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ACLU-NJ, Garden State Equality Demand Investigation of Sting Operations

For Immediate Release
August 15, 2006

ISELIN/NEWARK, N.J. -- Garden State Equality and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey today Sent a Joint Letter (254k PDF) to Governor Jon Corzine and Attorney General Zulima Farber urging the administration to conduct a formal investigation of the Palisades Interstate Park Police Department's sting operations that target gay men.

The organizations' request for a formal investigation follows a Recent Appeals Court Decision (82k PDF) that cast doubt on the credibility of the Palisades Park police and questioned the legal analysis of the judge involved in arrests and sentencing of alleged lewdness cases. "An abiding sense of wrongness pervades this conviction," the appellate court said in its decision last week to overturn a gay man's conviction for lewdness. The court also found that the actions of the defendant did not constitute a crime because the defendant believed he was with a consenting adult, not an undercover police officer, in a location in which they were unlikely to be viewed by others.

Garden State Equality and the ACLU-NJ in a July 2005 Letter to Governor Codey (95k PDF) requested that the Codey administration conduct an investigation to end the sting operations in which undercover park police try to bait gay men into having sex. The organizations received no response.

"We renew this call for an investigation not to condone public lewdness," said Jeanne LoCicero, staff attorney at the ACLU-NJ, "but to stop the disparate treatment of gays and straights that may well be a violation of the New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination."

"With last week's appellate court decision, we have yet another sign that the prosecution of gay men for lewdness in Palisades Interstate Park has been an anti-gay witch-hunt culminating in anti-gay, kangaroo court proceedings," said Steven Goldstein, Chair of Garden State Equality. "This travesty of justice requires not only a formal investigation, but also Governor Corzine's consideration of a new municipal judge for Palisades Park."

In their letter to Governor Corzine and Attorney General Farber, the organizations noted that the sting operations in Palisades Park involved more than just one police officer, and that Judge Stephen Zaben, the trial judge with jurisdiction over Palisades Park, has given gay defendants in lewdness cases disproportionately tougher sentences than he has given straight defendants.

Because of last week's appellate decision, in which the court wrote that "significant questions about the officer's credibility were not sufficiently considered," Garden State Equality and the ACLU-NJ now ask the Corzine administration to take immediate steps to investigate Judge Zaben's rulings on arrests for lewdness, as well as any continued sting operations.

Judge Zaben, whose term formally expired in 2001, remains on the bench as a holdover appointment, able to be replaced at any time. According to news reports, park police made more than 100 undercover arrests for lewdness in 2004 and 2005. Detective Thomas Rossi, the police officer involved in last week's appeals court decision, testified that he has personally made more than 100 undercover arrests since joining the park police force in 2002.

As reported in the Gay City News, Judge Zaben's sentences in lewdness cases with gay defendants have included suspended jail sentences, one or two years on probation, a two-year ban from the park and court-supervised psychiatric counseling. In contrast, Judge Zaben reportedly sentenced a heterosexual couple -- who were violating the same lewdness statute -- to fines and a ban from the park, but not to a jail sentence, probation or court-supervised psychiatric counseling. And unlike many of the gay men, the heterosexual couple engaged in lewd behavior without being lured into it by police.

In their letter to Governor Corzine and Attorney General Farber, Garden State Equality and the ACLU-NJ wrote: "The sting operation by the Palisades Interstate Park police, combined with Judge Zaben's disproportionate sentencing of gay defendants and disregard for the officer's lack of credibility, appears to be systematic, legally condoned gay-bashing, as well as a misuse and waste of public funds. It concerns our organizations, and in light of this week's state appeals court ruling, should concern every citizen of our fair-minded state."

Palisades Interstate Park extends from Fort Lee in New Jersey north to Bear Mountain in New York. The New Jersey and New York governors each appoint five of the 10 commissioners. Separate police forces on each side of the border patrol each state's portion of the park.