Did Brandon Teena’s ‘Third Rapist’ Pay for His Cruelty?
The story of Brandon Teena’s demise is full of brutality, most of it perpetrated by John Lotter and Thomas Nissen. The ex-cons, both 22, became indignant upon finding out that their new drinking buddy was not a man but rather a woman originally named Teena Brandon.
Brandon, 21, convincingly spoke and styled himself as a man and dated many women around Falls City, Nebraska. He told some of the women that he was a hermaphrodite, which wasn’t true — but at the time, it seemed better or easier than the truth, that he was transgender.
Bad signs. Back in 1993, people didn’t use the term transgender too often anywhere, let alone in Falls City, population 4,762.
Lotter and Nissen originally believed Brandon was a full-on man. Brandon was dating Lotter’s former girlfriend Lana Tisdel. It wasn’t until Brandon was arrested for forgery and placed in the women’s section in jail that his new friends began to suspect his identity.
At a Christmas party in 1993, Lotter and Nissen “de-pantsed” Brandon to show guests that he was a woman. Lotter and Nissen then abducted him, beat him up, and raped him. They took him to Nissen’s house, where he escaped through a bathroom window.
Boor with a badge. Had Brandon not reported the assault — and had the person taking the report not been Charles Laux — Brandon and two other innocent people would likely be alive today.
During a tape-recorded interview, Richardson County Sheriff Laux treated Brandon’s account of the rapes as a dirty story told for his entertainment. Laux asked the type of questions one might expect from a mean 11-year-old. (Read the transcript.)
He also taunted Brandon about concealing his identity as a woman — and suggested that the rape accusations were lies because Brandon lied about being a man. Laux also referred to Brandon as “it.”
Home invasion. Laux declined to arrest Lotter and Nissen, giving them time to make a plan to silence Brandon forever.
On December 31, 1993, Lotter and Nissen found Brandon hiding out at the home of friend Lisa Lambert. After shooting and stabbing Brandon to death, Lotter and Nissen killed Lambert, 24, as well as her visiting friend, Phillip Devine, 22, to eliminate them as witnesses.
It was only in death that Brandon received justice, when a court convicted Lotter and Nissen.
Sheriff Lousy. Today, Lotter sits on death row in Tecumseh State Correctional Institution and Nissen is serving life without parole at the NDCS Reception and Treatment Area.
But what about Sheriff Charles Laux Sr. — did he ever face repercussions?
Well, yes, but not quite enough, considering that many people likened Laux’s questioning of Brandon to a third rape. Here’s the story on Laux, before, during, and after he became a worst-case scenario for law enforcement:
Charles B. Laux Sr. was born in Verdon, Nebraska, on August 13, 1947. He married Georgia Tillman in 1968. They had two sons before divorcing in 1992.
The explanation. Early in his career, Laux owned Chuck’s Used Cars in Johnson, Nebraska. He last held a license for the business in 1978, according to the St. Joseph News-Press.
He became Richardson County sheriff in 1987.
As for his role in the Brandon Teena case, Laux would later say that he had to ask Brandon crude questions to prepare the case for the county attorney, according to court papers. He also contended that his office began investigating the rape claim promptly, despite that he felt Brandon might have been making the story up as he went along because he often paused during his narrative.
By early 1994, Laux began to receive public criticism for his actions leading up to the triple murder. The January 13, 1994 Lincoln Journal Star editorial page included three letters from angered citizens. One asked “what spacecraft” the sheriff was “thrown off of” and another said the homicides could have been prevented “had the proper attitude prevailed.”
‘I’m the victim here.’ Laux, in turn, complained about comments from Brandon’s sister, Tammy, about his handling of the rape accusation. In reality, he had labored over the case during work hours and on his days off, he contended. “We work hard at what we do, and we take pride in what we do,” Laux said in 1994. “All I expect is a thank you.”
Some more-formal indignities were on their way for Laux, although they were unrelated to the rape and murders.
In July 1994, Laux was charged with acting as a motor vehicle dealer without a license — a felony in Nebraska. His dozens of alleged offenses included purchasing a car from the state’s surplus-equipment office. A St. Joseph News-Press photo showed Laux hiding his face behind a paper while exiting the Richardson County courthouse.
Back in the public sector. It’s not clear what, if anything, became of those charges, which could have landed him in prison for five years. But in November 1994, Laux lost his bid for a third term as sheriff. Gary Young, who was once Laux’s deputy, received 2,186 votes to Laux’s 1,870, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
Laux grumbled that he was a victim of dirty tricks and that he might file a lawsuit related to the election loss, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
He served on the Richardson County Board of Commissioners from 1997 to 2001.
Official condemnation. JoAnn Brandon sued Laux for as much as half a million dollars for not arresting Lotter and Nissan and for the emotional trauma his callousness caused Brandon, according to ABC News.
“It’s tragic when any parent loses a child to violent crime, but when that crime could have been avoided had law enforcement done its job instead of reacting with hate toward the victim, it becomes an outrage,” said David S. Buckel, a lawyer for JoAnn Brandon.
In April 2001, Nebraska Supreme Court Justice John Hendry said Laux’s tone on the interview was “demeaning, accusatory and intimidating” and “beyond all possible bounds of decency” and “utterly intolerable in a civilized community.” He awarded JoAnn Brandon $80,000.
Some justice for mother. The Nebraska Supreme Court also reversed a county judge’s finding that Brandon was partly responsible for his own murder because of his lifestyle.
The amount of the settlement presented a strain for Richardson County, whose treasury had already taken a beating because of floods in 1992 and 1993 and the prosecution of an unrelated 1985 double murder. Some of the financial obligation of the award was shifted to Lotter and Nissen.
Newspaper accounts don’t mention whether JoAnn Brandon received any of the money, but she did say that the court’s decision itself brought her some satisfaction. She also got to see Hillary Swank win an Academy Award for portraying Bandon in the 1999 Hollywood movie Boys Don’t Cry.
He ‘goes to prison.’ Apparently, the film didn’t hurt Laux’s self-esteem too much: In March 2002, Laux began a campaign for the sheriff job in nearby Johnson County.
That came to nothing and, as of December 2003, Laux had begun working as a corrections officer at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
Laux retired from law enforcement in 2013 and then drove a school bus for five years.
Unlikely driving-force. But he tried to re-enter public life by campaigning for a Dawson Village Board seat in 2018. A newspaper article about the outcome used the headline “Boys Don’t Cry Sheriff Loses Election.”
Charles Laux Sr. died on March 30, 2021 at the age of 73, leaving behind a girlfriend, his two sons, and five grandchildren, according to his obituary.
Although it probably wasn’t the legacy Laux wanted, his mistreatment of Brandon Teena and Brandon’s subsequent murder helped bring about the transgender movement — the “T” in “LGBT” — which has fought to end discrimination against people whose identities don’t conform to the gender on their birth certificates.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
You can watch the documentary The Brandon Teena Story, which includes audio of the police interview, on YouTube.
Boys Don’t Cry is also on YouTube, but it costs $3.99 to view, and on Amazon, also for a fee, even with Prime.
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