By Eartha Jane Melzer
TRAVERSE CITY – Over the second weekend in September, state police officers from across northern Michigan gathered in a nature area south of Traverse City for a sex sting targeting men seeking sex with men. They arrested nine.
So far, none of the men arrested in the sting have been convicted or sentenced. Five of the eight men have pled not guilty, one entered a plea of mute, and two have not yet entered pleas.
The Traverse City Record Eagle, the regional daily paper, printed the names and hometowns of the men arrested; most of them were from villages near Traverse City. Days later, the paper issued an editorial praising the police action at the park and recommending no expense be spared in stopping people from having sex in natural areas.
"The county nature reserve started having homosexual activity at about the same time MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation) closed a highway rest area about seven years ago," parks manager Tim Schriner said.
He added that he's received no complaints from the property owners adjacent to the land, but he has noticed a pattern of "inappropriate" litter involving underwear, magazines and condoms.
Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Harris organized the sting. He said that it was litter at the park and complaints that spurred it. Harris estimated that 12 or 13 law enforcement officers were involved in the operation.
"We sent an undercover officer in to the area that these people frequent," Harris said. "They hung out and were contacted by people in these areas for some sort of sexual activity and, as a result, there were arrests."
Police sought felony charges of "soliciting gross indecency" against the men. Instead, the Grand Traverse county prosecutor's office approved misdemeanor charges of accosting and soliciting, disorderly/obscene conduct, indecent exposure, and aggravated indecent exposure. One man was charged with resisting arrest.
Harris explained that accosting and soliciting is an "aggravated" form of soliciting related to a person being asked for sex in a place where he wouldn't expect to be propositioned.
BTL asked Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Al Schneider how an undercover officer could claim to have been accosted and surprised by solicitation when he intentionally stationed himself in a known cruising area and posed as a man seeking sex.
Schneider agreed that the undercover operation involved some problematic situations. Charges were dropped against a ninth man arrested at the park that weekend, he said, "Because we didn't want there to be any questions about who was soliciting who."
Gary Kicks, an attorney from East Lansing, learned about the arrests from the Triangle Foundation and posted on Craigslist offering to meet with any of the arrestees for a legal consultation. He said he was not contacted by any of the men.
"The situation reminds me of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig," Kicks said. "A lot of people wonder whether a crime has been committed by signaling an interest in sex. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that consensual homosexual sex in a private place is legal."
Though unfamiliar with the particulars of the case, Kicks said entrapment could be a potential area for argument.
One gay man familiar with the park situation spoke with BTL about the sting, but asked that he not be named out of fear for his public-sector job. He said that the men who are going to the park for sex are not aggressive and do not accost other park users.
"There is so much stigma and fear – with the Internet and parks – that is where people go," he said. "They are not there to hurt you; they are not out there raping people. It is consenting adults."
He said all of the area's gay organizations have folded, and the local gay bar Side Traxx is full of heterosexual people. The man said he regretted that he did not feel comfortable protesting about the arrests in a letter to the editor.
