Sheriff Jeffrey Mann from DeKalb County, Georgia was slapped with charges of indecency and obstruction of an officer this week after being caught masturbating in a public park and then fleeing the scene.
According to the police report, the incident happened in Piedmont Park. An Atlanta police officer was patrolling the area when he spotted Mann rubbing himself through his pants and then exposing himself.
The officer, who was in uniform but was hiding the reflective strip of his uniform, claims that Mann walked up to him whilst pleasuring himself. When the officer shone his flashlight, a startled Mann zipped up his pants and ran off.
“I ran behind the male while yelling, ‘Police, STOP!,’” the officer said. “[He] looked back at me multiple times but continued to run towards the sidewalk and street.”
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Mann was apprehended a quarter mile later when he stopped to tie his shoe. After the officer caught up with him, the 54-year-old sheriff cooperated with the arrest. He now says the whole thing has been one big “misunderstanding” and that he’s “looking to clear my name.”
Terry Norris of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Terry Norris told the Associated Press, “If those charges are accurate, that behavior is certainly unbecoming to anyone and that includes the sheriff or any other officer.”
Mann has been the sheriff of Dekalb County since 2014. While the city cannot technically remove him from his post, he could fired by the state government or offer to step down voluntarily; however, WSB-TV notes that every sheriff elected to a full term in Dekalb County since 1964 has faced criminal charges.
Related: The meth-for-orgy sting operation that brought this former mayor down
h/t: LGBTQNation
Jack Meoff
In the age of hookup apps why is this man risking cruising beats when he has so much to lose.
barkomatic
I’m guessing it’s because the hookup apps broadcast your pics in the local area. Granted, he probably wouldn’t have to use a face pic, but most people won’t respond unless you have one on your profile.
Also, public sex is a fetish for some people so who knows.
I can’t imagine how awkward it must have been to arrest your boss. Going into work must be a nightmare for this Sheriff.
Josh447
During a police sex sting no less. Sounds line be wanted into that jail cell to inspect his new roommates.
Bob LaBlah
@Jack Meoff………….I see where your coming from especially in this case but a lot of people feel like I do as in I don’t let strangers/people that I know nothing about into my home. I leave ALL sex to the bath houses. I know many of you are saying “those places are full of HIV, STD’s and the like” but keep in mind that the only thing you know about some one you’ve met online is they turn you on. You know nothing of their medical history and if your smart you won’t bother to ask because why should he tell you the truth? Your just as promiscuous as he is when you stop to think about it. I’ll bet many of you out there would be surprised how many of those people online frequent bath houses themselves. It would have been a career saver had this guy thought along the same lines.
Kangol
Maybe Mr. Mann is closeted but also a high-profile official so he might not want to have his face on an App.
He’s also over 50 so he might not use cruising apps. He also might have been rejected (though he looks pretty hot to me) for being over 50.
The thing is, Atlanta does have three bathhouses. Maybe he feared going to one and being spotted and outed.
More than anything, though, Atlanta’s cops should not be wasting their resources targeted gay/bi/closeted/DL men in parks. Public sex should not be criminalized.
Bob LaBlah
For those of you out there who are cruising thru parks keep one thing in mind: when you go back up into the bushes or woods with some one that really turns you on the only person whose true intentions you can vouch for are you own. When I hear about people (the vast majority of them are men) having been found dead in their apartments, houses or in parks the first thing that goes thru my mind is they went with a robber/criminal whom they would have least expected. The only thing a bath house asks for is a state issued I.D. (manly to be sure you are over eighteen years old) and thats because were you to become injured (slip and falls occur everywhere) they can tell the paramedics who you are.
Everyone knows what goes on in there but the cameras and I.D. requirements offer a more sense of security to me than an open park for cruising where god only knows what your picking up. Personally I wouldn’t have turned this guy down had I ran across him in the bathhouse.
RnDC
@barkomatic – wasn’t his boss. Dekalb County is next to Fulton County, which is where Piedmont Park is.
Cylest Brooks
I think there’s also a power aspect to this.
ChrisK
“every sheriff elected to a full term in Dekalb County since 1964 has faced criminal charges.”
Maybe he’s just sentimental about traditions.
Josh447
Haha of course. Now it all fits. Why else would a police officer cruise men with his dick hanging out during a police sting operation? Of course,TRADITION BABY !
So naturally he’ll win in court and have the offense expunged. THAT’S TRADITION!
Kieran
Probably the product of a homophobic black church that pounded into his head that being gay was the absolute worst sin ever and caused by demonic spirits or some such nonsense.
Captain Obvious
Homophobia isn’t a black thing and all black people aren’t homophobic. There are plenty of black churches that welcome gay people and have prominent gay men in the congregation. This meme is getting old.
There are entire religious camps by white people just to try and “fix” white gay men. No one is going out of their way to call all white people homophobic for it.
Cylest Brooks
@Captain Obvious, I don’t think that Kieran was suggesting that all black people are homophobic and that all black churches are condemning. The comment merely specified that it was a homophobic black church… not that all black churches are homophobic.
Doughosier
He’s also old. Many guys over 50 don’t use apps. They stick to the old ways.
stevetalbert
You need to set your ap max age higher than 50. There are a lot of guys on apps older than 50.
Mick406
I feel bad for the guy. He’s probably a good officer and decent human being. All he did was either rub himself or have his dick out. And for that . . . his career could be destroyed along with his life. He didn’t hurt anyone. I’m very lenient in things like this. The officer could just have left him alone and gave him a warning to get out of the park.
Donston
I agree that the officer could have just let it go and gave him a warning. But the guy is a freakin’ sheriff who’s going up to a random people with his dick out. Old school ways are old school ways for a reason.
He BGB
I live near Piedmont Park and have been cruising err, going there since the 1970s. It used to have alot going on in the Tree Trails and bushes aND such before the community started cleaning up Midtown, closing all the popular gay bars like Backstreet. Straights and yuppies decided Midtown was cool and took over. Piedmont Park was mostly ignored for decades but now it’s got a chain link fence around it, security patrolled and closes at night. I suppose its safer even though crime has increased because the pickins’,are better here now. There is no longer affordable housing in the area. There is a large movie and music (hip hop, rap) industry now and it’s pushing all elderly and lower income gays and lesbians out. Rupaul wouldn’t be living here now if he was starting out. Piedmont Park is Fulton County so this cop was not in his jurisdiction.
stevetalbert
Piedmont Park is within the atlanta city llimits in fulton county, so a dekalb county sheriff wouldn’t typically be in on a sting…so using the “i was just helping to possibly make a citizens arrest” probably won’t fly. Pardon the pun. It was dark. Maybe he got confushed and thought someone was offering a fleshlight. As someone who likes walking in woods at night and doesnt want creeps bothering them, public parks ARE NOT the place for sex… straight bi gay or beasty.
James
I WISH THE POLICE WOULD STOP HARASSING GAY PEOPLE !!!
Captain Obvious
While public sex and whatever else is not my cup of tea I do find it somewhat odd that we’re supposed to be so disgusted by something you have to go out of your way to see.
This crap they’re “policing” is silly. These people aren’t exactly out in the open. You have to go to specific areas and want to see it.
Restricting the outdoors is more disgusting to me. I could see if they were somewhere in broad daylight with tons of people around but as the song goes “The freaks come out at night.”… go home.
Neonegro
Ahhhh the good old time I had in that park on my first visit to Atlanta more than 10 years ago.
It was gay black pride weekend and deep in the park was filled with black men….I thought I had gone to heaven.
The problem with the apps are deceiving (sometimes fake) pictures and lengthy back and fourth. In a park or a sex party, you see the real person, the way they walk, hear the way they talk and intentions are quickly expressed.
The only good place left in Atlanta for same gender/race loving black men is the DEN on butt naked night.
Hey, I have just created a new group BMLBM Black men loving Black men….lol
ebd407
A “misunderstanding” huh? Just another jacka@@ wirh a badge. My he have a dose of his own corrupt
cop sensibilities.