Tag Archives: entrapment

Undercover Sex Sting in Washington DC Park Results In Arrests of 26 Gay Men

Undercover Sex Sting in Washington DC Park Results In Arrests of 26 Gay Men

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The U.S. Park Police have made at least 26 arrests during the past year in Meridian Hill Park known as Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C. of men seeking other men for a sexual encounters according to a Park Police spokesperson.

Malcolm X Park, has been known for at least 50 years as a cruising spot in a secluded areas of the park at night for mostly African-American gay men.

Washington, D.C. defense attorney John Albanes and other attorneys who are representing  some of gay men who were arrested report that undercover officers are pose as consenting partners interested in a sexual tryst.

“I am on a D.C. Superior Court trial lawyers association listserv and recently several criminal defense attorneys on the email list have mentioned that they have had criminal cases involving essentially the same set of facts,” Albanes told the Blade in an email. “[U]ndercover plain-clothes Park Police officers entice men in Meridian Hill Park for purportedly consensual sexual activity and then proceed to arrest their targets for a crime (often misdemeanor sexual abuse),” according to Albanes.

“I find this pattern extremely disturbing and reminiscent of the Stonewall days when gay men were often the target of police discrimination. The tactics used in these cases just fly in the face of proper police work and should be exposed,” he said. The officers are posing as willing participants in a consensual encounter between adults. The target is deceived into thinking that what he is about to do is wanted. This raises serious doubts about whether the government can prove criminal intent.”

Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, a Park Police public information officer, told the LGBT website the Washington Blade the 26 arrests made in the park since Aug. 7, 2018 involve charges of one or a combination of Disorderly Conduct, Lewd Acts, Unlawful Entry, and Simple Assault (Sexual).

In a statement Delgado said : “The U.S. Park Police receives complaints about lewd acts that occur within Meridian Hill. As with any other complaint of illegal activity, we then take actions to stop it,” he said. “Plain clothes officers are just one method of enforcement sometimes used to deter, stop, and/or arrest violators within the parks.”

Before being “reclaimed” by the neighborhood and gentrified in the 80’s. Meridian Hill Park was a virtual den of thieves. One newspaper article quoted a police officer who called it “a supermarket of drug dealing.” A 1989 study called the park the “Most Murderous” in that section of the city.

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against San Jose Police Over Gay Sex Sting Operation

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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the San Jose Police Department which accuses the department of singling out gay men during sting operations held in 2014 and 2015 at Columbus park. Police officers posed as decoys and solicited men they perceived to be gay to have sex with them.

The restroom has long been known as a gay cruising spot where men meet each other for sex.

Attorney Bruce Nickerson filed the suit accusing the SJPD of treating the men differently because of their sexual orientation and denying their constitutional rights.

Says Nickerson, the arrests should be thrown out “Because the decoy automatically makes every arrest invalid by generating in the mind of the defendant the reasonable belief that the decoy is interested and not likely to be offended.”

Nickerson also states that  that the department was unfairly targeting gay men for arrests and citations — for absurd charges such as “loitering near a bathroom with the intent to commit a lewd act.”

“It is the Gay equivalent of stopping Jim Crow laws. You want to know how many decoy arrests there were for male/female lewd conduct? Zero.” said Nickerson. 

San Jose police and prosecutors argue the cases deny claims of prejudice. SJPD spokesman Sgt. Enrique Garcia objects to even calling the operations “stings” because no overtime was used and the officers work their shifts in plainclothes anyway

“A lot of gay rights attorneys turn up their noses at what I do,” Nickerson said. “But there’s a reason I do these kinds of cases. Because worse than being fired because you’re gay is to be arrested for being gay. The most fundamental right is to be free of imprisonment.”

Last year, a Santa Clara County judge dismissed charges against six men arrested by San Jose police and criticized the department out for singling out gay men.

Lawsuit Brought Against NY Port Authority Police For Gay Sex Entrapment and False Arrest

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Lawsuit Brought Against NY Port Authority Police For Gay Sex Entrapment and False Arrest

 

A class action lawsuit has been brought against the  Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police for targeting gay men who use the restrooms at New York City’s main bus terminal.

The complaint accuses officers of making targeted arrests on the discriminatory basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and to boost quality of life arrest statistics

The suit, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, claims Port Authority police officers engage in discrimination by falsely arresting men perceived as gay at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on baseless charges including public lewdness and exposure.

The suit was filed by Winston & Strawn LLP and the Legal Aid Society. The plaintiffs are seeking a stop to the practice, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

“The PAPD have continued to make such targeted arrests knowing or believing that most of those arrested will ultimately be forced to plead to lesser charges to avoid public embarrassment and humiliation, costly legal fees, and jail sentences, as well as reputational and professional harm associated with the false charges,” the suit explained

Cops spy on men who seems “gay or non-gender conforming” through the slats in the privacy dividers in the man’s bathroom and then lie and say that the men are touching themselves, according to the suit and plaintiff attorney Ross Kramer

 “The use of police assets and resources in this unconstitutional and unconscionable way is particularly stunning in light of the world in which we live,” said Thomas Patrick Lane, partner with Winston & Strawn.

The specific QOL arrest initiative goes back to at least 2004, when Port Authority police arrested Alejandro Martinez, accusing him of masturbating in public. Martinez was found not guilty and was awarded “substantial damages,” but the police still continue the practice of arresting men for lewdness without probable cause, said Kramer.

Judge Slams Gay Sex Stings by Long Beach, CA Police: “The officers actually caused the crimes to occur.”

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Long Beach Sex Sting

On Friday Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina strongly criticized the Long Beach Police Department’s practice of conducting sting operations against gay men cruising for sex saying the department’s tactics were tantamount to discrimination while invalidating the 2014 arrest of a gay man for lewd conduct and indecent exposure.

The man was ensnared by an undercover vice team that had set up a sting operation in a men’s bathroom at Recreation Park in Long Beach, CA on October 2014. After receiving what he believed to be flirtatious signals from an undercover detective the man was arrested for exposing himself, said Bruce Nickerson, his attorney.

Dhanidina said Long Beach’s vice tactics are discriminatory because the squad uses only male officers as undercover decoys in lewd conduct stings. Several officers who testified at an evidentiary hearing this month all said they had arrested only male suspects for lewd conduct while working as vice officers, the judge said.

The judge also agreed with Nickerson’s argument that the detective smiled and nodded at Moroney several times during their exchange, and Moroney had reason to believe the detective was making a sexual advance

The department “intentionally targeted men who engaged in homosexual sex,” Dhanidina said “The presence and tactics of the decoy officers actually caused the crimes to occur.”

Stephanie Loftin, who is also represented the arrested man, described Long Beach as one of the “last bastions” for using undercover decoy tactics to arrest gay men.

Scores of gay men have been forced to register as sex offenders in California after they were convicted of lewd conduct under similar circumstances, a practice that ruins lives and unfairly lumps such men in with convicted rapists and child molesters.

“Those officers and detectives aren’t saving lives,” said Jim Key, a spokesman for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “They’re destroying them by branding innocent men as sex offenders.”

Gay Men Arrested In Baton Rouge Under Sodomy / Crimes Against Nature Laws

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Since 2011 the Baton Rouge, LA Sheriffs Department has arreseted dozens of gay men under Louisiana’s sodomy and crime against nature statute — R.S. 14:89, the  1805 law that includes language banning “the unnatural carnal copulation by a human being with another of the same sex or opposite sex.” and was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, a ruling that prompted Louisianna’s then-state Attorney General Richard Ieyoub to issue a statement saying the state’s anti-sodomy law would be unenforceable except for provisions banning sodomy for compensation. (i.e. prostitution)

In the latest arrest, July 18th. an undercover East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy was staking out Manchac Park about 10 a.m. The deputy struck up a conversation with a 65-year-old man and, after denying being a cop, deputy propositioned his target with “some drinks and some fun” back at his place. After following the deputy to a nearby apartment, the man was handcuffed and booked on a single count of attempted crime against nature.

There had been no sex-for-money deal between the two. The men did not agree to have sex in the park, a public place. But the man was still arrested and the charge brought against him was based on a part of Louisiana’s anti-sodomy and crimes against nature law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court a decade ago.

So how could this happen?

According to Casey Rayborn Hicks, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman “This is a law that is currently on the Louisiana books, and the sheriff is charged with enforcing the laws passed by our Louisiana Legislature,” Hicks said. “Whether the law is valid is something for the courts to determine, but the sheriff will enforce the laws that are enacted.”

And why is the struck down law still on the books?  

Because the Louisiana State legislature has never gotten around to amending and  removing “consensual sex” either out of ineptness or on purpose.

“It’s really unfortunate that police are continuing to single out, target, falsely arrest and essentially ruin the lives of gay men in Baton Rouge who are engaged in no illegal conduct,” said Andrea J. Ritchie, a civil rights attorney.

Peter Renn, an attorney with Lambda Legal, the prominent gay rights organization, said the pattern of “unlawful arrests over multiple years” suggests authorities are using the stings as a means to harass gay men. The fact that this has been going on for a two-year period is unbelievable.”

And while the city of Baton Rouge wastes time and resources harassing gay men.  Current statistics show that Baton Rouge’s crime rate is almost double that of New Orleans.

Perhaps we should start calling Baton Rouge, Little Russia.

Source:  The Advocate

 

 

EXPOSED! Over 600 Gay Men Falsely Arrested In Sex Sting Operation In Palm Beach, Florida

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In what has to be one of the biggest use of police abuse of power and the targeting and  of entrapment of gay men since the 1960’s.  Editor Jason Parsley of the South Florida Gay News has exposed a massive undercover police operation in Palm Beach, FL, that has led to the arrest more than 600 men allegedly looking for sex when ONLY 4 were actually caught in the act and the rest were arrested only after an undercover police officer propositioned them.
 
Detectives Peter Lazar and his partner Vaniclov “Van” Garner, from 2005 to 2010 arrested more than 600  using what one lawyer called “disgusting” tactics of entrapment while another lawyer questioned the legality of the detectives’ behavior.“They approach, lure and entice guys who are sitting alone in their car, start a sexually charged conversation and then look for a way to arrest them,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Russell Cormican, who estimates he’s probably represented upwards of a 100 men over the past 15 years for getting busted for public sex.One man Gerry Sanders (not his real name) was jogging in the the park and washed his face in the restroom. Sanders, who noticed two men acting strangely in the restroom, mistook the undercover detectives for potential muggers. After leaving the bathroom he got in his car and left with the detective following him through the park. The incident ended with Sanders being charged with loitering in a public restroom.
 
Gerry Sanders is straight and has a girlfriend.
 
Read the article in FULL by clicking HERE

Michigan Police Entrapping And Arresting Gay Men For Being Gay

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Numerous complaints are coming forth that in Michigan’s Grand Rapids, Kent County,  Police are setting up “sex stings” to arrest gay men in public parks, but the men are not being arrested for having sex in public but are being arrested because they are gay.

Equality Michigan say sheriff’s deputies arrested 33 gay men in county parks in 2010 under the state’s soliciting and accosting statute, but claim about half of those arrests involved two men merely speaking to undercover deputies, or making casual contact like holding hands.

The men arrested face the cost of having their cars impounded and run the devastating risk of being placed on Michigan’s sex offender list for life.

Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma on Tuesday defended his deputies, whom he said are merely trying to keep county parks safe for everyone.  The Michigan statue reads “A person 16 years of age or older who accosts, solicits, or invites another person in a public place or in or from a building or vehicle, by word, gesture, or any other means, to commit prostitution or to do any other lewd or immoral act is guilty of a crime.”

But according to Miriam Aukerman, West Michigan staff attorney for the ACLU, who is investigating the allegations says “In these cases, it’s the officers who are making the approaches,” Aukerman said. “It’s the officers who are doing the accosting and soliciting.”

Aukerman also added: “If you look at the exact language of the statute, you could apply it to what happens in bars and restaurants in Kent County on any Friday or Saturday night.  It’s legal to go to a park, a bar or a restaurant and say, ‘Hey, would you like to go to my place?’ We want our parks to be safe places for everyone and that includes gay people who are merely flirting.”

Surprisingly one of the most outspoken voices against the police entrapment of gay men comes from the Rev. Bill Freeman of Holland who has stood up and said that targeting gay men is also illegal and should be stopped.

“There is no money changing hands, so this isn’t prostitution,” Freeman said. “We’re talking about two consenting adults who are trying to hook up together and if one of them is an undercover officer and the only thing one of them has done is say, ‘Let’s get together someplace,’ I don’t see the problem. They’re making it a problem because they’re targeting gays.”

Michigan High School Teacher Fights Back To Keep His Career Being Ruined For ‘Touching’ A Cop In a Park

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A 45-year-old Michigan high school teacher, won’t be pleading guilty to criminal sexual conduct after being arrested for allegedly fondling an undercover police officer during a public park sex sting in an attempt to save his teaching career.

Charles Glover could have served no time if he plead guilty to the fourth-degree charges, which involves touching, just touching  an undercover policeman during a Kent County Sheriff’s Department crackdown on man-on-man sex at Seidman Park in October so instead of copping a pleas and potentially killing his teaching his teaching career, let alone any other professional gig because he would branded as a “sex offender” Glover is going to trial next year to contest the charges, forcing taxpayers to foot the bill to prosecute one of the most meaningless “sex crime” cases there is (And also entrapment)

Okay now lets be real here.  All Glover did was grab the junk of another guy who presented himself as a willing participant in a secluded wooded area of the park.  Is the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and prosecutors planning on arresting, booking, charging, and trying every single straight couple that fondles one another in line at Target, McDonald’s, the bank parking lot, and yes, wooded public areas. Sometimes with kids around. In daylight. I’ve seen all of this happen, and I’m sure you have too, but never once did an undercover officer flash his badge and take out his cuffs. The situations are nearly identical, except in Glover’s case there was likely nobody around to have to watch it unfold.

Its Gay Sex-phobia pure and simple.

And before all you puritanical gay men who are saying . “Ewwwwww.  Men having sex in public is sooo disgusting!!!” “I don’t want to defend him ’cause he’s old and shouldn’t be having sex.” “OMG! He touched another man”   Straight couples have been making out and having sex in public since the beginning of time.  “makeout – point” (otherwise known as abortion-afterwards point). How many “straight sex-stings” has anyone heard about?

 Hello? Bueller?  Anyone?

No?  That’s funny because it happens all over the place every day and yet it’s almost never considered a crime.

The sex-phobic and, dare I say it, homophobic of some gay men these days is pathetic. Have you been to Hooter’s lately? No? What about the str8 strip clubs that exist in every city? They are “absolutely not for sex” either.  If you live in an alternative universe.

Support Charles Glover

Contact the William A. Forsyth, Kent County Prosecutor and tell him to drop the charges!

William A. Forsyth, Kent County Prosecutor
82 Ionia Avenue NW, Suite 450
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2266
Phone: (616) 632-6710
Fax: (616) 632-6714