➤ ASHLEY MOORE from p.16
secured a meeting with Newark
Mayor Ras Baraka, whom Simpkins
said was receptive to their
concerns and agreed that the case
had been mismanaged by local authorities.
Simpkins said that though the
Newark police opted to describe
Moore’s death as a suicide before
handing it over to the Essex County
prosecutor’s offi ce, the case was
assigned to the prosecutor’s homicide
squad. The Essex County
prosecutor’s offi ce did not return
multiple calls and voice mails on
August 18 and 19 seeking information
about the status of the case.
Numerous questions remain, including
the offi cial cause of death
that will be included on Moore’s
death certifi cate. Simpkins said
the coroner pressured Carbins to
cremate her daughter’s body due to
the overwhelming amount of bodies
that were arriving at the height
of the coronavirus pandemic, and
the death certifi cate still says
“pending.” Simpkins said the State
Medical Examiner is now looking
into how the coroner handled the
body, why there were demands for
cremation, and why it took so long
for an autopsy on Moore.
“How can you cremate a body
when you don’t know for sure why
the person died? Why does the
death certifi cate say pending?
That shows a contradiction,” Simpkins
said.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey
Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s
Offi ce acknowledged receiving
an email August 19 seeking
clarifi cation on those details and
any further information about the
status of Moore’s case, but did not
follow up with any response. The
state’s Medical Examiner’s Offi ce
also did not return phone calls on
August 19, but an offi cial with the
New Jersey Department of Health
told the newspaper that a request
would need to be fi led under the
state’s Open Public Records Act
to get information from the state
Medical Examiner’s Offi ce.
Regardless of the cause of death,
Simpkins and other advocates are
also calling on the YMCA for answers
and changes. The facility
has served as a homeless shelter
for marginalized folks and Simpkins
wonders why, considering that
population’s vulnerability, anyone
would have access to the roof.
“It was reported in the police report
that they let people go to the
roof to smoke, and the roof is not
enclosed,” Simpkins said. “So the Y
has some things to answer for and
we are going to press the Y about
that.”
“Authorities sent us the incident
report, but there was a whole
investigation done where they did
interview witnesses, found out
some info about Ashley’s activities
the past couple months, how she’s
been behaving, some commentary
about maybe she was having diffi
culties,” Simpkins said. “But no
one really knew how she wound
up on the sidewalk outside the
building… the presumption is she
jumped from the roof.”
Simpkins is also wondering
about a series of other questions
as she continues to examine the
case. If Moore was indeed on the
roof of the YMCA, was she the only
one there? Simpkins also wonders
about the ligature marks she had
on her body.
“I asked if they took a rape kit
and they said they didn’t.”
Simpkins has asked the mayor’s
offi ce, police department, the state
and local medical examiners, and
the YMCA to “preserve and protect”
all video evidence, interviews,
documents, and any other information
related to Moore.
“If there was a possible crime, we
want to make sure that evidence is
still available,” she said.
Newark’s YMCA did not immediately
respond to a request for comment
on Moore’s death.
The inaction of the police department
is worth noting in the context
of another incident Moore encountered
in the past. She published an
Instagram post in 2018 when she
called police to report that she had
been mugged. Upon notifying police
that she was a Black transgender
woman, she said cops made a
derogatory remarks about her gender
identity and never helped her.
“The lady denied me and called
me a disgusting fag so I didn’t get
help there,” Moore said in the video
she posted in July of 2018. “I called
again and I got a male. He also denied
me; didn’t call me any names,
just denied me… I went to the police
station and it’s kind of empty. I
talked to one police offi cer and he
didn’t want to help me either.”
Shit got real today. I’ve heard
stories from my friends able things
like this happening. I guess I just
didn’t expect it to happen to me.
This is f***ed up.
A post shared by Clutch_angel
(@kal.leia_j_idendrale) on Jul 19,
2018 at 11:15am PDT
Simpkins brought up that Instagram
post and cited it as yet
another example of the issues that
have persisted among law enforcement
offi cers in the city.
“There is a problem in the culture
of Newark’s police department
about how they view Black trans
women,” Simpkins said.
When asked if police provided
any explanation for their failure to
notify Moore’s mother of her daughter’s
death or the department’s
overall delay in acting on the case,
Simpkins said they admitted fault
but not in a reassuring fashion.
“They said nothing other than,
‘We messed up, dropped the ball,
this is not how it should have happened,’”
Simpkins recalled. “The
excuse was that this was another
dead Black trans woman and it’s
not that important. That’s the way
the community is taking it.”
However, Simpkins and Carbins
would like the general public
to know that Moore was far more
than just “another dead Black
trans woman.” Simpkins said
Moore was working as a cook,
writing her memoir, and trying to
someday start her own business.
Like many places across the US,
there is a history of anti-LGBTQ
violence in the Newark area. Gay
City News extensively reported on
the 2003 murder of Sakia Gunn, a
15-year-old Black lesbian who was
stabbed to death after refusing a
man’s sexual advances. In 2010,
an Essex County deputy sheriff
conducting a sex sting in Newark’s
Branch Park shot and killed De-
Farra Gaymon, an African-American
man from Georgia in town
for a high school reunion. Though
the deputy sheriff, who had been
involved in three prior public sex
arrests that turned violent, faced
no charges, Essex County agreed
to a $1.5 million settlement in a
lawsuit brought by Gaymon’s family.
In 2012, a Newark man was
acquitted in the killing of 28-yearold
transgender woman Victoria
Carmen White in Maplewood, just
outside of Newark, after the man
learned she was transgender.
Editor’s note: The Essex County
prosecutor did not initially respond,
but a spokesperson reached out one
day after the story was posted online
to confi rm the offi ce is “reviewing”
Moore’s case. Prosecutors said
it is “early in terms of our involvement”
and that though the case has
not yet been deemed a homicide, the
homicide task force is investigating.
The spokesperson noted the autopsy
on Moore is not yet available.
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