Tipsheet

This New Jersey Trans Inmate Lawsuit Is Insane

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  May 11, 2026 1:30 PM

Editor's note: This story contains troubling details of crimes. Reader discretion is advised.

In 2022, Matthew Volz was sentenced on charges of human trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, conspiracy, and endangering the welfare of a child. That came four years after Volz had taken his child from her mother, transporting the girl from Oregon to New Jersey. In the intervening time, Volz and his partner, a trans-identified male named Ashley Romero, were making "transgender fetish porn," a business they ran from their home. 

It turned out Volz's young daughter was abused as part of this business. Judge Peter Tober said the situation were "heinous, cruel, and depraved." Volz was sentenced to 25 years in prison, as was Romero.

Two others in the home were convicted, with one getting a 12-year sentence and another five years behind bars. Romero was imprisoned in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, while Voz was placed in the South Woods State Prison for men. Volz was transferred a few months later.

In 2023, Volz sued the New Jersey Department of Corrections for "human rights violations" against his "religious freedoms." As part of his suit, Volz is making several demands, including that the state allow him to marry Romero.

Here's more:

In the suit, Volz claimed he was being denied religious accommodations in accordance with his Wiccan beliefs. Wicca is a modern Pagan spiritual practice that centers on nature, rituals, and reverence for divine forces often represented as a Goddess and a horned God.

Volz alleged that Joy Lynch, the head of religious services at Edna Mahan, had denied him a number of Wiccan religious accommodations, including the ability to maintain a “Witch’s Garden” for growing “sacred herbs” and the ability to perform night-time rituals either nude (“sky-clad”) or in a cloak.

...

Volz has presented the Department with 12 settlement demands, including the right to perform outdoor Wiccan religious ceremonies in the nude during certain observations, and the ability to be designated a Wiccan religious leader within the prison.

But another striking point from the latest joint update includes a request from Volz to marry his sex offender accomplice, Ashley Romero, while the two are incarcerated.

Simply incredible.

Yes. That's it.

Sadly, it's true.

Probably.

It's apparently a "violation of human rights" not to.

We do not.

Democrats will raise taxes to pay for this.

We have a two-tiered justice system.

It truly does.