Trans-Identifying Male with Extensive Criminal History Arrested for Vicious Assault, Trans Community Runs to his Defense

FLAGSTAFF, AZ – A 34-year-old man, who self-identifies as a transwoman, was arrested earlier in August for a seemingly violent assault out of Coconino County, initially seeing the man charged with attempted murder.

While the charges have since been downgraded to a litany of assault charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the trans community is coming to the reputational defense of this man, offering a narrative devoid of evidence with claims he was defending himself from “transphobic” attacks.

On August 11th, Leland Wesson, a homeless man who is actively being referred to as Epona Rose by his advocates, was involved in some sort of altercation with another group of men which resulted in an alleged grievous assault carried out by Wesson.

Of those involved in the originating incident, only Wesson was arrested, initially being taken into custody under suspicion of attempted murder.

While the attempted murder charge has since been taken out of the equation, Wesson was charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, felony aggravated assault resulting in disfigurement/impairment/loss of organ, and three misdemeanors consisting of assault, disorderly conduct, and threatening/intimidating with damage to property.

Even though specific details on the incident are currently unknown to the larger public (pending receipt of official police reports), an ongoing narrative being perpetuated is that Wesson was somehow the victim of harassment and assault and merely defended himself.

Around August 14th, the hashtag “#FreeEpona” started making the rounds on Twitter, where this self-defense narrative appears to have been drummed up. In the alleged version of events, Wesson was purportedly being accosted by a group of drunk men who allegedly delivered “threats of rape” before assaulting him, to which online activists claim Wesson “bravely” defended himself.

Eric and some of his closed loved ones are asking to advocate for a very high risk individual currently enduring lock up

Epona Rose is a woman of trans experience who was attacked on the street in Flagstaff by a group of three men while two more men watched. pic.twitter.com/CfkL1ViNAe

— Support_Eric_King (@SupportEricKing) August 14, 2023

Epona defended herself bravely against this attack and did not call the police. She was then punished for this when the cops arrived and arrested only her. She is currently being held on the men’s side of Coconino County Detention Facility in segregation pic.twitter.com/74ZGf9Y7Wr

— Support_Eric_King (@SupportEricKing) August 14, 2023

However, Wesson reportedly never called the police, whereas the victims in the case did, leading to Wesson’s arrest and ongoing legal conundrum.

This aforesaid narrative seems to have made its way over to the defense attorney, Jonathan Mosher, representing Wesson, who on August 23rd filed a motion to have Wesson’s $500K bond lowered via the claims of self-defense and also asserting that Wesson has a trivial criminal history and is not a flight risk.

“[Wesson] is not a flight risk. Prior to this matter, [Wesson] was unhoused by choice because [he] travels for [his] advocacy and activism. [Wesson] dedicates [his] life to providing personal support to marginalized people and communities…”

“[Wesson’s] criminal history, although not yet disclosed to the defense, includes various offenses dating back to at least 2013 involving numerous misdemeanor charges (typically related to trespassing because of [Wesson’s] environment and pro-tribal activism). According to online research, [he] had one or two felony charges in Tennessee that were reduced to misdemeanors. [He] may have a felony charge or conviction from Minnesota from 2021 relating to climbing onto an excavator.” – filing from attorney Jonathan Mosher, Aug. 23, 2023

Throughout the filing, Wesson’s attorney seemingly downplays both Wesson’s criminal history and propensity to be a flight risk, with the latter being rather disingenuous considering Wesson had a warrant issued in December of 2018 for failure to appear before the Williams Municipal Court in Arizona for an open container citation from October of 2018. The 2018 warrant was still active during the time of Wesson’s arrest earlier this month.

Wesson also had another warrant out of Kingman, Arizona, from March of 2018, which that warrant wasn’t resolved until five years later in April of this year after prosecutors simply filed a motion to drop the since-scrubbed original charge.

By all means, Wesson has a documented history of simply not showing up to court when on his own recognizance.

Furthermore, regarding Wesson’s criminal history, aside from his open container citation and the current charges in Arizona, his attorney was correct in mentioning Wesson’s lack of felony convictions – but failed to expand on the nature of some of the original charges he faced in other states.

In Minnesota back in December of 2022, Wesson was charged with theft and trespassing on critical infrastructure, later accepting a deal that saw the theft charge dropped and Wesson being placed on six months’ probation.

And in Tennessee, Wesson harbors a record ranging from aggravated assault to weapons possession. Below is a quick breakdown of Wesson’s Tennessee arrests and case dispositions:

• 12/30/13 – Unlawful use of drug paraphernalia (dismissed), obstruction (dismissed), misdemeanor weapons possession (convicted, 10 days jail, $350 fine),
• 12/7/2014 – Criminal trespassing (from 12/15/2013, dismissed), criminal trespassing (from 12/17/2013, dismissed)
• 12/12/2014 – Felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (pleaded down to misdemeanor, 6 months jail, $704 fine), public intoxication (dismissed)
• 4/25/2019 – Criminal trespassing (dismissed)

Despite the defense’s claims of Wesson’s criminal history being negligible and thus worthy of having his bond reduced, harboring half a dozen, or more, arrests with two failure to appear warrants being issued over a 10-year period doesn’t seem like an ideal profile for a lenient bond recipient.