NEW YORK—Alleging violation of his civil rights, a man has filed a federal lawsuit against New York City officials, claiming his prostitution arrest last year was part of a plan to close adult entertainment venues that cater to a gay clientele.
The suit, filed in September by Robert Pinter, 53, is the first in what attorneys say will be a string of legal complaints from some of the 30 gay and bisexual men arrested during 2008. Pinter calls the arrests part of a systematic program of humiliation and harassment designed to help the city close “undesirable” businesses in trendy parts of town.
Police used shady tactics and untruths to achieve their goals, according to the suit, causing law-abiding citizens undue anguish.
“The actions taken against the plaintiff in targeting him, entrapping him, arresting him, taking him into custody, and otherwise detaining him and prosecuting him were taken for collateral objectives other than the legitimate objectives associated with an arrest and prosecution,” Pinter attorney James I. Meyerson wrote in the filing.
Court documents indicate that in October, a younger man propositioned Pinter inside Blue Door Video in the East Village. As the two left the store, the younger man, an undercover police officer, offered Pinter $50 for a blowjob. Pinter said he ignored the offer, but agreed to accompany his companion to a nearby parked car where they could have sex. Before they reached the car, Pinter was arrested and charged with prostitution.
Pinter pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received a light sentence. Earlier this year, the court vacated his and several other sentences after the men involved challenged the convictions with the blessing of the local district attorney. Pinter’s case was reopened, and the charges were dismissed. Pinter said they never should have been filed at all.
Pinter’s arrest and the similar arrests of others subsequently were cited as justification for nuisance-abatement lawsuits the city filed against six adult stores in the East Village and Chelsea. In one case, officials successfully forced a store to close, and the building subsequently sold for $12.3 million. The property is under redevelopment.
Pinter’s lawsuit names as defendants Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the undercover officer who made the bust (identified only by his badge number), other senior uniformed police officials and Shari Hyman, director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. The district attorney, whose office prosecuted the cases against Pinter and the stores, was not named.
“While I acknowledge that some, including District Attorney Morgenthau, have endeavored to address the injustice which I and others have suffered, the high-ranking elected and appointed individuals, including the police commissioner and high-ranking uniform command officers under his command, and the mayor and the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, who are responsible for the city’s policies and practices which resulted in my unjust arrest and the unjust arrest of others, have done nothing to acknowledge the injustice that their policies caused me and the many others or to apologize for the humiliation and anguish which I and others have suffered,” he wrote in a prepared statement.
None of the defendants have responded publicly to Pinter’s suit.
More than 50 gay men have been arrested under similar circumstances since 2004. Two other attorneys said their clients will be taking cases to state and federal court soon. Michael Spiegel, who in 2005 won a $1.1 million award for a gay man in similar circumstances, said he has “several” clients who share Pinter’s outrage. He plans to file a number of federal lawsuits. Ronald Saffner plans to file a state suit on behalf of a man who suffered a similar fate in a Gramercy Park spa.
