Here we go again. Another police department accused of luring gay men into public restrooms under the false pretense of sex only to arrest them moments later.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that the Long Beach Police Department discriminated against gay men by ensnaring them in a homophobic sex sting operation. Before that, it was the New York Police Department that was in hot water for similar discriminatory policing. And before that, it was police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Now, it’s the San Jose Police Department.
Related: Long Beach Police Accused Of Illegally Targeting Gay Man In Bathroom Sex Sting
How about we take this to the next level?
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John Ferguson was hanging out at Columbus Park in San Jose in 2014 when a man approached him outside a restroom and asked, “How often do you come here?”
Some witty banter ensued before Ferguson followed the man into the empty bathroom. A few minutes later, they were joined by a third man, who unbuttoned his pants.
That’s when a fourth man stormed in, introducing himself as Officer Adam Jenkins of the SJPD. The man Ferguson had been flirting with then whipped out his badge and announced himself as Officer Samuel Marquardt.
And just like that, both Ferguson and the other man became eligible for the sex offender registry.
Related: Judge Rules Long Beach Police Illegally Targeted Gay Men In Sex Sting Operations
Ferguson was slapped with a 647 citation, which prohibits hanging around public restrooms with the intention of “engaging in a lewd or lascivious act.” It’s classified as a sex crime, which usually means a $1,000 fine and/or community service, giving up one’s Fourth Amendment rights, and registering as a sex offender.
But here’s where the story takes a bit of twist.
Ferguson was one of 19 other gay men the SJPD slapped with a 647 citation over a 17-month period. 18 of those 19 citations were made by the same same officer, Samuel Marquardt.
According to state transparency records, Marquardt makes $251,186.46 a year in salary, overtime and benefits.
Related: Most Warm Sands Sex Sting Defendants Will Plead Guilty (But Avoid Sex Offender Scarlet Letter)
Ferguson spent nearly two years fighting the charges against him. Earlier this summer, a judge finally acquitted him, along with 12 others, then slammed SJPD for its blatantly homophobic practices, writing:
By conducting themselves in a way that mimics ‘cruising’ behavior of the suspects targeted, the undercover officers demonstrated the intent to target this group to the exclusion of other perpetrators of lewd conduct. … Unpopular groups have too often been made to bear the brunt of discriminatory prosecution or selective enforcement. The unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law as seen in the cases before this court undermine the credibility of our legal system and risks eroding public confidence in our ability to achieve just results.
Related: Concerned Community Hopes To Combat Public Sex In Park By Hosting “Woof And Wine” Doggy Happy Hour
From what we can tell, SJPD has not released a statement about the matter; however, Officer Marquardt does remain employed with the department, collecting his quarter of a million dollars each year, funded by hard-working taxpayers, both straight and gay.
h/t: San Jose Inside
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
This guy was not guilty how? This is no different than an undercover drug or prostitution bust other than the excessive citations. Grow up people. We aren’t one of those minorities that thinks we are above he law. Stop trying to cheapen us that way. No one is allowed to have sex in public. If you do, you get busted. Deal with it. This is not a gay rights issue.
marcus_collack
1. To un botton your pants in a bathroom, is not having sex.
2. You are correct this is “not a gay rights issue,” it’s law, it’s called entrapment a practice whereby a law enforcement agent induces a person to commit a criminal offence that the person would have otherwise been unlikely to commit. (there are a few court cases on the matter, google them)
3. you didn’t find it odd that he had 18 out of 19 citations and he makes over $250,000 a year, that didn’t set off any red flags for you?
MacAdvisor
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou:
The law requires a showing of intent that existed prior to the intervention of the police. The office, in the scenario described above, began the conversation and enticed the defendant into the acts. That is entrapment. The officer was not a passive observer to the crime, but an active participant. For example, if A approaches B in a nightclub and offers to sell B cocaine, there might be a crime. However, if A approaches B in a nightclub to sell him cocaine, offers to front the money, and suggests the clients, we’d have entrapment. To show prior intent, the defendant has to have taken some initiative outside the conduct of the officers to further the crime. That simply didn’t happen as described above.
In undercover drug or prostitution stings, the police record the events to show the defendant takes the initiative, that is asking to buy or offering to sell drugs, or asks for money in exchange for sex. If an officer approaches you and offers to sell you cocaine and you accept, that would be entrapment. If an officer approached you and offered you money for sex, that, again, would be entrapment.
Officers of the law are not to try to get people to break the law.
Stache
@MacAdvisor: Yeah, total entrapment. They forced the situation into happening. Contrast that with a good sting operation where the police used an unlocked vehicle in a bad area to lure in car thieves. Lots of boring downtime but that’s how you do it. As you said. They need to take the initiative.
Stache
Another thing I’ll bet. These guys need to justify their huge salaries with arrests. If they can’t get any they’ll make them happen.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
@MacAdvisor: Right because gays are so pathetic they can be easily persuaded into illegal activity at a moment’s notice. You know as well as I do this guy was cruising in the park and got busted. It was a common practice that still goes on in rare cases today. Go to a bar get Grindr. Stop breaking the law and you don’t go to jail. It’s an easy fix.
SportGuy
How about guys stop being such skanky sluts and stop cruising public places.
Tobi
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: … and neither are the police above the law, as the judge explained, quashing the convictions.
DDstar1me
Umm…also, was the cop actively un-doing the defendants pants? That’s crazy lol…
ErikO
@SportGuy: Exactly.
Juanjo
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou:
I am delighted that you know for a fact what this man was intending to do in the park. That of course is amusing but your argument ignores that whole idea of being considered innocent until proven guilty. You have assumed guilt just because a gay man was in a park. After all gay men never go to the park for any other reason except to cruise bathrooms and have public sex. But that is NOT the issue here.
I have been an attorney for over 30 years and someone has already given you a quite decent explanation about what is entrapment. Entrapment is against the law and the constitution. Going out and targeting a specific population and using entrapment to entice them into an illegal act is a serious issue legally.
Under the law, if the law enforcement officer is the one who initiates and encourages a person who is NOT engaged in any illegal activity. For an act to be a crime there must have been an intent formed by the actor to do the act and then a voluntary act in the commission of the crime. If the cop is encourages the act, in fact sets up the circumstances to entice the person to engage in it, then he is the one who is guilty of the crime. The bad act of the government agent in entrapping someone cannot be used to convict the person entrapped.
Now if the cop had just flirted with him a little bit and then Ferguson had been the one to suggest a little tryst in the public bathroom there would be no issue. But that is not what happened. This sort of thing happens frequently with certain cops. A similar thing happened in San Mateo where cops targeted gay men going to and from a porn shop. That case resulted in a court case on entrapment.
JAWIWA
@Idonothavetoagreewithyou and @sportsguy are obvious trolls who aren’t even gay. How pathetic. Go back to your homophobic spaces where you can be with like-minded bigots and leave our spaces be. Yeah, yeah, I know you’ll deny it; but nothing out of your pie-holes is worthy of notice. Later losers!
philipcfromnyc
Sadly, this does not surprise me in the least. Although all state sodomy statutes were declared unconstitutional as applied to consensual same sex sexual intimacy (gay sex) between adults in private settings by the US Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), homophobic police officers and police departments continue to push the limits of this decision and attempt to undermine its legitimacy by persecuting gay men (many of whom wearily pay the fine and go about their way, not realizing that they can fight back and win).
Should any person reading this ever be confronted with charges of this nature, a few tips are in order:
1) Use Websites such as http://www.cruisingforsex.com to determine if any entrapment operations are running in or about the area where you wish to cruise for sex;
2) Turn on the recording function of your cell phone prior to entering the bathroom stall. Pretend, if possible, that you are making a phone call informing somebody that you are going to be late getting home — in fact, turn on the recording function so that your cell phone records every word which is spoken BEFORE you enter the restroom or the cruising area in question. Put the cell phone back in your pocket so that it is still recording everything.
3) Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, resist arrest or attempt to flee!
4) Carefully note EVERYTHING that occurs around you — the people involved, the name of the arresting officer, the exact location of the “offense,” the EXACT WORDS spoken by the arresting officer and the EXACT WORDS spoken by those involved who lured you in before you were arrested (yes, it may be difficult to maintain the necessary emotional composure to do this, but do the best that you can);
5) SAY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that you do not have to say. Volunteer absolutely nothing. Respond only to questions directed to you by the arresting officer until you see your attorney. Do NOT waive your Miranda rights;
6) SEEK LEGAL COUNSEL, and give legal counsel the most accurate and informed account of the arrest and of the above, surrounding details;
7) Obtain transcripts of previous arrests made by the officer in question. Almost certainly, this will uncover a particular pattern of behavior on the part of the arresting officer, and this pattern of behavior will reveal that it was the arresting officer (or his stooges) that initiated the sexual encounter, not the victim of the sting operation;
8) FIGHT BACK by filing civil suit against the police officer and / or police department concerned. Bear in mind that qualified immunity may make it difficult to prosecute the officer criminally, but it may be possible to bring a credible civil suit against the police department concerned;
9) Do NOT allow yourself to be tagged as a “sex offender” — this scarlet letter is very difficult to erase, and its collateral consequences can be extremely damaging.
It is possible to beat such attempts to ruin your reputation. Keep the above in mind at all times.
PHILIP
philipcfromnyc
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: Sorry, but I do not see it that way at all. It IS, VERY MUCH, a gay rights issue. The police do not, as a matter of policy, bust heterosexuals caught having sex in so-called “lovers’ lanes” late at night, despite the fact that heterosexuals may engage in behavior even more blatant than that engaged in by gay men who “cruise” at highway rest stops, or other venues where gay men “cruise” for sex. As long as disparate prosecutions occur, this IS a gay rights issue.
PHILIP
Pete
@JAWIWA: Into ‘cottaging’ (as they say on the other side of the pond)?
There are those of us who are trying to lead normal lives in what will remain for the foreseeable future (and probably well beyond that) an overwhelmingly straight world. The persistence of this frankly anti-social exhibitionism doesn’t make our task any easier, and only provides the reactionary right-wing with a justification for homophobia.
philipcfromnyc
@MacAdvisor: A very good understanding of what constitutes police entrapment can be gleaned by reading the US Supreme Court decision named Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540 (1992), which described the manner in which the Postal Inspection Service entrapped a Nebraska man into ordering child pornography based on the fact that this man had, in the past, ordered such pornography AT A TIME WHEN THIS PORNOGRAPHY WAS STILL LEGAL. In this case, a deeply divided Court held that the government had gone overboard in its zeal to get this man to take the bait, and reversed his conviction.
PHILIP CHANDLER
Bulovaboy
Yeah we have the same in NY, They set them up in Parks and woods and beaches and mall bathrooms. It’s all about quotas . While everyone gets a record. I don’t trust any cop anywhere, Remember they all get appraised for there quotas, while not thinking about how much damage they are doing to innocent people.
Pete
@Bulovaboy: speaking of cops’ quotas, I found out about them when I got a citation for running a red light on my bicycle. And I treated the light like a stop sign (I’m not an idiot). I stopped, saw the intersection was clear, and proceeded. It was the second to last day of the month, and the cop obviously hadn’t written his share of tickets.
philipcfromnyc
@Pete: Such “antisocial” behavior is frequently engaged in by closeted gay men who lack the resources or ability to be open about their sexuality, and who therefore seek sexual release in entirely anonymous venues. This is not their shame — it is the shame of a society which still brands gay men as “inferior” to heterosexual men. There are many, many gay men in this position — particularly gay men who have been forced, by societal pressures, into loveless marriages, or who keep up heterosexual appearances out of fear of what their families or communities may do should their true sexuality become manifest.
Don’t judge others so quickly or so harshly.
PHILIP
Marky
Public sex = disgusting. What would happen if a child walked in with their parent. Give me a break. Straight/Bi/Gay, man or woman, having sex in public washrooms is just plain gross and makes evident the participants’ lack of dignity and self worth as well as a lack of respect for the quality of life of other people.
Pete
@philipcfromnyc:
What, are you defending the poor, oppressed Larry Craig?
The closet is the raison d’etre for GRINDR, Scruff, Tinder, etc! I’d say a good quarter of the guys on GRINDR are DL. Get the app and get off!
Men who continue have sex in public places are just looking for a cheap thrill. If they get caught, throw the fucking book at them!
Nahald
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: Baiting the guy makes the COP just as GUILTY ! So why wasn’t the police officer arrested ?
He BGB
Those criticizing gay men who do this need to step back and realize that it may be part of an illness like SEX ADDICTION. Then there are those who like danger sex and get off on it.
On another note, I remember living in Chicago and a woman and man were having sex in the El station (subway train). It turned out the woman was being raped and everyone ignored them because they thought they were having consensual sex. If they had been gay, they would have been stopped whether it was rape or not.
Brian
Toilets are for waste disposal. They are not for sex. I’m glad that men are being arrested over this.
By the way, most of the men who have sex in toilets are not gay-identifying.
bottom250
So he can get them off.
Hussain-TheCanadian
All im saying, if I get baited by a cop who looks like Matt Bomer or Henry Cavill, Cop or no Cop, we are finishing this tango – You don’t touch my pants to unzip me and thinking your ass is getting away.
Also, the police is still wasting money on this non-sense?
Paco
They don’t need to entrap them. Just keep the bathrooms, that aren’t in a frequented area, locked. And lock the others after a certain time when traffic thins out. Lack of privacy is a big enough deterrent for most. The others can pay the price for getting caught.
Stilinski26
If the cop was a hunky stud he would have surrendered easily
Juanjo
Someone mentioned Larry Craig as if we should all be wanting to support entrapment because of Larry Craig. Now former senator Craig is a nasty piece of work no doubt, not to mention a complete hypocrite. But the truth is he was entrapped and at the time he was arrested had committed no overt sexual act. Tapping one’s foot up and down is not a sexual act. Neither is peeking into a stall through the gap between the door and the frame. The cop busted him too soon. He should have waited until Craig exposed himself or committed some other expressly sexual act.
Any reasonably decent lawyer could have gotten those charges dismissed if Craig had not plead out and instead had fought the case. But since he was a twisted little closet case and a hypocrite who did not want to be exposed to the world as a gay man, he took a plea. That is when his life went down the crapper which he should have realized.
martinbakman
Larry Craig was a nasty, bad, naughty boy.
Dave Downunder
This particular cop seems to have a specific agenda in mind and is targeting gay men more than most cops. I wonder if he is a religious zealot or perhaps compensating for his own suppressed urges.
girldownunder
Another, no-victim, “crime” which is safe to bust because “no danger”.
These cops are cowards who choose to target consenting adults (wherever) in order to avoid actual dangerous criminals.
GayEGO
I guess this cop has a different type of sex orgasm, enticing gay guys to have sex with him so he can arrest them, but to also give the cop a boner!
GayEGO
@Juanjo: Wasn’t that in 2007? I am originally from Idaho and I live in Massachusetts with my lifetime partner of 54 years, married 12 years. I went to Idaho in 2009 to visit my sister and we laughed about Larry Craig, who was an Idaho Republican Senator, being a closet queen. Did you know that more Republican legislators have been arrested for sexual misconduct in restrooms than there have been Transgenders arrested?
That being said, times have changed and are changing and even though it is illegal to have sex in a public restroom, this cop is pushing it….ahem…a little too much into it. It probably gives him a sexual orgasm and a boner! :>)
NateOcean
They never learn.
They had a similar “sting” operation about 15 years ago just one town away, in Mountain View, CA.
The complaint from the neighborhood was about sex in the back parking lot at the adult book store.
So the police sent in a young male officer to entice patrons to the back lot, and then when things got touchy-feely they’d arrest them.
Trouble is, as was shown in court, the complaint was for “sex in the parking lot”. Neither men nor women was mentioned. But the police department targed only gay men inside the books store.
As I recall, after a bunch of embarrassing litigation, a dozen people had the charges dropped. Of course only after their names had been dragged thru the mud and at considerable expense to them.
davidjohng
@philipcfromnyc: Thanks for this helpful info!
Aires the Ram
In regards to some of the commenters on here clutching their purse and exclaiming that ‘public toilets aren’t for sex’, I think they lead a very sheltered life, or are too young to remember that if you lived in a rural or suburban area, prior to the turn of this century, public toilets/parks/cruising areas were all you had if you wanted some dick or ass. Worldwide, culture/society-wide, throughout the ages, men cruising other men for sex in public or semi-public spaces has been the norm. It’s as old as the hills. It happens in the seemingly most homophobic and prohibitive of countries on the face of this earth, each and every day. As you read this, it is happening. Understand this for what it “is”. Men have sexual needs/wants which by far outpace what women can or will give them, no matter the country or society or time they live in. Without attaching any labels to it, like we do in the Western World, many men like to get their rocks off with other men. There is no expectation of a relationship, date, phone call, money being spent, feelings being hurt, none of that associated with garnering sex from females. It’s a male-only space, it’s completely ‘don’t-ask-don’t-tell’ that is universally understood by the participants. My whole point, in a nutshell, IT’S NORMAL MALE BEHAVIOR!!! Get over yourselves.
Stache
@abnerbha: You could’ve shortened your insane babbling up with people shouldn’t sexually harass others..like no shit.
You do realize that Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt is a child herself. Were only talking 4 years age difference. Big whoop.
Oh yeah, go f*ck yerself nutjob. Have a great day:)
DobieOwner
@Stache: Thanks Stache! You beat me to it. Perhaps he can go f*ck himself in a public bathroom while he’s at it.
martinbakman
@DobieOwner: Abnerbha has put a lot of thought into using public bathrooms. I get the impression he’s an expert, just like foot tappin’ Larry Craig.
biitalian9
This is Daniel Bufano one of the 19 victims of this illegal police sting my truth is just because I am a gay male and used the men’s room at a gay cruising spot does not mean I was there to engage in sex or any other illegal activities but after entering and leaving the men’s room by myself speaking or seeing anyone is when the officer who is making a quarter of a million dollars a year approached me chatted me up ask me if I like to suck dick if I want to suck his dick if I want to suck his dick in the bathroom I said no and got arrested this is entrapment immoral illegal and in the center of everyone’s civil rights
biitalian9
After being mentally physically abused and illegally searched I was told not to come back to this parkour bathroom because I was gay whether your thoughts on this are negative or positive the 14th Amendment will tell the truth.
biitalian9
Thank you Carlie Ware for standing up and taking on this case, fighting for truth and Justice. And WINNING!! Well done.
Thank you JENNIFER WADSWORTH of the Metro Silicon Valley for your outstanding and exceptional
Thank you Bruce Nickelson for fighting and caring for all our civil rights
John
The legal term is “entrapment” and police officers use it all the time. It should be illegal for officers to do it in any form but courts allow it in prostitution cases and gay cruising cases. It pisses me off. If a straight man meets a woman in the park, witty banter ensues and it leads to a sexual tryst all is good, but God forbid 2 gay guys meet this way (especially since cops can/do) set them up. I wouldn’t put it passed officers to start trolling Grinder and Scruff in the future to make these types of arrests. In a country that is supposedly based on freedom we sure are prudes and judgemental. Can you imagine an officer going to a nightclub hitting on a woman and her agreeing to a bj in his car and then being arrested for following through? wouldn’t happen, discrimination against gays still exists.
notevenwrong
A vice cop makes a quarter of a million a year?
That’s a LOT of overtime logged in tearooms.
abnerbha
For posters who say that if a homosexual (some cases lesbian) commits crimes such as stalking, indecent exposure, assault & battery (touching a person’s genitals against will is assault & battery or forceplay), etc. that the man should allow the abuse are apologists for molestation because that is what a would be molester wants the victim to do before doing a more violent attack. First again-stalking, harassment, indecent exposure, assault & battery (forceplay), etc. are crimes just by themselves. But they can easily worsen to something more violent.
Posters must be honest & say that they think if a gay or some cases lesbian commits a crime such as indecent exposure, stalking, etc. that you don’t think a man should have a right to defend himself against this crime. Though you know this & posters talk with forked tongue, here are some things you know but omit, as these cases are unpredictable.
-If a gay grabs a man’s butt, groin, etc. against will, the homosexual is committing assault & battery or forceplay even if people use mild words such as unwanted….. If a homosexual man is trying to commit a more serious crime such as pedophilia, the first things a gay does is that assault & battery or forceplay. It’s same way that if a man is going to rape a woman, the 1st things he does are grab a woman’s boobs, butt, etc. against will or forceplay. If a homosexual wants to commit molestation-Stalking, indecent exposure, assault & battery or forceplay, etc. are often the first crimes a homosexual does before he molests.
-If the gay (some cases lesbian) is high on drugs such as cocaine & or meth while committing indecent exposure, stalking, etc., then the homosexual can commit a more violent crime incl. murder in a drug rage after committing indecent exposure. Stalking, indecent exposure, etc. may not be the only crime which the homosexual intends esp. if he is high on drugs. Think you know that when gays & lesbians commit sex abuse, the first thing they do is commit indecent exposure, grab a person’s genitals against will before doing something more violent. You’re offended by a man defending himself if a homosexual commits indecent exposure, etc.
Proposing (straight or gay) in your house, singles bar or @ a private party is in most cases legal. The right thing to do is say no and leave. If a man is a guest in a gay man’s house and the gay man proposes, the right thing to do is say no and leave because it is the gay man’s house and the gay man did not commit a crime when he did the proposal so the right thing to do is leave the house. However, repeatedly proposing after some1 has said no is criminal harassment.
If gay man repeatedly proposes such as follow the man around after no has been said, then the homosexual is committing criminal stalking and the man has a right to end this abuse. If a homosexual is going to commit indecent exposure, then it’s a crime and there is no need for a man to say no to a crime the homosexual had no right to do. & there is no need for a man to say no to a homosexual who is proposing to him in a public restroom because public restroom is not a house or a bar and it’s illegal to ask others for sex in public restroom. Public restroom is the place to use toilet and wash up not a place for sex.
Again if it’s true homosexual committed indecent exposure, harassment, stalking, etc. before men reacted violently, then the fact the homosexual committed a crime before he was bashed must be decided by jury in deciding if gay basher(s) used reasonable or excess force. I would rather have a case where a jury decides if a man’s reaction to bashing or killing a homosexual is justified or excess vs. the man doesn’t do enough and the gay does something worse. Most men and boys who are victims of gays usu. won’t call cops to report that a gay is committing indecent exposure, harassment or in worst cases molestation until some1 reacts violently and bashes the gay.