Tag Archives: gay targeting

Texas Teenager Arrested for Murder After Using GRINDR To Lure Victims

Georgia Police Arrest 9 Men in GRINDR “Drugs for Sex” Sting Operation

The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia arrested nine men during a three-day sting using Grindr in what they claim is a “drugs for sex” operation.

Sgt. W. Dereck Johnson – who identified himself on Grindr as “Charlie[looking for]420” – initiated a conversation about sex and offered to host at a Quality Inn & Suites on Beartooth Parkway in Dawsonville.

When the man said he had marijuana, Johnson replied, “U share?” The man said he would. Johnson also offered to supply papers to smoke the marijuana. 

“I want to get high and fuck,” Johnson wrote.

 Johnson told a local magistrate court judge a different story according to a March 4 warrant for the suspect’s arrest.

“[The suspect] did solicit SSGT D. Johnson to perform an act of prostitution in exchange for marijuana,” Johnson wrote in the warrant.

The man was charged with misdemeanor pandering, possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and criminal attempt. 

In all  nine men were arrested during the sting using GRINDR over three day and charges ranged from misdemeanors – including pandering, obstruction and marijuana possession – to felonies, including criminal attempt to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine and use of a communication device to facilitate a felony. The men arrested ranged in age from 23 to 50 years old.

Sources report that all the men’s mugshots and places of business were published in a local media outlet.

Greg Nevins, senior counsel at Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office in Atlanta, said the pandering charge is baseless. This type of arrest harkens back to other instances of law enforcement targeting gay men.

Dawsonville is located about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Source: Project Q

Ohio Set to Execute Killer in Brutal Cincinnati Gay Murder Case

Ohio Set to Execute Killer in Brutal Cincinnati Gay Murder Case

The state of Ohio is preparing for its first execution in many years of convicted murderer Robert Van Hook on Wednesday more than 30 years after he viciously stabbed a gay man to death and mutilated his body in his Hyde Park apartment.

David Self was 25, when he was found stabbed to death and disemboweled by his neighbor in Feb. 1985.

Authorities say Van Hook met Self at the Subway Bar in downtown Cincinnati on Feb. 18, 1985. After a couple of hours, they went to Self’s apartment where Van Hook strangled the 25-year-old Self to unconsciousness, stabbed him multiple times in the neck and then cut his abdomen open and stabbed his internal organs, according to court records. Van Hook stole a leather jacket and necklaces before fleeing, and smeared his own bloody fingerprints to hide his identity from police,

 Previous attorneys representing Van Hook attempted a “homosexual panic” claim in his defense, or the idea that self-revulsion over sexual identity confusion contributed to a violent outburst. Van Hook’s current lawyers say that was misguided, and overlooked his diagnoses of borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder from his childhood..

Prosecutors dismissed the idea as nonsense, saying Van Hook made a practice of luring gay men to apartments to rob them and made note to mention that Van Hook has an extensive history of violence while incarcerated, including stabbing a fellow death row inmate in November.

Self’s family support the execution, telling the parole board last month that their slain loved one is missed every day. Self’s sister, Janet Self, said her brother had been reduced over the years to “a gay man in a bar,” when he in fact he was so much more.

While separate federal courts have ruled in favor of a retrial for Van Hook, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 2009.

In May, the Ohio Parole Board voted against clemency for Van Hook, now 58.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich also rejected his request for clemency without comment.