Police Agree To End Stings In NYC Bus Terminal Bathrooms, Will Pay $40,000 In Damages
The Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) has agreed to stop sending plainclothes officers to the Port Authority Bus Terminal men’s restrooms in order to arrest gay, bisexual, and gender nonconforming people and falsely accuse them of public lewdness and exposure. The PAPD has also agreed to pay a total of $40,000 in damages to the two men who were part of a federal lawsuit over their arrests. As part of the agreement before a federal court, PAPD said they will also include LGBTQI sensitivity training for all new recruits. “This settlement represents an important victory for our clients, Cornell Holden and Miguel Mejia, who bravely fought to end the Port Authority Police Department’s discriminatory and, frankly, downright creepy practice of surveilling men the officers believed to be gay while using public urinals and falsely arresting them for public lewdness,” Molly Griffard, Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement. Kicking off #PrideMonth with a victory in our lawsuit challenging bias-based false public lewdness arrests.