Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Alleged Tesla Arsonist Freed From Jail To Continue Sex Change ‘Care’

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A Massachusetts college student charged with setting Tesla vehicles and chargers on fire in Missouri has been freed from custody in part to proceed with sex change procedures she began on the month of the alleged attacks.

A federal judge ordered 19-year-old Owen McIntire into home detention at her parents’ house, which she can leave for reasons including medical and “mental health treatment,” after her attorney filed a motion arguing why she should be freed from jail. The document reveals that McIntire is another of several transgender-identifying people charged with anti-Tesla attacks since Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the Trump administration.

“Medically, Owen faces serious and ongoing needs,” McIntire’s attorney wrote to a Massachusetts court on April 23. “He takes daily medications for depression and ADHD and has consistently demonstrated insight into his diagnoses and compliance with his treatment. He also receives gender-affirming medical care, which began in March of this year and is likely to be interrupted or terminated entirely if he remains in pretrial detention.”

The filing says McIntire has “deep ties to [the] community” in Boston and describes her as an active student throughout her childhood, taking ballet from age 8 to 15 before apparently realizing she wanted to be transgender sometime later. She remains “medically and psychologically vulnerable” and should therefore be released, the attorney’s motion said.

McIntire’s attorney and the DOJ did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that she burned two Tesla vehicles and charging stations in Missouri while on spring break in March — the same month her lawyer says she began “gender-affirming” procedures.

The attorney said the DOJ “has suggested political overtones to” the alleged Tesla attacks, calling them “speculative.” The motion said McIntire “is an adolescent first-year college student with no criminal history” and does not pose a flight risk due to a lack of “a valid passport.”

McIntire faces charges of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device and malicious damage to property by fire. The defendant is ordered to appear in court again on Thursday, records show.

Besides McIntire, a lipstick-wearing “queer” scientist and three other trans-identifying defendants are among those the DOJ has charged with firebombing or other vandalism against Musk’s company since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. The Trump administration also formed a law enforcement task force focused on the alleged politically motivated attacks on Tesla.

“If you engage in domestic terrorism, this Department of Justice will find you, follow the facts, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Wednesday press release announcing the indictment of yet another Tesla arson suspect. “No negotiating.”