The New York Times reported a Target spokesperson said the Ammon store did not have a unisex fitting area. But the mythbusting site Snopes.com concluded all the facts that are fit to print, or in this case to post, appear not in The Times, but in The TransAdvocate:

“The TransAdvocate web site reported that the incident took place in a unisex changing area rather than a women’s dressing area, as was commonly stated in news accounts…” “Likely neither the gender status of the suspect or the dressing area was a significant factor in this case. A perpetrator wearing a wig and a dress (as the suspect in this case was) could probably get into a dressing area and take pictures of women without initially raising alarm, regardless of whether the dressing area was women-only or unisex, and regardless of whether the perpetrator was transgender or not.”

The facts as reported by The TransAdvocate were supported by KPVI-TV:

“Shoppers coming out of the store tell KPVI the dressing room is open to anyone, male or female.

“One shopper says, ‘Whether you’re transgender or not it’s kind of scary. Anybody could really do it.'”

Scary, yes, but transgender-related? No, not if anyone could have used an adjacent fitting booth.

That same TV station also reported its staff had interviewed Katie Anderson, Smith’s ex-wife, helping to add extra fodder with some salacious information. Anderson told KPVI she and Smith divorced in January and that her ex-husband was transitioning from male to female. She told the station, off-camera, that was partly why they divorced after eight years. With the addition of the ex-wife’s story, Smith could be seen not just as an alleged voyeur, but as a failed husband.

Word spread like wildfire that Smith admitted to the detective that she filmed videos of women changing clothes, adding more sensationalism and scandal. Detective Zeb Graham quoted Smith as explaining she did that for the “same reason men go online to look at pornography,” that she found it, in Graham’s words, “sexually gratifying.” That detail is contained in the affidavit, which can be found within The TransAdvocate’s report.

KPVI reported that according to Smith’s ex-wife, “although Smith identifies as a woman, he’s still interested in women,” misgendering the suspect, although in the same article the station also referred to Smith with feminine pronouns.

This can be confusing new territory for cisgender, non-LGBT members of the media, many of whom do not understand that gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation, and that it’s not unusual for transgender women to be attracted to women. It’s also not uncommon in America for individuals, male or female, cisgender or transgender, to go to great lengths to find sexual gratification. But secretly recording another individual, especially when they are anticipating privacy in the act of changing clothes, no matter how someone identifies, is illegal. That’s not a “transgender crime;” it’s a felony, a crime that Sgt. Lovell told LGBTQ Nation will be investigated and prosecuted without regard to what he termed “politics.”

At press time, Smith is represented by a public defender, as reported by The Daily Dot, and so Smith’s version of events — except as recorded by Det. Graham — has not yet been told. The best we have so far is a video of her arraignment, which as TDD’s Mary Emily O’Hara observed, shows her to be calm, quiet and coolheaded throughout. Watch the video below.