Family Says Transsexual Son Should Be Released

James and Debra Walker helped send their transsexual son to jail, and now they say they want him out.

But the district attorney’s office says it is too late.

“I think their goal is to keep my son locked up for a very long time,” Debra Walker said. “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s killing us. We want to drop charges. We want him out.”

James Christopher Walker, 38, is accused of breaking into his family’s Newbury Park home Dec. 28 while wearing a dress and of confronting his father, who shot him. The younger Walker was not seriously injured, and was booked into County Jail on charges of trespassing, vandalism and battery. His bail is $250,000.

He already faced charges of trespassing and possession of a deadly weapon in an incident three days earlier--on Christmas Day--when he is accused of showing up at the house with a cane that concealed a blade.

Walker’s mother initially thought her son was mentally ill, but now says the situation was all a misunderstanding based on their son’s sexuality.

“All we want to do is get him out and get him help,” Debra Walker said. “He has never been violent toward us . . . He doesn’t belong locked up like an animal.”

The leader of a local gay and lesbian advocacy group insists that Walker has been wrongly jailed because he is a transsexual.

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“It was just a domestic dispute,” said Claire Connelly, president of the Gay and Lesbian Resource Center of Ventura County. “Nobody should have been arrested, but now Jimmy’s caught in the system.”

The police shouldn’t have taken the elder Walker’s eyewitness accounts at face value, Connelly added.

“The police jumped on Jimmy’s case because they couldn’t identify with a man wearing makeup and women’s clothing . . . The victim became the perpetrator.”

In a jailhouse interview, Walker--who pleaded not guilty to all charges on Tuesday--said he wasn’t sure why he was arrested and that his father was never chargedr in the shooting.

“They took my father at his word because he’s a suit-and-tie kind of guy,” Walker said. “And I’m a 6-foot woman. We [transsexuals] are the least respected of anyone.”

Walker, who calls himself Candy and says he has a chromosomal condition that blurs his sexuality, says he is undergoing hormone treatment in preparation for a sex-change operation.

The family said they have pleaded with the district attorney’s office to drop the charges and let their son go. Walker has already spent nearly 30 days in solitary confinement--for his own safety, officials said--while he awaits trail.

But supervising prosecutor Bob Calvert said a criminal case isn’t dropped just because a victim wants it to be.

A criminal act “is not just a violation against the victim, it’s a violation against the people of California,” Calvert said.

On Tuesday, prosecutors convinced a Superior Court judge not to reduce Walker’s $250,000 bail.

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Prosecutor John Vanarelli said Walker has only himself to blame for his predicament.

“It was his choice to go right back to his parents’ house, kick in the door and threaten them,” Vanarelli said. “If he didn’t go back, he wouldn’t be in jail.”

But it’s not that simple, Debra Walker said, adding that misunderstandings about her son’s sexuality played a large role.

Walker was at the home to confront his father with the fact that he is a transsexual--something the elder Walker couldn’t handle, she said.

The elder Walker did not want to be interviewed. His wife said she spoke for the family.

Debra Walker said the family is just beginning to come to terms with their son’s sexuality.

“I didn’t know he had more female than male chromosomes,” she said. “He’s not a freak. He was born that way. We love him very much. We want to be a family again.”

The younger Walker is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 31.