Charges will not be filed against more than half of the 12 men arrested during a public sex sting last month at a Holt-area rest stop, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said.
The arrests were made on charges that probably would not stand in court, Dunnings said. Meanwhile, he other men arrested by Michigan State Police during the June 10-11 operation along northbound U.S. 127 for alleged indecent exposure will face charges.
Of the two allegations, one wouldn't hold because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that concluded homosexual behavior is not an "immoral act." As a result, the charge - solicitation to commit immoral acts - could not be successfully prosecuted, Dunnings said.
The other charge, fourth-degree criminal conduct, will not be pursued because genital touching between undercover police and suspects was assumed to be consensual in light of the sexual nature of conversation that preceded.
"People should be able to go to the bathroom without this conduct going on," Dunnings said. "We're coming up with another strategy. We have to find a way to stop this."
In the interim, State Police are working to fend off accusations the sting was motivated by a police force intent on busting gays by entrapping them into illegal activity.
"If you're a heterosexual in a rest area, no one is going to think you're there for sex," said Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation, a gay rights activist group. "No straight people are asked the question why they are at where they're at.
"They send in their youngest, cutest officer. They go over to who they believe is a gay man and, if someone hot asks you for sex, you'll probably be like, 'hey', and you'd probably do it."
However, State Police Detective Sgt. Kyle McPhee, who was in charge of the investigation and was on-site at the time, said the sting was motivated by complaints lodged by the public and that no entrapment was involved.
Some complaints were written, he said, though most were made by people calling in.
"All these groups expect we have to justify why we did certain things but not for other operations like this," he said, noting highway drug stops are generally accepted without public questioning. "There are a lot of complaints."
Of those complaints, he said one reported that "'white male subject in red Dodge Stratus in parking lot. He was pleasuring himself which leads complainant to believe he was soliciting sex.'"
McPhee also said he had no idea the Michigan Gay Pride Weekend was being celebrated that weekend in Lansing, and that it was pure coincidence.
"Even if I was to plan this on Gay Pride Weekend, would that give anyone a free pass to conduct this behavior?" McPhee said. "It's a coincidence."
In the end, McPhee said, nine of the 12 arrested admitted wrongdoing after being read their Miranda rights.
