Manhattan's top cop has promised gay
activists his office will investigate a rash of suspicious arrests
that have taken place in video shops against gay and bisexual men,
reports gay weekly Gay City News, the
first paper to write about the cases.
The arrests of over 50 gay men charged
with prostitution in seven Manhattan porn shops since 2004 sparked
outrage in the gay community because the profiles of the men arrested
do not match what usually passes for a hustler in the Big Apple.
52-year-old Robert Pinter was collared
outside the Blue Door Video on First Avenue in the East Village on
October 10, 2008. He says that while in the video store he was
approached for sex by a handsome young Asian man. They agreed to
have oral sex in a parked car. On the way to the car, the man, who
was an undercover police officer, said, “Oh, I want to pay you $50
to suck your dick.” Pinter says he was interested in the blow job,
not the money, and ignored the comment.
“This guy was half my age,” he
said. “It was my lucky day. I also though, 'How unusual, in
Manhattan, to have sex in a car.'”
Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau, who at 90 will retire this year, has agreed to
investigate at least 30 of the cases, activists who met with him
reported.
“The first thing Morgenthau said was,
'We are going to investigate all these cases,'” said Joey Nelson,
coordinator for the Queer Justice League and a member of the
Coalition to Stop the Arrests. “That was the first thing out of
his mouth.”
Members of the Coalition to Stop the
Arrests, a group founded by Pinter, protested the arrests outside the
home of Mayor Michael Bloomberg last month.
The city has sued six of the video
shops where gay men have been arrested on questionable prostitution
charges. Video, Video, Video at 488 Eight Avenue at West 34th
Street was sued by the city in 2007 after 21 men were arrested
between 2004 and 2007.
After the city successfully closed the
store, the building was sold for $12.3 million and is now being
redeveloped by the Vornado Realty Trust Company.
The meeting between gay activists and
the district attorney was convened by openly gay state Senator Thomas
K. Duane, who has previously called the arrests “harassment.”
Activists said Morgenthau is
considering dropping the charges against five men who pleaded not
guilty. But he said men who pleaded guilty or no contest would need to
step forward on their own.
On the Net: Gay City News has
reported extensively about the arrests www.gaycitynews.com.