TITUSVILLE [FL] - State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said.A "misunderstanding"? Oh, sure.
Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail in Sharpes on a charge of solicitation to commit prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a $500 fine.
He was released a few hours later after posting $500 bail, according to a jail spokesman. The legislator, who was first elected in 2000, could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Titusville police were at Veteran's Memorial Park on East Broad Street on a burglary detail when they noticed an unshaven man acting suspicious, going in and out of the restroom three times, said Lt. Todd Hutchinson.
An undercover officer decided to go into one of the bathroom stalls, Hutchinson said. Moments later, Allen knocked on the stall door and offered to perform oral sex on the officer for $20, according to the police spokesman.
The officer identified himself and took Allen into custody. Hutchinson said the officers had no idea the suspect was a state lawmaker.
"After he was arrested, he (Allen) mentioned he was a state legislator," he said.
Allen told a television reporter that what happened was a "misunderstanding." But Hutchinson said the representative did not dispute the undercover officer's version of what happened in the park.
Here's what really happened. Rep. Allen was planning to have a picnic in the park as a part of his community outreach. He stopped in the rest room and just happened to mention that it was going to cost $20 a head and the undercover officer thought he said...
Yeah, that sounds better than "Okay, I got busted for visiting a tea room." (A "tea room" is gay slang for a public place such as a park restroom where this sort of thing goes on.)
Not surprisingly, according to Josh Marshall, the Rainbow Democrats, a gay civil rights group in central Florida, rates Mr. Allen as "worse of the worst" when it comes to supporting gay issues.
