The South Florida Gay News.com today exposed a five-year undercover operation conducted by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office where they made more than 600 arrests of men allegedly having sex in public parks throughout the county.

But the SFGN investigation of at least 317 arrests revealed only 4 instances where men were discovered having sexual contact with other men. In all the other cases, undercover officers were the ones soliciting other men for sex.

The story was authored by SFGN's Editor in Chief, Jason Parsley, the Vice President of the South Florida Society of Professional Journalists, and former editor of the Florida Atlantic University Press.

In at least 74 of the reports, it appeared the officers were the ones who first approached the defendant and struck up conversations. Parsley's report includes statistical revelations of the age range of defendants, where they lived, and what techniques the officers utilized to effectuate the arrests.

"Many of the other reports are vague, but scores of the reports reveal officers themselves volunteering what sexual acts they prefer to engage in," Parsley stated.

SFGN initiated the investigation after one of the detectives involved in the PBSO investigation bragged to Attorney Russell Cormican of Fort Lauderdale, in a 2009 deposition, that "this is all we do… we wear shorts and a tank top and we go after lewd acts."

The resulting public records request, subpoenaing hundreds of police reports over a five year period, revealed that the two officers involved, Detectives Peter Lazar and Van Garner, were singularly responsible for at least 600 arrests of purportedly gay men in Palm Beach County parks. The sheriff of Palm Beach County, Ric Bradshaw, refused to be interviewed by SFGN.

Cormican stated that the many of the arrests were legally compromised and constituted entrapment as a matter of law. "It is clear from a review of the files that the police tactic is to approach, lure, and entice guys who are sitting alone in their car, or on a bench, start a sexually charged conversation with them, and then look for a way to arrest them."

Another attorney, Jeffrey Weiner of Miami, a former President of the National Association of Criminal Defense lawyers called the operation "disgusting and offensive." In fact, the SFGN report revealed that in 107 of the 317 reports they reviewed, a police officer wrote that he had squatted down into a sexual position in order to induce the defendant to expose himself.

While the law enforcement operation has since been shut down due to budget cuts, one prominent West Palm Beach attorney also called into question the tactics of Detective Lazar. Stated Michael Salnick, "In my experience with Mr. Lazar I never found him to be particularly credible or believable." In fact, Salnick once filed an internal affairs complaint against Lazar, which was sustained by the Palm Beach Sheriff's office.

SFGN Publisher Norm Kent, himself a criminal defense attorney who handled many of the Palm Beach cases, editorially condemned not only the operation, but also Sheriff Bradshaw's refusal to meet with the newspaper. "The Sheriff of Palm Beach County abdicated his civic responsibility to meet with credible members of the press, and abandoned his legal duty to supervise or monitor a law enforcement operation which wasted public funds and unjustly targeted a class of citizens- gay men in public parks."

The entire story by Parsley, Kent's editorial and legal analysis are now online at www.sfgn.com

www.southfloridagaynews.com
2520 N Dixie Hwy.
Wilton Manors, FL 33305
954-530-4970