Jury acquits gay man in Dawsonville park sex sting
Jury acquits gay man in Dawsonville park sex sting Defendant claims ‘coerced’ by police; similar cases prompt lawsuit in Tenn.
By DYANA BAGBY OCT. 3, 2008
When Shannon Wayne Phillips of Gainesville decided to take a stroll at Thompson Creek Park in Dawsonville, he didn’t know he was going to be the object of a sex sting operation being conducted by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Department.
Phillips, 40, said he simply wanted to take a walk in the park at about 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, 2007 when a man approached him and the two struck up a conversation. Gainesville is located about 23 miles west of Dawsonville.
“I went into the park to take a walk and I met someone. We talked for a while and then I walked off. Then he came back up to me, so I asked him if he was gay. And he said he was bisexual,” Phillips said. “We talked, but I had no intention of doing anything with him there. I did want to meet him later. I was coerced by officers, profiled for being a gay man in a park.”