The NYPD has come under gay fire after openly gay officer Jai Aiken announced plans to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the department following his acquittal on charges of grand larceny. The copper first came under scrutiny back in 2004, when an informant told the cops that Aiken had propositioned prostitutes and dabbled in gun trafficking. After an internal investigation failed to turn up any conclusive evidence, the NYPD sent an undercover officer after one of their own.
Deployed to a Harlem gay bar, the undercover officer had been instructed to sell Aiken some stolen goods. Aiken, however, had more interest in the officer’s goods and spent the next few months trying to bed him. Hoping to seal the illegal deal, the undercover officer played along, furthering Aiken’s assumption that they’d have a go at it. Aiken later testified. “I don’t deal with drugs, I don’t deal with guns. I was trying to have a sexual thing with [the undercover]. So, I was just going along with whatever he was saying.” And apparently they were both saying some pretty naughty things. According to New York Daily News, Aiken once described how he seduced straight boys and, occasionally, their girl friends. The undercover ruse worked, because the undercover eventually convinced Aiken to buy a hot iPod and television, both of which led to his arrest and eventual trial, where tapes of the conversations were played for jurors.
Now that the jurors have acquitted Aiken – who has since checked into a mental hospital – he claims that he came under investigation because he’s gay. Matt Forman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force agrees, “This case demonstrates that homophobia is very much alive and well in the department despite enormous progress.” Hmm, maybe the undercover officer was just intrigued?
