I met this morning with two victims of what seems to have been a very real gay witch hunt that took place on Portland State University campus late last year. 
WITCH HUNTED: Taylor Vineyard (left) and his husband, Andy Klaus…
Vineyard was “arrested” and handcuffed by PSU campus security last October after a witness, Andrew Bridge, told campus security he had seen Vineyard masturbating with another man in the bathroom at PSU’s Stott Center.
It turns out that the witness, Bridge, has been involved in at least four similar cases accusing men of having group sex in public, and that his testimony can’t necessarily be relied upon.
KATU investigative reporter Dan Tilkin tracked Bridge down at his house last Thursday, after the District Attorney’s office threw out the charges against Vineyard:
BRIDGE: HOSTILE TOWARDS KATU REPORTER…
Vineyard and Klaus allege that Bridge was also a witness, under a different name, Andrew Farris, in a public indecency case in the mid 1990s against Daryl Johnson, the former curator of Portland’s Rose Test Garden. The case against Johnson was overturned by the state appeals court in July 1999, after the court ruled that it had erroneously “relied on Farris’s statements as substantial evidence.”
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” says Vineyard. “People need to know who he is, what he’s doing, where he is, and how to protect themselves.”
The pair say they have been treated with contempt by security at PSU. Campus security chief Mike Soto allegedly called Vineyard Klaus’s “little friend, partner, whatever” repeatedly on the phone in a conversation, the day after the incident. Soto did not return a call for comment.
“This was a homophobic conspiracy,” says Klaus. “These security guards have gone from third rate rejects at the bottom of the pile to third rate rent-a-cops and they’ve got no professionalism whatsoever. They relied on the testimony of this man to victimize Taylor.”
Klaus and Vineyard are now looking for an attorney to fight against the incident in court. “This has already cost us $3000 in attorney’s fees,” says Klaus.
“It was horrible, it was unfair, it was not right, it was clear that they hated me, thought I was disgusting, and that my just being alive was proof that I was a pervert,” says Vineyard.
I hope they get some justice. And while I’d love to go round to Bridge’s house like KATU reporter Tilkin to get sprayed with a water hose, I figured a phone call might suffice, since the scoop’s already been made. Bridge is yet to return it.
Matt Davis’ security guard witch hunt continues
Does bridge work at PSU or something? He is rocking the PSU hat. Seems like a gem of a man.
I took a film class with this dude! He never shut up. But he clearly learned the value of a M. Night Shyamalan-style surprise reveal.
“He knew what to look for.” Classic!!!
If it really was a witch hunt, why haven’t the pube-necks been burned at the stake?
Wait? The last line of the video explains that “Bridge is a gay man himself and he knows what to look for.” Here’s my theory: he makes the moves on men in (PSU?) bathrooms and when they reject his ugly, fat self he goes ballistic.
Someone should throw a balloon filled with Mayo at this guy.
Isn’t the dude on the left your music editor?
As a former employee of the PSU Public Safety Department I’d like to offer some insight.
1: They aren’t security guards. They are public safety officers. There’s a huge difference in that they are deputized and allowed to investigate, detain, arrest, and yes even cuff people.
2: At the time I was employed there, there were several openly gay staff members including officers. In 18 months I never once heard a mention of anything homophobic nor saw any treatment of any employee as being “different” for being openly gay. It might have happened but I never saw it. Besides the gay staff I saw dozens of gay/lesbian/trans people in our office that had been arrested. I never once heard Chief Soto nor any staff member make any comments about their sexual preference.
3: It sucks that this happened to these dudes, but it’s not a homophobic conspiracy. They canceled the homophobic conspiracy club once their funding ran out in 1994. They do still wear the robes and do the secret handshake but only in private. Because they love conspiracies so much.
I hate to burst your melodramatic bubble, but the chances are they don’t really give a shit that you’re gay.
that “dude on the left” is NOT the music editor. It takes 2 seconds to google someone.
They need to sack that motherfucking homophobe Michale Soto. As a PSU student, let me just say that the people at Campus Public Safety Office are complete asshole, numerous times when I called them before they cut the conversation short when I tried to ask them legitimate question. They blatantly abuse their power and use it to bully gay students. As for the comment above by “Alf”, SOTO Please, we all know it’s your fatass pretending to be someone else!
Sup dudes