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Lewd Conduct Sting Operation at the Beverly Center Bathrooms

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is conducting an ongoing sting operation to arrest suspects for violations of Penal Code 647(a) and 647(d) at the Beverly Center bathrooms.

Although the lewd sting operation is taking place at bathroom facilities throughout the Beverly Center Mall, LAPD officers are especially targeting the 7th floor bathrooms just outside Bloomingdales.

The undercover decoy officers are posing as gay men "cruising" in the bathrooms. These LAPD decoys hang out in the Beverly Center restrooms, waiting for a guy to walk in who appears to be gay.

The decoy will then start cruising the suspect: making sustained eye contact, smiling, putting his hand over his crotch area, and giving various signals that he's "interested" and looking to hook up.

If the unsuspecting gay man does anything to respond to these cruising signals, a team of LAPD officers swarm in and arrest the gay man for Penal Code 647 lewd conduct in public.

Most of the cases we've seen from this Beverly Center sting operation involve alleged conduct that doesn't even amount to lewd conduct (as defined by Penal Code 647).

By definition, lewd conduct is the touching of the private parts in public, for the purpose of sexual gratification, when the person knows or should know of the presence of a third party who may be offended. Penal Code 647(d) also prohibits loitering a bathroom for the purpose of engaging in lewd conduct.

But if the "third party" is a police decoy pretending to be a gay man cruising and looking to hook up, then obviously the suspect reasonably believes the decoy is not going to be offended by the allegedly lewd acts.

In any event, it is a shame that the LAPD would engage in such a discriminatory and homophobic enforcement policy. We encourage anyone arrested as part of this sting operation to fight the charge with the help of a criminal defense attorney specializing in lewd conduct defense.