police understand the unique challenges trans individuals face, making legal resources available to trans individuals who believe their civil rights have been violated, and hosting trans and non binary support groups where individuals can freely and safely express their concerns and needs.