Public gay sex gainesville
Others caught up in the sting include James Walter Woodall, a 48-year-old manager of an Athens furniture store, 36-year-old Columbus attorney Richard Thomas Tebeau and disabled veteran Samuel Peter Zook. Lomax did not return calls and e-mails to his business seeking comment. Roberts to 12 months’ probation, fined $500 and ordered to stay away from Hall County’s public parks for a year, a standard sentence for first offenders. Court records show that Lomax, 54, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor solicitation of sodomy on May 5 and was sentenced by State Court Judge B.E. Lomax, whose union chapter has 14,000 members, asked an undercover officer to perform a sex act in woods at the park, according to court documents. Steve Lomax, president of the Suwanee-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1996, was arrested early on the evening of April 2 for saying the wrong thing at Lula Park. "They know you can be arrested for saying the wrong thing." "People are less apt to use the verbiage that can get them a (criminal) charge," Ware said. Ware said there are several "red flags" officers look for, including eye contact and certain suggestive banter.īut after 13 people were arrested at Lula park between April and September, the men who frequent it are becoming more cautious, he said. Several of those arrested exposed themselves to an undercover officer in an open, public area, according to arrest warrants. Just stay at home - don’t try to use the parks." We’re not targeting people because of their sexual orientation. "But the thought of a child going out to play in one of these parks and seeing something like that. "I couldn’t care less what people do in the privacy of their own home," Ware said. Ware said illegal acts of public indecency and solicitation of sodomy are being targeted, not homosexuals. "They are in a countywide sting in parks with the intention of locking up every gay man they can find," one person wrote anonymously. Lula Park is one of five locations in Georgia listed on the site. One Web site that focuses on the practice known as "cruising" posts state-by-state alerts of areas where arrests are prevalent. Word also has spread on the Internet that Lula Park is being targeted by law enforcement. "Basically the word has gotten out, and that’s where people show up." "Since it was shut down, Lula Park has taken its place," Ware said. Hall County’s Central Park, located off Candler Highway near the Interstate 985 exit, was notorious as a public meeting place for men to engage in sex before the property was closed and sold to a commercial developer two years ago. 52 with a parking lot and boat ramp and little more, has become the new Central Park, authorities say. "We’ve arrested teachers, law enforcement officers, preachers, doctors and construction workers.
Scott Ware, commander of the Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad, which conducts most of Hall County’s vice investigations.
"It’s not a specific race or class of people," said Lt. Those charged with misdemeanor solicitation of sodomy or public indecency included a furniture store manager, a disabled veteran, an attorney and the head of one of Georgia’s largest labor union chapters.
Men seeking anonymous, casual sexual encounters in the woods repeatedly have propositioned undercover officers there over the course of a six-month sting operation that was prompted by complaints. From all walks of life, they have come to tiny Lula Park.