movieguy Posted May 12, 2006 Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 Gay Man Sues Over Police Sting by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff May 12, 2006 - 12:01 am ET (Nashville, Tennessee) A Nashville gay man is suing the city and a number of police officers after he was arrested in what what he claims was a sting targeting gay men in a popular internet chat room. The man is identified in court papers only as John Doe. The federal lawsuit alleges that he agreed to meet a man in person with whom he had been chatting with on the Web site Gay.com. But when he arrived at the agree upon location he was met by Nashville police. Doe's attorney John Herbison tells television station WTVF that his client was shot three times by a taser, kicked and gouged in the eye. The suit claims the arrest was made without probable cause, was unreasonable and made with the use of excessive force. Nashville police told WTVF that the sting was set up after they received tips that local men were trading sex for drugs in the chat rooms. Police said that Doe was arrested for the sale of "a sex-enhancing drug". The case is pending. Herbison said his client was targeted by police simply because he's gay. The lawsuit said heterosexual men have not been arrested or prosecuted. “The decision to prosecute cases of this nature, we contend, was based on sexual orientation of the defendants,” Herbison told the station. The lawsuit comes as Nashville police continue to face charges by the gay community that it is being unfairly targeted. Last year Police Chief Ronal Serpas appeared at an LGBT community town hall meeting to try to ease the situation. “We're not targeting people. We're targeting drugs,” he said at the time. ©365Gay.com 2006 links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.