Mass. inmate's sex-change surgery in jeopardy

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has warned a Massachusetts prison inmate convicted of murder that she could lose her opportunity for a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation if she violates court confidentiality rules again.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf said in a ruling Thursday that Michelle Kosilek used a friend to conduct an email conversation with an unidentified doctor who's in willing to perform the surgery.

The Boston Globe (http://b.globe.com/19sDkgG ) reports that Wolf wrote that the contact violated the confidentiality rules he laid out when he ordered the department to prepare for the surgery that he approved. The state has appealed.

Wolf wrote that a second violation could jeopardize the surgery.

Kosilek was named Robert when convicted of his wife's 1990 murder. She lives as a woman in a men's prison.

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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe

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