INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal judge ruled the rights of a transsexual prison inmate were not violated when he was denied estrogen treatments he sought because he wanted to look more like a woman, officials said Friday.

Lavarita Meriwether, 27, serving a 35-year term for murder, charged that his civil rights were violated when he was refused estrogen and also claimed he was improperly denied admission to the state Women's Prison, the attorney general's office said.


'We find the equal protection claim does not warrant our intervention,' U.S. District Judge James Noland wrote.

Meriwether received silicone implants, operations on his face and hips and partial removal of his penis before he was jailed at the all-male Indiana Reformatory, Attorney General Linley Pearson said.

The court concluded that the refusal of Meriwether's demand for estrogen -- a female hormone -- was not a violation of 8th Amendment guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment, Pearson said.