Transgender Operating Engineer Allegedly Harassed by Union Members, Threw Rock at Man in Car: Cops

A transgender operating engineer reportedly told police that union members harassed him before he threw a rock at one their cars.

Jackie Martin Orstead, 53, was charged with criminal damage to property in connection with the Tuesday incident at the Lockport Powerhouse.

Orstead, a Wilmington resident, explained to deputies that he was “being harassed by employees in his union because he is a transgender man transitioning into a female,” police said.

Orstead is a member of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, police said, which is “in the process of removing him from the union.”

Ed Maher, the spokesman for Local 150, said that was not the case.

“There have been no efforts,” Maher said, adding, “He’s a member in good standing.”

Maher also said the man who allegedly harassed Orstead is not a member of his union.

“The claim that he was threatened or harassed by another member is unfounded,” Maher said. “There is no evidence to support this at all.”

Orstead and another worker engaged in a “verbal altercation” over Orstead allegedly “speeding down the road leading to the work site.”

“Orstead then made incriminating statements regarding throwing a rock at the employee while the employee was inside his personal vehicle,” police said. The employee was able to show deputies a “small scratch on the step-up bar of his (Chevy) Tahoe that was caused by the rock,” police said.

Police said there was prior “ill will” between Orstead and the other worker.

Orstead was released from jail Monday night on his own recognizance.

Eleven days before the incident, Orstead filed a petition to change his name to Jennifer Nova Femminaquashee because he is “undergoing a gender change.”