Florida Lawmaker Guilty Of Soliciting Male For Sex
Posted on Friday, 9 of November , 2007 at 8:39 pm
TITUSVILLE, FL—Florida state representative Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island), co-sponsor of a bill that would have increased penalties for public lewdness and indecent exposure had it been passed, has been convicted following a week-long jury trial on charges that he solicited an undercover male officer for sex at a park in Central Florida.
Allen, who continues to maintain his innocence, faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine for solicitation for prostitution, a second degree misdemeanor
The jury, who had visited the public park restroom and handicapped stall where the incident had allegedly occurred, had deliberated three hours and 20 minutes before returning a guilty verdict.
Allen had been arrested after police said that they noticed a man acting suspiciously, going in and out of the men’s restroom at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Titusville. Police said shortly thereafter Allen had offered Titusville police officer Danny Kavanaugh, $20 and asked to perform a sex act on the officer.
Allen’s defense had been he thought he was being robbed so he went along with what he said was a proposition until he could flee the area.
Allen has served as co-chairman of Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s Florida campaign.
Police say they didn’t know he was a state lawmaker until after the arrest which came a month after U.S. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho was arrested in a sex sting in an airport bathroom in Minneapolis.
Allen is married and has one child. He is a former Little League volunteer and has served on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club.
In the months before his arrest, Allen had co-sponsored a bill which would have increased the penalty for “unnatural and lascivious acts or exposure or exhibition of sexual organs” within 1,000 feet of a park, school or child care facility from a misdemeanor to a felony.
According to trial testimony, Kavanaugh and other undercover officers were on assignment conducting surveillance of a condo when they claim Allen stared at them and entered the rest room several times. After obtaining permission from his supervisor to investigate, Kavanaugh testified that Allen had entered the restroom stall where he was and had asked the officer to go somewhere more private.
According to testimony, it was the officer who asked Allen for money. 11-09-07
Category: Courts, Crime, Florida, Politics
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
COPYRIGHT 2009 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of the publisher.
