That does sound familiar.
HOBOKEN SETTLES LAWSUIT WITH TRANSSEXUAL EX-COP.
The legal wrangles between a Hoboken police officer who had a sex change and the city are over. Hoboken and the former officer, Janet Aiello, settled her civil rights lawsuit in June. Aiello's lawyer, Linda B. Kenney, declined Tuesday to disclose terms of the deal, aside from noting that each side recognized the other was acting honorably.
The Hoboken city attorney, Robert Murray, did not return a call seeking comment. Aiello retired in December 1997 as a lieutenant after 25 years on the force. Aiello, who had been known as John Aiello, began taking female hormones in 1993 and decided in February 1995 to go on sick leave to begin the "real-life test," a yearlong experiment in living openly as a woman. Doctors require such a test before approving a sex change operation.
The Hoboken Police Department filed charges against Aiello stemming from several incidents in which the police chief, through officers, requested that Aiello come back to work. She failed to respond to those requests over a period of several weeks in September 1995. When the chief finally issued a direct order in October 1995, Aiello reported for duty. Last year, Aiello won a victory when a state appellate court ruled that the department's disciplinary charges against her were rightfully dismissed.