Visitors Get an Eyeful While Stopping to Enjoy the View at I-5 Rest Stop

Sex along the freeway. Or: the restless rest stop.

The scenic viewpoint on the west side of Interstate 5, just north of Manchester Avenue in Cardiff, has become a hot spot for anonymous male sex. Couplings occur in the

bushes just below the parking area.

The Sheriff’s Department reports complaints from unsuspecting tourists who stop to admire the ocean view and instead spot something else: “Mommy, what are those men doing down there?”

Undercover deputies have begun writing misdemeanor citations for lewd conduct in public. Among those cited: a prominent

architect, a food services manager, a medical technician and a contractor.

The noon hour and after work are the busiest times. The ritual is simple.

“What we’ve seen is that very little is said: eye contact seems to be enough,” said vice squad Deputy Donnie Sossaman. “The right look implies you’re ready to go for it.”

Sossaman says there is no sign of prostitution.

The citations, which do not require a trip to jail, have not yet been a deterrent. Action was in full swing on a recent afternoon.

Half a dozen late-model cars (including a Cadillac and BMW) and several rental cars parked within half an hour. Their lone male occupants preened briefly near the bluff and then headed for the bushes.

John Smekal, an Encinitas resident and immediate past president of the North County Gay Assn., says he is not opposed to the Sheriff’s Department using undercover deputies to write citations.

“As long as there is no entrapment, I have no problems,” Smekal said. “Sex acts in public are inappropriate, whether it’s gays or straights.”

Enforcement is intermittent. Will news coverage make a difference?

“It will either make people afraid to come back,” Sossaman said, “or it might show people where the new hangout is.”

The More Things Change. . . .

Some things change, others don’t.

The Padres have lifted the forbidden-dugout rule for news photographers at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

News photographers can dash in front of the dugout at the half-inning on their way from the photo bay to a vantage spot behind the backstop.

Not so for free-lancers shooting for baseball card companies. They’ll still have to use a tunnel beneath the stands.

How risky has Balboa Park gotten?

Three emergency cellular phones linked to the San Diego police dispatcher will be installed next month: at Morley Field, Marston Point and Presidents Way near Park Boulevard.

The phones are similar to those along the freeways.

County Supervisor Leon Williams says they’ll be tested for 90 days to see if park safety improves.

Doug Seymour is back in the news, charged with three felony counts of embezzling thousands of dollars from a business associate in La Crosse, Wis.

Seymour is the former San Diego police reservist who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan and later won a $300,000 stress suit against the city.

He moved to La Crosse in 1988 and joined a construction firm. But he still has local ties.

He’s set to be a star witness this summer against Fallbrook racist Tom Metzger and three others in a Los Angeles cross-burning case.

Silberman’s ‘Godfather’ Defense

One of Richard Silberman’s defense arguments is that he was acting under duress inflicted by a thug-informer working for the FBI.

The duress defense is a tough sell: it didn’t work for Patty Hearst or for Barry Minkow of the ZZZZ Best scam.

Minkow testified that he was beaten repeatedly.

In the book “Faking It in America,” author Joe Domanick says Minkow would have had to prove he was under “constant, immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury,” with no chance to escape or call the cops:

“Being afraid because you thought a guy might be associated with the mob and you’d just read ‘The Godfather’ wasn’t enough to prove duress.”