Gays, Police Discuss Lewd-Conduct Arrests : Law enforcement: New guidelines are considered for vice officers. Gay activists consider patrolling public bathrooms.

For years, Long Beach gay activists have complained that undercover police officers patrolling public restrooms have falsely arrested scores of men for violating lewd-conduct laws.

Too often, according to gay leaders, the officers encourage lewd conduct by feigning sexual interest.

In the past, police officials have denied the allegations and refused to discuss the issue with representatives of the city’s gay community, which, at an estimated 40,000, is one of the largest and most visible in Southern California. But recently, for the first time, representatives from both sides began meeting to discuss guidelines about what is and is not appropriate conduct by undercover officers.

“I’ve been working on this since 1984, and only in the last two months have I begun to see progress,” said Rick Rosen, an active member of the predominantly gay Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club who spearheaded the talks. “I’m very optimistic.”

Rosen, who has met with Police Cmdr. Dale Brown and others twice, plans a third meeting next month to discuss guidelines that would, among other things, forbid vice detectives on lewd-conduct stakeouts from making inappropriate gestures, such as touching themselves.

Meanwhile, gay activists are considering sending out trained volunteers to patrol public bathrooms in parks and beaches to discourage lewd conduct.

“The objective (would be) to get the activity stopped--not to make arrests. So the shift is positive,” said Jay Kohorn, a Los Angeles criminal appellate attorney who has handled hundreds of lewd-conduct arrests and is involved in the talks with Long Beach police.

Police officials repeatedly refused to discuss the matter, referring all questions to the city attorney’s office.

Deputy City Atty. Michael Mais said police officials are considering the recommendations, although they deny allegations that officers act inappropriately during lewd-conduct arrests.

“If they go into a restroom and a person nods at them, the officer might nod back,” Mais said. “If the person winks at them, the officer might wink back. But they don’t touch themselves.”

Attorneys who represent people charged with lewd conduct, however, said they have documented hundreds of cases in which men have been falsely arrested in Long Beach.

“Over the 13 years I’ve handled lewd-conduct arrests, I have the least respect for the integrity of the Long Beach Police Department, as compared to any of the sheriff’s stations or other police departments,” said Marjorie Rushforth, a Santa Ana-based defense attorney who said 90% of the 600 to 700 lewd-conduct arrests she has handled in Long Beach are questionable.

The most common scenario, according to Rushforth and other attorneys and activists, features an officer lingering at a park or beach bathroom stall, looking over his shoulder, peeking around the divider and trying to show an interest in men using the restroom.

“The officer will then say something like, ‘I’m going to check outside and see if anyone is looking,’ ” Rushforth said. “If the citizen continues to stand in the stall, that’s a confirmation to the officer that he’s interested (in a sexual encounter). The officer then walks out, gives a hand signal to his backup and the citizen is arrested--although no act had taken place.”

The next most common scenario involves an officer touching himself suggestively, Rushforth said. “Everything is done to encourage (the suspect) to watch and touch himself,” she said.

Mark Borden, a local criminal defense lawyer, said that about one-third of the 30 to 50 lewd-conduct cases he handles each year in Long Beach involve clients who accuse the police of making a false arrest.

Like other attorneys, Borden said that most people charged with lewd conduct do not want to go to trial because of the nature of the charge, the embarrassment and the potential publicity. “Most of my clients want to take care of these things as quickly and quietly as possible,” he said.

Last year, Long Beach police arrested 280 adults on lewd-conduct charges, according to the state Department of Justice. The number has dropped considerably since 1987, when lewd-conduct arrests peaked for the decade at 769.

Long Beach police refused to discuss the department’s policy on lewd-conduct enforcement or to explain the decrease in arrests. But activists and attorneys who specialize in such cases attributed the drop to fewer lewd-conduct acts and less rigorous enforcement.

Fear of the deadly AIDS virus and heightened awareness about the problem have deterred some people from having sex in public places, they explained. Meanwhile, police are spending more of their resources on gangs and more serious crimes, they said.

Despite the decrease, gay leaders say lewd-conduct arrests remain a problem. They say vice officers continue to use inappropriate tactics and to arrest people who have not engaged in illegal acts.

One Long Beach man, for example, said he was recently arrested without cause at a bathroom near Marine Stadium. The man, who declined to be identified, said a stranger followed him into the restroom and tried to grab him. He said he tried to get away, but two undercover officers stopped him. “This guy was probably following me. The two vice officers were following him. And they arrested me! I was the one assaulted,” he said.

The two officers, shabbily dressed in an undercover disguise, were hanging out by the door, the man said. Before he realized they were police officers, the man said he feared he was “being ganged up on.”

Later, while he walked handcuffed for two blocks to a police car, the officers treated him unprofessionally, he said. Among other things, he said one officer sang to him, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.”

The man, a Long Beach resident of about 30, said he sought a trial to fight the charge. But after several court delays, he said he agreed to plead guilty to a reduced count of disturbing the peace because he could not afford to miss work to appear at a trial. “It was really, really a nightmare.”

Several attorneys who represent residents charged with lewd conduct describe most of their clients as middle-class men with no prior criminal history. Most of the Long Beach arrests take place at Recreation Park, near the Marine Stadium, on the beach by Ocean Boulevard and Cherry Avenue and by Granada Avenue. According to Mais, most of the men arrested were in or near public restrooms when they were taken into custody.

In 1984, gay activists tried without success to persuade the Police Department to replace undercover officers with uniformed officers to patrol parks and beaches. During a hearing before the Public Safety Advisory Commission in 1984, a deputy chief said that undercover vice officers were needed to patrol parks and beaches “so the message gets out loud and clear that there is no safe time” to engage in lewd conduct.

But several of the activists and attorneys contacted pointed out that other cities with large gay communities, such as West Hollywood and Laguna Beach, use only uniformed police officers.

“We don’t use (undercover deputies) because patrolling bathrooms isn’t our priority here,” said Nancy Greenstein, public safety officer for the city of West Hollywood and the liaison between the Sheriff’s Department and a gay and lesbian committee.

“Long Beach is going through the issues we went through,” Greenstein said. “(In the early 1980s,) the council said, ‘We don’t want you in the parks lurking behind bushes pretending you are looking for men.’ Instead, the city put up lights in problematic parks and locked up bathrooms.”

Gay activists see the recent talks as a turning point in a long history of mistrust and misunderstanding between the Police Department and the gay and lesbian community in Long Beach.

Gay activists and some defense attorneys emphasize that they want to work with the department. They also stress that they do not condone sex in public places. “The gay and lesbian community is not in favor of public displays of sexual activity,” attorney Kohorn said. “It’s inappropriate.”

Lewd Conduct Arrests

Number of adults arrested on charges of misdemeanor lewd conduct in Long Beach.

Year & Number

1981: 386

1982: 347

1983: 340

1984: 493

1985: 606

1986: 593

1987: 769

1988: 585

1989: 315

1990: 280

Source: California Department of Justice .