therapy and psychotherapy for her condition. Kosilek briefly received electrolysis treatments in 2008. In 2009, Kosilek lost her eighth lawsuit, attempting to force the DOC to provide electrolysis to remove facial hair. Sex reassignment surgery In May 2006, Kosilek sued the DOC, arguing that its refusal to provide sex reassignment surgery constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. On September 4, 2012, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled that the MDOC had violated Kosilek's constitutional rights by denying sex reassignment surgery, noting that former Corrections Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy had engaged in "pretense, pretext, and prevarication" to deny the treatment. He wrote that Dennehy had "testified untruthfully on many matters" while supporting legislation to prevent her from providing sex reassignment surgery to inmates. Wolf ordered the DOC to provide Kosilek with the surgery. In October 2012, Judge Wolf ordered the DOC to hire an independent expert to determine whether electrolysis was a necessary part of Kosilek's treatment for gender dysphoria. Judge Wolf announced in December that, pending the outcome of the case on appeal, he was prepared to require the state to reimburse Koselek's attorneys for their work on the case, estimated at more than $700,000. Kosilek's attorneys offered to forgo that payment if the state would cover the cost of Kosilek's surgery and forgo its appeal. Representative Barney Frank supported the decision of Governor Deval Patrick to appeal Wolf's decision. He said "I think it should be clear she has a right to present herself as a woman, and that should be honored by the prison system" but he thought that Kosilek's advocates were wrong to describe her case "as a general trans[gender rights] issue". U.S. Senator Scott Brown and his 2012 election opponent Elizabeth Warren both objected to the use of "taxpayer dollars" for Kosilek's surgery. Relatives of Cheryl McCaul objected to the court-ordered surgery and one cousin suggested it would lead someone unable to afford such surgery to commit murder in order to receive it at government expense. In 2006, the editors of the Boston Globe had opposed Kosilek's surgery because "[p]rivate insurers rarely pay for sex-change operations" and "hormone treatment and expert therapy" are "sufficient". In 2012, the Globe said that Wolf's decision made a persuasive case that the surgery was "medically necessary, not an elective procedure", however "distasteful". The paper had also stopped referring to Kosilek as "Robert" and adopted feminine pronouns. An editorial