(WWJ) - A district court judge in Oakland County denied two claims this week in a case surrounding a transgender woman's battle to retrieve her testicles from her ex-boyfriend's refrigerator after they broke up.
The two small claims petitions for $6,500 in Pontiac's 50th District Court were ruled "a wash" by Judge Jeremy Bowie in a decision that cannot be appealed after he heard testimony from Brianna Kingsley, 40, and her 37-year-old ex, William Wojciechowski, on Wednesday (Feb. 7).
As reported by The Detroit News, Kingsley filed a handwritten small claims petition in August stating that Wojciechowski "retains possession of my surgically extracted testicles, preserved in (a) Mason jar, kept in (the) fridge next to the eggs. Demand immediate return of my human remains specimen and damages of $6,500."
Wojciechowski then filed a counterclaim seeking the same amount of damages after he claimed to be "humiliated" when the case caught the attention of "worldwide news outlets."
In Wednesday's hearing, Bowie denied both claims, stating "I've been patient enough," after hearing the former partners spar over the testicles during their testimonies.
The judge stated that Kingsley could've taken the jar when she was accompanied by an Oakland County Sheriff's deputy to Wojciechowski's Pontiac home in January 2023 to retrieve her belongings, but didn't.
The couple reportedly met through Facebook Community in April 2020 and in the fall of 2021, they moved in together at a Pontiac home Wojciechowski had purchased.
Kingsley said after her procedure, she placed her testicles in a Mason jar and kept them in the fridge as a way to "deal with trauma."
But December of 2022, the couple had broken up.
Kingsley had just gotten out of the Oakland County Jail when she went to her ex-boyfriend's home. She served three days behind bars and was fined $100 after she violated a personal protection order Wojciechowski had filed against her after the two ended their relationship.
"We allow a one-time visit with a Sheriff's officer in situations like that for people to go back to get their belongings," the judge said via The News. "Ms. Kingsley failed to retrieve the testicles from the refrigerator at that time. ... If they were so important to her, she had the opportunity to grab them, and she didn't."
Kingsley reportedly paid Wojciechowsk a second time about a month later where he said he felt he was being harassed and did not allow her inside. The judge agreed he had a right to refuse her entry into the home.
During Wojciechowski's testimony, he said the tossed the testicles in the trash in July after they began "rotting" in his fridge.
"It was disgusting — I've got food in there I wanted to eat," Wojciechowski added. "She didn't keep them in a biohazard container like she was supposed to."
After it was revealed that the body parts were thrown away, the judge concluded he could not grant Kingsley's request to have them back. He then asked how she came up with damages in $6,500.
Bowie stated: "Specifically why I asked you: I can put a dollar amount on, say, if you were missing work at $16 an hour, but as to testicles, I can't really put a number on it."
Kingsley said she had the surgery preformed at Henry Ford Hospital for $20,000 back on March 23, 2022. She revealed that since she is disabled, the state paid for the procedure.
The judge said that since she didn't foot the bill herself, she wasn't "going to be unjustly enriched."
"They were my testicles," Kingsley replied. "We're talking about my nuts. ... I wanted them in my fridge — not his. ... He denied me access to my own body parts. I don't think that can be quantified. The damages were the loss of these nuts."
Kingsley is due back in court on Feb, 28 after she failed to appear for a hearing on charges of destruction of property when she allegedly caused damage to her ex-boyfriends front door.
The hearing was originally scheduled for Feb. 7.