Fla. Man Claims Entrapment

By Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Like most gay men who are arrested for solicitation, public indecency or lewd and lascivious behavior, Fort Lauderdale resident Mike M. does not want anyone to know about his encounter with undercover police in Holiday Park last August.

But unlike most of the people who are charged with misdemeanor counts of exposure of sex organs and battery (the court dropped prostitution charges), Mike refuses to quietly plead guilty. He does not want to make a plea deal with city attorneys who are prosecuting the case vigorously. He’s indignant about not paying a fine, attending a counseling program, or having this arrest mar his otherwise spotless record.

He wants Broward County Judge Gary Cowart to dismiss all charges because, he alleges, the city illegally entrapped him by having an officer aggressively pursue him for sex and prostitution.

The case has dragged on for months with the city asking for continuances, while detectives from Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s task force that works narcotics and public sex stings testified about the events surrounding the case, and Fort Lauderdale city attorney Scott Walker has moved to keep the charges intact.

Mike’s attorney Norm Kent says the fact that the case is being pursued by the city shows its intent, under Mayor Jim Naugle’s administration, to systematically target gay men.

Resentment lingers in the gay community nearly a year after Naugle made his comments about gay men cruising in public parks and bathrooms.

While Naugle has told Express that he spoke “out of love and concern” for gay men and their health, his words may never be construed by the city’s GLBT community as nothing more than hateful attack on its very presence.

Reached at his office Wednesday, Naugle said he supports the police sting operations in Holiday Park such as the one that snared Mike.

“I can’t get credit for it,” Naugle said. “I’m not in direct communication with police operations.”

Mike’s arrest and similar park sex cases, Kent says, are examples of Naugle’s strident campaign against gay people.

In his closing arguments on May 23, Kent argued that because undercover officers acted illegally, all charges must be dropped.

“Every action [Mike] took was consistent with legal lawful activity,” Kent argued. “In this case [Mike] was entrapped by conduct unbecoming of Florida law enforcement officers. They induced and manufactured the facts that led to the arrest.”

Mike was arrested last August after encountering undercover officer Nick Coffin late one afternoon in the parking lot near the baseball fields at Holiday Park.

In police video, the athletically-built 30-something Coffin is repeatedly heard coaxing Mike to have sex with him.

He tells Mike that he lives just two blocks away. “ I’m a bottom,” Coffin tells Mike. “I like guys to be on top.”

Mike is seen opening the passenger side door and exposing himself while touching Coffin.

“Hop in,” Coffin utters. “Let’s go.”

But Mike does not get in Coffin’s pickup truck. Instead, he follows the detective to another site two blocks away. Coffin is heard talking to police on his cell phone while driving. “We can get him on prostitution.”

When he gets out of the car Coffin is heard telling Mike than wants $25 for sex. Mike refuses to pay, but it’s too late. A second officer arrives to make the arrest.

“The cop hustled [Mike],” Kent told Express. “He went to the park and acted like a hooker. He created the very activity he was there to prevent.”

In footage taken before Coffin’s encounter with Mike, the detective is seen hustling other park patrons for drugs.

“I’m looking for a little ‘tina,’” he tells one man. “And whatever happens, happens.”

Kent is waiting for Judge Cowart’s decision before moving forward with a class-action suit demanding damages to Mike and other gay men who have been illegally set up by police in public parks.

Kent successfully argued a similar class action against Broward County Sheriff’s Department in 1996 surrounding a string of arrests in a Deerfield Beach park.

Kent is looking for people to join the class. One man,

Pier Guidugli, president and CEO of Milano Brothers International aeronautics equipment company, feels so strongly about the sex stings that he is helping fund the class action.

Guidugli says he was moved to take action after reading about Naugle’s comments about gay men cruising public bathrooms and the arrests that were made.

“The city has to realize we’re not going to take it anymore,” Guidugli said. “Enough is enough. If we can get judgment against entrapment police will have to rethink.”

“Do not entrap [gay men].” He went on. “Do not force them to commit crimes. That is pathetic.”

Judge Cowart is expected to rule on Mike’s motion to dismiss June 26. If he does not dismiss, Kent said, he will take the case to a jury trial.