Pubdate: Thu, 30 Jun 2005
Source: Nashville Scene (TN)
Copyright: 2005 Nashville Scene.
Contact:  http://www.nashscene.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2409
Author: Matt Pulle
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

POLICE REACT

The Cop Shop Deals With Revelations That It's Targeting Gay Men, Luring 
Them To Trade Drugs For Sex

On Friday, the Metro Police Department's internal affairs unit launched a 
preliminary inquiry into the conduct of four officers who arrested and 
allegedly manhandled a gay man suspected of carrying a drug used to enhance 
sex--an incident the Scene detailed last week ("Policing Gays," June 23). 
Meanwhile, Police Chief Ronal Serpas met with officials from the Tennessee 
Equality Project, a local gay rights group, to discuss the the 
controversial arrest and Hermitage police precinct's use of confidential 
informants to target gay chat rooms and lure homosexual men into trading 
drugs for sex.

Last May, under the supervision of the Hermitage Crime Suppression Unit, a 
police informant fabricated a racy profile and infiltrated a chat room on 
gay.com. The informant ultimately lured a computer programmer into bringing 
amyl nitrite, a commercially available sex drug, to his townhouse off 
Stewart's Ferry Pike. In fact, four undercover officers lay in wait, but 
when they tried to arrest him, he refused to submit. The man later said 
that he never fathomed that he was the target of a police sting, thinking 
instead that the men were malicious rednecks who had planned to terrorize a 
gay man. But as the man resisted, the plain-clothed officers brought him to 
the ground, shoved and kicked him. Police Sgt. Stephen Brady, a 17-year 
veteran of the force, shot him three times with a Taser gun.

Kennetha Sawyers, a civilian attorney who heads the departments Office of 
Professional Accountability, confirms that her staff will begin contacting 
the officers involved in the arrest. They include Joshua Rhyne Walters, 
Joel David Goodwin and Michael Dunn. None of the officers has ever been 
cited for abuse or any other serious disciplinary infraction during their 
police careers.

"We've opened the case, and we're proceeding on it," she says, declining to 
elaborate further.

Incredibly, nearly two months after the man's arrest, neither the District 
Attorney's Office nor the Metro Police Department can say with certainty 
that amyl nitrite is even illegal. Still, the man faces charges of being in 
possession of a controlled substance and resisting and evading arrest.

Last week, Eric Snyder, the Hermitage precinct's investigative lieutenant, 
confirmed to the Scene that his men grabbed the suspect, brought him to the 
ground and gave him a knee strike. He also confirmed the three Taser shots. 
He said that the defendant resisted throughout and shooting him with a stun 
gun was the preferred alternative to subduing him by force.

Legal precedent suggests that the four officers would be able to justify a 
high level of force used against someone resisting arrest and suspected of 
illegal drug possession. Still, speaking generally, Sawyers says that Metro 
police are expected to exercise good judgment when making an arrest.

"Resistance in and of itself does not authorize the use of force that is 
much higher than the use of resistance," she says.

John Herbison, the suspect's defense attorney, says his client is more than 
willing to talk with investigators. Last week, Herbison issued a subpoena 
to prevent the destruction of any police photographs, videotapes and notes 
that would contradict any of the police statements made in the complaint. 
He says that his client told him that another officer videotaped the arrest.

"This was a case where the boner patrol was out of control," he says, 
referring to the unit's sex sting. "It's also a case that would warrant 
criminal prosecution of these police officers."

Eric Snyder had no additional comment about the internal affairs 
investigation of the four officers.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Serpas met with officials of the Tennessee Equality 
Project. Rhonda White, a TEP board member, says that the gay rights group 
doesn't have an issue with the other arrests made by the Hermitage 
officers, which include busts for possession of crystal methamphetamine and 
cocaine. They also don't necessarily have a problem with the broader use of 
confidential informants to lure gay men into trading drugs for sex. The 
real problem for TEP is the one arrest in particular. They want to know why 
police targeted and apprehended a man who may well be innocent.

"I really tried to convey that the other arrests aren't really our 
concerns," White says. "We were much more concerned with the fact that 
someone was arrested for carrying a substance that either was not illegal 
or it was not clear that it was."

White says that the police department told her the DA's office will have to 
"make that call" on the drug's legality. In the meantime, she says, "we 
will be watching and monitoring this case."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom