Caretaker of Disabled Child Humiliated in Botched Sex Sting: Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Caretaker of Disabled Child Humiliated in Botched Sex Sting: Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!

Published on Dec 17, 2013

He was taking care of a handicapped child, but police busted him as a sex criminal and humiliated him in the media.

Now a federal lawsuit aims to restore the reputation of Charles Samuel Couch, grant him restitution, and reign in a police department that allegedly makes a habit of arresting men during sex stings without warrant or probable cause and publicizing the false arrests.

2 minutes, 18 seconds.

Follow the show on Twitter (@DontCops) and submit your nominees for next episode. To watch previous episodes, go here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=...

"Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?" is written and directed by Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker). Producer is Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Opening motion graphics by Meredith Bragg. Camera by Paul Detrick and Zach Weissmueller. Music by audionautix.com and "The Contessa" is by Maurice and the Beejays (Magnatune Records).

Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV's YouTube Channel to receive notification when new material goes live.

Go to http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/11/14...
for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV's YouTube Channel to receive notifications when new material goes live.

.....

.....

Courthouse News Service

Boneheaded Sex Sting Goes Wrong in SoCal

By MATT REYNOLDS

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Manhattan Beach police, targeting men they suspect of being gay, wrongfully arrested a disabled child's caregiver in a public rest room and published his photo on a police website, the man claims in court.
     Charles Samuel Couch sued the City of Manhattan Beach, its Police Chief Eve Irvine and five detectives, in Federal Court. He claims his photo was published in news reports on a sex sting operation that led to the arrest of 18 men.
     Couch claims the March 9, 2012 fiasco happened while he caring for a boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder whose symptoms include mental retardation, diminished functional activity of the gonads, and arrested sexual development.
     On that day, the child, identified as D.K., needed to use a beach restroom on Marine Avenue and the Strand, Couch says in the lawsuit.
     Couch did not know the bathroom was the target of a sting operation and that a hole had been cut into the wall of the stall the child was using, so men could engage in sexual activity.
     Because it can take a long time for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome to use the rest room, Couch says, he stood and waited for D.K. to finish. As he waited, defendant Det. John Nasori entered the stall next to D.K.'s, according to the complaint.
     "A few minutes later the child bolted from the stall, rushed up to plaintiff and whispered, 'There is a man looking at me in the stall!' Horrified, plaintiff said: 'Lets get out of here,'" Couch says in the lawsuit.
     He claims Nasori pursued them out of the rest room, where Couch ran into the four other detectives, who were dressed in plain clothes and looked like "thugs."
     Believing that the men wanted to kidnap D.K., Couch grabbed the child, and then was "tackled, choked, and handcuffed," taken to jail and interrogated.
     During interrogation, Couch "was accused of being sexually interested in other men, and asked if he would take his own little brother to a party to get 'laid,'" the complaint states.
     After police called D.K.'s parents and confirmed that the child had Prader-Willi Syndrome, Couch says, he was released without charge.

Pages

Sunday, December 22, 2013