PORTLAND POLICE TOOK $150 from a city “evidence fund” to pay for a handjob from an alleged prostitute in a Northeast Portland motel last summer.

When the deed was done, the officers arrested the woman for prostitution. Now the district attorney is attempting to prosecute the case.

Officers from the Portland Police Bureau’s Neighborhood Response Team employed the unusual tactic during a prostitution sting at a motel on NE Gertz on August 13, 2009, according to arrest reports obtained by the Mercury.

“I photocopied the money to purchase the sex act prior to departing for the mission,” wrote Officer Jack Gillentine, who gave the money to a “confidential informant” who would be on the receiving end of the handjob.

Gillentine arrested the woman when the informant came out, and the informant then described the handjob in an interview with Vice Officer Meghan Burkeen.

“She’s reaching over and she’s kinda like squeezing my nipples, and, um, and then she reached down, at that point and she starts, um, massaging my, ah, nutsack, so, um,” reads a partial transcript of the informant’s interview. “So she just kinda like, leans down in there and I don’t know, maybe it might have taken a minute, boom, quick finish, that was it. Pretty straightforward, cut and dry.”

The case has dumbfounded many in the criminal defense community, who last saw police giving informants city money to ensnare alleged prostitutes 17 years ago, says attorney Scott Stinson. The problem? It’s probably illegal.

“Statutorily, there are exceptions for officers in their law enforcement duties to do things like possess drugs,” says Stinson, who is defending the alleged prostitute in this case. “But there’s no such exception for prostitution-related conduct. Taken in a certain light, the police officers in this case have entered into a conspiracy to commit a crime.”

Stinson is trying to find out whom the informant was to see whether he, too, was charged with a crime. But so far, the district attorney’s office has kept his identity a secret.

The case has raised eyebrows at the city, too.

“I’ll have a conversation with the bureau to see what information they can provide me regarding the sting operation, and to ensure there’s protections in place so they’re not engaging in misconduct,” says Mary-Beth Baptista, director of the city’s Independent Police Review.

The police bureau has been struggling to stay within its budget for the year, and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman declined comment on this story. However, the real question is for the district attorney’s office, says Stinson.

“I don’t know what their policies and procedures are, but what the DA’s office has basically done is sanctioned unlawful conduct,” he says.

If the state was holding the informant on other charges and offering him a plea deal in exchange for going to get the handjob, then it’s possible the DA’s office itself could be charged with compelling prostitution.

District Attorney Mike Schrunk says this is a “relatively rare” procedure, and that such busts are “prescreened by a senior deputy district attorney.”

“Would we rather just try clean cases?” he asks. “Sure. But this is not a new issue. It has come up over the years.”

“Is it a good use of public funds?” Schrunk asks. “Prostitution as you know exploits women, degrades neighborhoods, degrades people. We usually do these things in order to go up the chain and find the person who’s paying for the motel room, paying for the advertising.”

Schrunk directed us to the police bureau for a list of the policies and procedures around these kinds of stings.

“We do have written policies around confidential informants in general,” says bureau spokeswoman, Mary Wheat. “But not specifically for the prostitution cases.”

“It has been in our policy to use informants in prostitution cases,” Wheat continues. “But all money used for undercover drug buys, prostitution stings, and other such cases comes from evidence fund money and all that is audited on a regular basis.”

Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.

34 replies on “Tax Dollars for Handjobs”

  1. Well, they get the money back after arresting her anyways, right?

    I mean, I still think this is crooked, but just thinking the money does not actually go anywhere.

  2. Another waste of tax dollars even prosecuting this shit, esp when people are struggling to make ends meet, who is this hurting except the prostitute? Who, by the way, is the one in most need of help here.

    Must be nice though, getting a hand job AND the moral high ground.

  3. I think the fact that the article lists off about a half dozen ways in which the activity maybe illegal, including that there is some suspicion that the informant was told he would be arrested on a separate charge unless he did this for them, is the bigger issue than what happened to the 150 bucks. Although it never states that it was recovered.

  4. So…when the cops aren’t killing unarmed people, road raging with babies in their car, pulling guns on private citizens, potentially stalking, and overspending their budget by millions of dollars, their big crime is…handjobs? Handjobs. Really.

    Yes, these police tactics are illegal. They won’t hold up in court. Once a judge hears that the cop paid a private citizen to commit a crime on another private citizens (aka, the informant)…and that the cop made an arrest for the very crime he paid for? Yeah. It pretty much always gets thrown out. Waste of time. Waste of money.

    I’m sure there are some great, professional police officers. But seriously, what does it take to fire a police chief and these bad cops?

  5. Sorry, guys. Yes, afterward, they recovered $100 of the $150, judging from the reports. It’s not clear where the alleged prostitute put the other $50.

  6. “Prostitution as you know exploits women, degrades neighborhoods, degrades people”… Therefore we’re going to engage in it! For fuck’s sake, it takes two people to actually complete an act of prostitution! And actually getting a handjob – having this woman get you off – then arresting her… to me, that sounds pretty fucking “exploitative” and “degrading”. These cops and DAs should be ashamed of themselves. I am disgusted that public servants would be getting handjobs on the clock in the false name of “justice”.

  12. How can it possibly be legal for the cops to pay someone to get a hand job and arrest the woman doing it?! The people involved in drug stings don’t get to use the drugs do they?I’m appaled and even more humiliated by the “law” officers in this city. Once again, the most vulnerable of our citizens are punished. For shame.

  13. The officer definitely broke the law in terms of the city ordinance of Unlawful Prostitutuion Procurement Activites [ http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/inde… ] That’s what Six months in jail?

    A. As used in this Section, “prostitution” means that unlawful conduct defined in Section 14.A40.040 of this Code. As used in this Section, “prostitution procurement activity” means any conduct by any person that constitutes a substantial step in furtherance of an act of prostitution. Such activity includes, but is not limited to, lingering in or near any street or public place, repeatedly circling an area in a motor vehicle, or repeatedly beckoning to, contacting, or attempting to stop pedestrians or motor vehicle operators.

    B. It is unlawful for any person to engage in any prostitution procurement activity with an intent to induce, entice, solicit, procure, locate, or contact another person to commit an act of prostitution

    They are definitely guilty of Promoting Prostitution [ https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/167.012 ]

    1)A person commits the crime of promoting prostitution if, with intent to promote prostitution, the person knowingly:
    (b)Induces or causes a person to engage in prostitutionor to remain in a place of prostitution; or
    (c)Receives or agrees to receive money or other property, other than as a prostitute being compensated for personally rendered prostitution services, pursuant to an agreement or understanding that the money or other property is derived from a prostitution activity; or
    (d)Engages in any conduct that institutes, aids or facilitates an act or enterprise of prostitution.

  14. a word of caution here…the only guy quoted saying the cops committed a crime is the defense attorney for the prostitute. a bit of a tainted source

  15. I think it is the police reports obtained by the Mercury that show that the officers conspired to give money to a person to go get the handjob and the officers thereby took a substantial act in furtherance of an act of prostitution. The DA and the police aren’t denying that their officers were involved in this activity. Their own reports apparently seem to show that they caused a person to engage in prostitution.

    Don’t forget, the infomant is guilty of prostitution himself because he offered money in exchange for a sex act. The police and DA seem to be helping him and encouraging him to commit the act. Heck, they gave him the money for the act!

  16. After reading these comments, I believe I have located the Fountain of Douche! People like you are what make Portland such a terrible place to live. Oh well, at least the Portland Mercury provides plenty of street kids and bums with asswipe.

  17. “Prostitution as you know exploits women, degrades neighborhoods, degrades people.”

    So it’s less degrading if she gives a handjob (i.e. engage in prostitution) to an informant (who may is himself being coerced), then gets arrested (more humiliation) by the cops who came up with the idea (conspiracy) and they take the money away from her.

    Good to know the DA is so concerned with protecting prostitutes from degradation.

  20. Wait a second. The cops get an “informant,” who is anonymous… who could well be a cop or the neighbor/buddy of a cop. They give this guy a couple hundred bucks and send him off to get serviced by prostitutes. After he’s had a nice time and feels refreshed – boom – the cops show up and bust the prostitute?

    This sounds like a ploy to use public money to score some free handjobs. It’s not enough that our cops are road-raging nuts, now they’re taking out their feeling of inadequacy on PDXs (vulnerable) prostitutes?

    It’s only a matter of time before some wise guy performs a “citizens arrest” right after getting a blow job because he’d rather keep his $100.

    Seriously though, anti-prostitution initiatives must target johns, not women working the streets who are already exploited and don’t need any extra exploitation from Portland’s finest.

    ps: How do they advertise and select their informants in this position? Is there a form people can fill out if they’d like to volunteer?

  26. I would like to volunteer my services to the Portland Police Department in recieving handjobs. I have a lot of experience in this arena and they wouldn’t even have to threaten to charge me with a crime.

  27. Totally bogus!
    We are so behind so much of the civilized world when concerning prostitution.
    Sex workers need the same respect and treatment as any other citizen.
    Clem

  28. AN OUTRAGE!! Well, defense lawyer Stinson is on solid ground as far as forcing identification of the informant because the informant is a percipient witness and under US Supreme Court case Rovario v. U.S., as well as the Oregon Evidence Code, if the informant is not identified the case must be dismissed.

    What NEXT from our PPB??? This is as bad or worse than the 80’s.

  30. Is anyone really surprised? We are talking about the thug pigs of this city. They don’t give a rats ass about doing things that are illegal.

  31. A sting operation..Hmmm, I wonder how many other sting operations our tax dollars are funding, with the end result being illegal activity perpetrated by the very people paid to enforce the law. Shameful.

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