Killer Robert 'Michelle' Kosilek's Sex Change Will Be Paid For By Taxpayers, Federal Judge Rules

"Michelle" Kosilek, born Robert Kosilek, was locked away after he strangled his wife, Cheryl, to death in Mansfield, Mass., in 1990, but now the convict will be provided with a sex-change surgery and treatments as per ordered by a federal judge, the AP reported.

Kosilek, who now reportedly likes to be called Michelle, dumped his wife's body in a car at the Emerald Square Mall at North Attleborough and fled to New York State. He was arrested and charged with murder in New York, the AP said in a report.

He was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of murder in the first degree in January 1993. That was also the same year Robert decided to change his name to Michelle and proclaim that he was a woman, reports said.

On Tuesday a federal court judge ordered Massachusetts prison officials to give the killer "sex-reassignment surgery," the Boston Herald reported.

Wolf said the treatment is "the only adequate care for his serious mental illness, gender identity disorder."

"This fact that sex reassignment surgery is for some people medically necessary has recently become more widely recognized," Wolf wrote in a landmark, 129-page ruling that came out on Tuesday.

The decision to provide Kosilek with the gender reassignment came after she sued the Department of Correction in 2000 by saying not paying for her surgery violated Eighth Amendment right of cruel and unusual punishment.

Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said on Tuesday, "We are reviewing the decision and exploring our appellate options.''

Laywer Joseph L. Sulman, who took on Kosilek's case pro bono, said Tuesday that he thinks the department will "promptly arrange for Michelle Kosilek to receive her treatment."

"The law has always been in our favor, and we thought once the law was applied to the facts, the judge really only could reach one conclusion," Sulman said.