A transgender woman who says she was arrested while walking through a park, mocked by New York City police officers and wrongly charged with criminal trespass and “false personation” launched a civil rights-based lawsuit against the police department Tuesday.

The woman, Linda Dominguez, who has seen both criminal charges against her dismissed, claims in her Bronx Supreme Court filing that while being held overnight in an NYPD precinct cell in pink handcuffs, various officers used “gestures, glares, and mocking and disgusted tones of voice” that made fun of her transgender status.

Moreover, she alleges that despite giving both her former and current legal names at the Bronx precinct house—while explaining to an officer that she had legally changed her name in 2017 because she is a transgender woman—she was wrongly charged with false personation. The crime occurs when a person knowingly misrepresents their actual name with intent to conceal true identity, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit—lodged by Dominguez and her lawyers at the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT and HIV project—further states that the NYPD's own “Patrol Guide” has specifically prohibited using the fact that a transgender person gave a chosen name rather than a legal name as evidence of a false personation charge.

At the heart of the lawsuit are additional allegations saying that, more than six years ago, the NYPD instituted new guidance for officer on how to properly interact with transgender people, but still hasn't adequately trained its officers.

The complaint, which brings claims including negligent training and supervision, discrimination, bias-based profiling and malicious prosecution, also alleges that discrimination by the NYPD against transgender people remains pervasive.

“The NYPD failed to change its practices or provide proper training” despite making policy changes, including 2012 revisions to the Patrol Guide on how officers should refer to and treat transgender people, the suits says. “Widespread NYPD mistreatment of transgender people, particularly transgender people of color, continues  to occur,” it adds.

The NYPD on Tuesday did not comment on the specifics of Dominguez's lawsuit. But in a statement the department said that it is “committed to serving and meeting the needs of the LGBTQ community with sensitivity, equity, and effectiveness.”

“To that end,” department spokeswoman Sergeant Jessica McRorie added, “the NYPD has carefully and thoughtfully designed and implemented effective policies, training protocols, outreach initiatives, and disciplinary processes.”

An activist in campaigns for the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming immigrants of color, Dominguez alleges that she was walking home from a bus stop through Claremont Park at night in April 2018—taking the shortest route home—when three officers approached her speaking English, which she does not know well, according to the complaint.

The officers allegedly asked for her name. Although Dominguez had legally changed her name in 2017 to align with her female identity, she believed she was supposed to give her original, male name and did so, the suit says.

The police allegedly arrested her for being in the Bronx park after hours, taking her to the 44th precinct.

At the precinct, Dominguez, who is Hispanic, spoke with a Spanish-speaking police officer, giving both her former and current legal names, the suit says.

The suit claims police eventually put her in a cell alone overnight, while keeping her in pink handcuffs and mocking and mis-gendering her repeatedly by calling her by male pronouns and by her former name.

Dominguez, a licensed cosmetologist, experiences gender dysphoria—an impairment tied to incongruence between identity and sex assigned at birth, the suits also states.

“The fact that Linda was actually charged with 'false personation' is absurd and outrageous, but it highlights how the NYPD continues to criminalize transgender people for existing,” said Bobby Hodgson, NYCLU staff attorney, in an NYCLU news release Tuesday.

The complaint and news release also stated that surveys in recent years have found that transgender New Yorkers report high rates of harassment by police, including a 2015 survey that found 61 percent of transgender respondents in New York state experienced some form of harassment or mistreatment by police, and that 58 percent reported feeling uncomfortable asking the police for help.

Moreover, a 2017 report by the city's inspector general found that many police officers have not been trained regarding the revised rules, and that the tracking complaints against officers is inadequate, the release and lawsuit said.

Dominguez said in the release that “as an advocate for my community, I could not let this go and allow police abuse against us trans women to continue.”