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ELIZABETH PERRY
Friday, August 17, 2007
Questions of entrapment and what constitutes good police work are swirling among gay Rehoboth Beach residents who are concerned about a handful of July incidents in which 12 men were arrested for sexual offenses by undercover officers.
Most of the arrests occurred on the southern end of the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk and involved unlawful sexual contact, solicitation and disorderly conduct, according to the Rehoboth police department.
Four men were arrested for allegedly touching an undercover officer in the groin area; four others were arrested and charged with various counts of solicitation and another for indecent exposure to an undercover officer on the beach. Two other men were charged with lewdness on the beach for allegedly engaging in sex 100 feet from the boardwalk. Another man was arrested in the public restrooms on the boardwalk at Delaware Avenue, for allegedly masturbating while watching other males there.
Police chief Keith Banks said the beach patrols have occurred since long before he was new to the force as a summer officer in 1989.
“This year there have been a lot more complaints about trespassing, people using bathhouses, sand dunes and back yards for sexual intercourse,” he said.
There have also been problems, Banks said, with graffiti in the public bathrooms, as well as more disturbing complaints of public masturbation and inappropriate comments made to pre-teens.
“Parents were coming to us and saying their young boys and girls were approached by adults asking them if they reached puberty and other rude comments,” he said.
Jim Anderson, a resident of Rehoboth Beach and friend of two of those arrested, said an attractive 21-year-old male in shorts in July approached a group of middle-aged gay men congregating on the south end of the boardwalk after the bars finished serving around 1 a.m. The younger man proceeded to ingratiate himself with the older men, but when he was approached for more than conversation, he revealed he was a police officer and arrested them.
“These were all mature men,” Anderson said. “All that needed to happen was for a uniformed police officer to come and say, ‘Gentlemen, you need to disperse.’ They sent an entrapment person dressed in shorts, 21 years old, to talk to them, engage them in conversation and arrest them.”
Anderson said it seemed as if Rehoboth police, in one incident that led to some of the arrests, chose their most attractive young officer and sent him to the spot — known to be a place where gay men congregate — “provocatively dressed.”
Anderson is a member of a loosely formed group of about 10 people who got together to discuss the situation and who feel it is necessary to warn tourists to be careful at the end of the boardwalk.
“Camp Rehoboth [a local gay organization] is not doing much to help us,” Anderson said. “We need an organization to fight back when stuff like this happens. There was no need for plain-clothes officers or entrapment. They weren’t doing any drugs. These people were not criminals.”
Banks said his undercover officers did not entrap anyone because they are not required to identify themselves as police officers, any more than they would in a situation such as a prostitution sting.
“No one has the right to inappropriately touch someone without their consent,” he said. “Gay and straight people go to the boardwalk. It’s open to everyone’s enjoyment.”
Steve Elkins, executive director of Camp Rehoboth, told the Blade he does not think the arrests constituted entrapment. Earlier, Elkins told the Philadelphia Gay News, “I do know that some people that live on the south end of the boardwalk, who are openly gay, have complained about people coming into their yards and onto the dunes. So it’s not a gay or straight thing.”
The web site, www.definitions.uslegal.com defines entrapment this way: “In criminal law, a person is ‘entrapped’ when he is induced or persuaded by law enforcement officers or their agents to commit a crime that he had no previous intent to commit.”
Paul Cates, public education director of the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project in New York, said entrapment is not a clear-cut issue, especially when sex is involved.
“If a man was touching the genitals of the police officer and it was unsolicited, it’s a crime,” he said. “If the officer was kissing or caressing the person and they touch him, it’s a gray area. If a person responds in kind, it might not be a criminal act.”
He said that if the officer gave any of the men encouragement to touch him, it might be considered entrapment, especially if the men did not know he was a police officer, and would not have touched him if he had known.
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