Chief: There was no deal with D.A. before sex sting

To catch a predator type stings are no longer yielding masses of arrests and new sex offenders, so, the police now are targeting the gay community to increase the size of the registry. Hence, job security.

5-29-2010 California:

Despite sworn testimony that police pushed for a deal, there never was a prearranged agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office last year to file harsher charges in a gay sex sting, the Palm Springs police chief said Friday.

“We don't ask them to make predetermined charges,” Chief of Police David Dominguez told The Desert Sun. The district attorney files charges only “after reviewing cases (and) factual information that's presented to them.”

Dominguez's comments refute court testimony given by Palm Springs police Sgt. Bryan Anderson, who helped supervise a summer 2009 sting to curb public sex in the city's Warm Sands neighborhood.

All 24 men arrested in the Warm Sands sting face charges under California Penal Code section 314, which would require them to register as sex offenders for life on databases accessible only to authorities.

In a deposition last year, Anderson said police met with D.A. officials to “see if they would file charges that we actually asked to file.”

Anderson, concerned about the charges that resulted from prior sex stings, said he believed “it was agreed upon” that the D.A. would not reduce the charges in the Warm Sands sting operation.

Dominguez said Anderson merely “expressed his personal opinion that he was concerned but that's not the policy of the police department.”

Any prearranged agreement among the agencies to establish charges would go against Palm Springs Police Department and Riverside County D.A. policy, Dominguez said.
He added that Anderson was frustrated because Palm Springs' problems of sex in public places “have been going on for so long.”

D.A. officials also say there was no such agreement. Officials at both agencies say it's common for the two to meet in advance of a law enforcement operation to make sure everyone's familiar with what's to take place.

However, in separate testimony, a former Riverside County deputy district attorney also said there was an agreement between Palm Springs police and the D.A. Based on the meetings, those arrested in the sting could only plead under section 314, former Deputy D.A. Thomas Hughes said. ..Source.. Marcel Honoré