Lansing sex-sting operation sparks FOIA fight

LANSING — Board of Police Commissioners member Jan Kolp said she placed a call to the head of the Lansing Police Department’s special operations unit which resulted in a May 22 sex sting operation in the city’s Fenner Nature Center, which has raised questions about command and control of police operations, as well as concerns about what some community groups say may be an unfair targeting of gay men in the capital city.

When questioned by Michigan Messenger in recent weeks, police officials have given conflicting information about the sting operation, which has sparked a Freedom of Information Act fight that is headed to the Lansing City Council, where an appeal of an information request denial will be considered by council members at their Monday meeting.

Additionally, a Public Safety Committee hearing has been scheduled on July 1 to investigate how the sting was instigated and conducted.

In an interview on Friday evening, Kolp said she called Lt. Larry Klaus, head of the police’s special operations unit, about men soliciting sex from other men in the nature center, which sits on 130 acres on the city’s southeast side. “I asked him if he could give us some help over there.”

Kolp said she did not believe her post on the Lansing Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees departmental budgets and disciplinary matters, influenced how police responded. Kolp is in her second four-year term on the board, and was reappointed by Mayor Virgil Bernero, with approval of the Lansing City Council last year. Her current term expires in 2012.

“I think you’re giving that too much credit,” Kolp said when asked about her post. “I wasn’t calling as a police commissioner, I was calling as a person who has lived on Forest Road for 40 years and president of Forestview Neighborhood Association… I would hope they would handle anyone’s complaint the same way.”

The sting resulted in two arrests and a warrant for a third. All those in question were men, and police allege they were in the park to engage in sex with other men.

But in an interview earlier this month, Lansing Police Chief Mark Alley said the department had stepped up uniformed patrols in the park and had not found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Alley and other top city officials have denied knowing about the sting operation until after it had taken place.

The Lansing Association for Human Rights, part of a coalition appealing the denial of the FOIA request seeking documents related to the sting, “believes in an open and truthful government as vital to all citizens,” said the group’s president, Penny Gardner. “To deny the FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request keeps secret a process and action that bears scrutiny and only diminishes the honesty and accountability crucial to our citizenry’s well being.”

Officials said the request, filed June 2, could not be fulfilled for two reasons. The city refused to release the arrest reports because the suspects had not yet been arraigned on the charges and that release of the arrest reports could taint the jury pool, preventing the men from receiving a fair trial. The request seeking internal communications was rejected because officials said it would reveal operational instructions to police officers or agents.

But Michigan Messenger, along with LAHR, the alternative weekly newspaper City Pulse and the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation appealed the decision to the Lansing City Council arguing the public’s right to know outweighed reasons for non-disclosure.

Triangle Foundation, which monitors and reports on hate crimes and discrimination against the LGBT community, has long criticized what they have characterized as “Bag-a-Fag” or gay sting operations. The term was coined by Michigan State Police troopers involved in operations at state highways, according to a report by former judge and lawyer Rudy Sierra.

Critics argue that men caught up in such stings often have done nothing but discuss sex with police decoys. A Michigan Messenger investigation last fall about a similar operation in Mount Pleasant found that men were arrested for only talking about engaging in sexual activity, including one man who was arrested for saying he was into “gardening.”

Kolp said she hopes no one will mistake the neighborhood’s concerns as being anti-gay.

“I hope you or anyone doesn’t think this has anything to do with sexual orientation. This whole thing is about sex in a public place,” she said. “It’s simply because it is an indecency problem, a moral problem and a matter of law.”

In the appeal letter, delivered to the city on Wednesday and currently on the city council’s Monday agenda, the groups argued that the denial of the release of the arrest reports was inappropriate. The groups argue that police officials may already have tainted the jury pool by alleging that “there were children present in the park.”

In regard to the denial of internal communications, the groups argue that officials had denied prior knowledge of the police action, including the chief of police. Obtaining internal communications could prove or disprove those claims.

The organizations seeking information about the sting also argued that reports indicating a police commissioner’s involvement in instigating the stings elevates the public’s right to know above any purported sensitivity of internal communications. The appeal letter did not identify Kolp specifically, who was named by a city official speaking with Michigan Messenger about the matter on the condition of anonymity.

The appeal letter will be formally accepted by the Lansing City Council at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday. The letter will likely be referred to the city attorney’s office. From there, the city attorney will make a legal ruling and refer it back to council for action. The council can overturn the denial completely, in part or uphold the denial.

Once the council has acted, the mayor can veto the measure, unless six of the eight council members voted in favor, in which case a veto would likely be overturned.