Appeal in Gay-Sting Case Fails

The state Supreme Court has refused to consider an appeal by several suspects arrested in a Santa Ana police undercover sting that targeted public sex acts by gay men, attorneys said Wednesday.

The Supreme Court’s decision sets the stage for a series of trials for men accused of soliciting sex from undercover officers at Santiago Park. Police said they conducted the operation last year in response to long-standing complaints from residents in the north Santa Ana neighborhood.

Defense attorneys called the Santa Ana police operation arbitrary and unfair because it targeted gay men having sex in public while the department did not target heterosexual couples.

But their efforts to have the prosecutions thrown out of court were rejected by an Orange County Superior Court judge, a state appeals court and now the Supreme Court. If any of the trials result in convictions, they will likely be appealed, Deputy Public Defender Lee Blumen said.