Attorneys for a Tri-Cities man filed a lawsuit in federal court this afternoon that claims Johnson City Police discriminated against their client during a widely-publicized sex sting last fall.
A two week sex sting last fall netted 40 men, most arrested for indecent exposure And disorderly conduct. At the time, police said the goal was to crack down on people having sex in Johnson City's public parks.
"We're going to do all we can to try to stop this," said Chief John Lowry in October 2007.
One of the men arrested now says the police went too far. Kenneth Giles of Bristol, Virginia, filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greeneville, Tennessee on Tuesday. His lawyer claims Johnson City Police discriminated against his client because they believed Giles was homosexual or bisexual.
"The Johnson City Police Department did extraordinary measures to publicize their arrests in a way they didn't do for other crimes," said Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney, Lambda Legal.
He alleges Johnson City Police, with the authorization of Police Chief John Lowry, sent out a press release of the arrests, complete with photographs of all arrested, their names, addresses, and their charges.
"If they publicized everybody's arrest in the same way then we wouldn't be filing this lawsuit," said Nevins.
Police Chief John Lowry says he has yet to be notified of the lawsuit so he won't comment on it. He did say there have been other arrests in this park of both homosexual and heterosexual sex.
"There was a whole range of offenses that were similar or much more serious but for none of them did they publish the photos of the arrestees," said Nevins.
He points to an arrest of two men and four women on prostitution related charges. Nevins says police used the media to add additional punishment.
"The punishment that the law of the State of Tennessee meets for these things isn't sufficient, so they wanted to make sure they suffered separate additional punishment,” said Nevins.
Giles seeks unspecified compensation for embarrassment and loss of his job as a nurse at the veteran's affairs hospital as well as punitive damages. The Johnson City Attorney also declined to comment on the suit this evening.
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