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Seeks Access to Public Facilities Now Denied Promises to Take Men Home—No Public Sex! |
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Compiled By GayToday
Boston, Massachusetts—A state mental health coordinator from Cape Cod who has
been identified only as John Doe is suing the Massachusetts State Police
for access to local rest areas.
An attorney for the police calls the suit "ridiculous". Doe's attorneys have requested that a judge stop troopers from harassing him when he goes cruising for sexual partners on Route 6 in Sandwich and I-195 in Wareham. He complains that Trooper Shawn Walsh has threatened and intimidated him, disallowing his entry into the aforementioned rest areas. It is not a crime, contends John Doe, to go to public sites and to meet men whom he thereafter invites to his home for either social or sexual intentions. Doe's lawyer, Mary Bonauto, explained to a Middlesex Superior Court judge that "Mr. Doe seeks a court order to enjoin Walsh ... from continuing to roust him from public space when they have no reason to believe he committed a crime or is about to commit a crime.".
Doe has promised never again to have sex in any locale deemed semi-public or public, but demands access rights to public facilities which Trooper Walsh currently denies him. His attorney explains that citizens may use rest areas as long as they break no laws. She adds: "We're trying to work out how to educate state police personnel about the law." Judge Wendie Gershengorn, without explanation, prevented reporters from entering her court during a preliminary hearing of the case. A second hearing to discuss a possible settlement of the lawsuit has been scheduled for September 28. |
