A federal judge is recommending that a lawsuit filed by a Maine State Prison inmate who is alleging the Department of Corrections did not adequately prescribe treatment for gender dysphoria be decided in favor of the corrections department and its medical provider, Correctional Care Solutions.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison said while the record suggests that the plaintiff isn’t satisfied with the course of treatment, the demand for injunctive relief is moot because an assessment has been made and hormone treatments are being administered.

The individual referred to in court documents as Walter M. Moore and Nikki Natasha Petrovickov filed a federal lawsuit against the corrections department in 2016.

Petrovickov, then known as Moore, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 60 years in prison in February 2005 for the 2002 slaying of Connie Gagliardi, 41. A bow hunter in the Rachel Carson Refuge in Saco found Gagliardi’s body tied between two trees with her wrists and throat slit. Moore and Gagliardi were from Massachusetts.

Petrovickov “identifies as a transgendered individual, born biologically a male but identifying as a female,” Nivison said in a Jan. 18 court filing.

Petrovickov had received hormone treatment for gender dysphoria at different times during her incarceration, but that changed in 2015 when corrections officials decided the inmate did not meet diagnostic criteria. The inmate filed a suit in 2016, and prison officials changed the diagnosis in 2017 and resumed treatment in January 2018, but the plaintiff was not satisfied with the type or dosage of the medication and sought monetary damages.

Parties may file objections within 14 days of being served with the recommendation.

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