Beware of Fake Hookers at Your Local 7-Eleven

When arrogant politicians get caught on tape accepting cash in exchange for their votes, I always cheer.

Cops set up false storefronts to nail known stolen-goods traffickers? Bravo.

But I’m bothered by police sting operations that border on entrapment. Where citizens out minding their own business get arrested when caught up in artificial crime created by police who have no specific target in mind.

In Orange on Friday, police arrested 25 men in an undercover sting in which policewomen were posing as prostitutes. The location was a small shopping center on the southwest corner of Glassell Street and Katella Avenue.

Subtle these women weren’t.

Two shop owners there told me they called police that day to complain that three hookers were harassing their customers, and they wanted something done about it.

Later they learned the women were the police.

“They went after every man who pulled in,” said one woman owner. “They didn’t wait for anyone to approach them.”

An acquaintance of mine named Johnny was one of those arrested. Married with kids. Good job. Just bought a nice new house. Never been in trouble with the law.

Johnny told me his version only on condition his real name not be used. Johnny had played in an after-work softball game, in which he injured his leg. En route home about 8:30 p.m., he stopped at the 7-Eleven at Glassell and Katella for a six-pack of beer and some ice to pack on his bruised leg.

One of these undercover policewomen approached his vehicle.

The law on entrapment gets quite technical here. A veteran police officer explained it to me: If an undercover cop asks if you want sex for money, that’s illegal. But if the cop says, “Are you partying tonight?,” that’s legal.

Johnny insists the woman asked him straight out, in the most common street vernacular, if he wanted to buy sex. But one shopping-center worker said the phony hooker asked a customer, “Did you want to have a good time tonight?”

Lt. Art Romo of the Orange police said firmly that the women were all trained in the language to use, which had all been approved by prosecutors.

“We don’t want to be embarrassed by a case that won’t hold up in court,” Romo said.

But to me, this language issue is splitting hairs. Nobody doubts what the undercover cops were offering.

Johnny insists he said no and pulled away, deciding this wasn’t the best place to buy ice after all.

Let’s say that Johnny hasn’t been straight with me, that he’s too embarrassed to admit he got excited that this cute young woman wanted an avuncular, middle-aged fellow like him for sex at a ridiculously low price.

To me, it makes little difference. He was still a citizen minding his own business when the forces of law dangled this temptation in his face.

He was arrested by several male police officers the second he left the lot. Two officers, he says, had their guns drawn on him.

The police took him to a motel next door, where they’d rented a room for a command post. Johnny’s car was impounded ($155 to get it back). He spent the night at Orange County Jail before being released with a citation for solicitation.

Though Orange police say it’s general policy to permit a phone call, somehow Johnny never got to make one. His wife, of course, was out of her mind with worry.

Others were upset too. One worker at the shopping center said an officer accused him of trying to interfere with police business by tipping off his customers that the women approaching them were cops. The cop threatened to arrest him if he came out of his store again.

Several people in the shopping center said one man upset by the police did try to warn everyone that the women were cops.

“It was terrible,” said one store owner, who also asked not to be identified. “The cops were harassing everybody. We don’t understand why they were here.”

A half-dozen workers I talked to in that shopping center said they’d never once seen a hooker there before and knew of no street-prostitution problem in the area. Most were extremely bitter about this police activity.

Lt. Romo disagrees. He says that there had been six reported incidents in that area in the past year, some involving other crimes, and that one merchant in that shopping center had complained.

The sting, he said, was a deterrent so that johns and prostitutes alike would know not to come to Orange.

But why did Johnny’s car have to be impounded? Why not let him park his car at the motel? And why did cops have to draw their guns? A misdemeanor merits a gun in the face?

And why did these men have to be transferred to Orange County Jail? Why couldn’t they have been cited at and released from the motel? Other police departments have done that.

Lt. Romo said the cars were impounded and the men sent to jail to remove them from the area, because the sting was ongoing. The police didn’t want these men to return to warn others. The guns, he said, are standard procedure, to make sure no one reacts violently.

I guess I just don’t agree with those tactics. To me it’s an abuse of authority.

Lt. Romo offers assurance that no one was arrested until an overt act took place beyond just an exchange of language. But when Johnny’s wallet was confiscated at the jail, he says, the property sheet showed him carrying just $11 and change. This was a guy who said yes to a hooker? I guess we’ll see later what the evidence really is.

If you see a woman strolling along on known prostitution strips like Beach Boulevard or Harbor, and you pull over to talk to her, then yes, you’ve asked for trouble.

But if you pull into your local 7-Eleven, seems to me you have a right not to have anyone approach your vehicle, even if the only question asked is whether you want to have a good time.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.