HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Houston County appealed a judge's order telling them to pay for an investigator's gender-change surgery.
The county and Sheriff Cullen Talton filed the appeal last week in federal court in Macon.
This spring, the judge ruled that Houston County violated Anna Lange's civil rights by denying the surgery, and last month, a jury ordered the county to pay Lange $60,000 in pain and suffering after a three-year legal fight.
The county's appeal now heads to a federal appeals court in Atlanta which can decide whether to take up the case.
Lange has worked for the sheriff's office for nearly 20 years.
Her lawyer says the surgery would cost around $20,000. He says the county has spent $1 million over three years fighting Lange.