14 Nabbed at I-15 Rest Stops

Homosexual Suspects Arrested in Utah County

By Larry Weist

Eight men were arraigned in the Pleasant Grove Precinct Justice Court Monday afternoon on charges of lewdness and sodomy stemming from alleged homosexual activity at the two rest stops on I-15 north of Orem.

Four defendants pleaded guilty to the charges, three asked for trials in Orem City Court and one defendant asked for a trial in the Pleasant Grove Justice Court.

Four of the defendants are Orem residents and one each is from Provo, Springville, Logan and Cleveland in Emery County. Most of the men are in their 30's although the oldest is and the youngest is 22 years.

Two of the suspects were arrested and charged with an act of sodomy. One of them, a 54-- year-old Salt Lake County man died of a self - inflicted wound to the chest two days after his arrest, according to Serge Moore, state medical examiner.

Judge Keith Anderson cleared his court of members of the press and public in Monday's arraignment, saying later he did so because he did not want to see the accused tried in the press.

Orem city Prosecutor Frank Butterfield indicated today that Section 76-7-3 and 4 of the Utah Sate Criminal Code says specifically that "sittings must be public in the courts of justices of the peace, with a few exceptions. None of which Involve charges of homosexuality.

Mr. Anderson said he had asked Utah County Attorney Noell Wootton to research the matter for him and would allow the press a public to be present at next week's argument if the law says he has to.

Investigation into homosexual activities at the rest stops was begun two months ago after the Highway Patrol office in Orem and the sheriff's office in Provo received complaints from tourists and other travelers about their not being able to use the toilet facilities.

It was decided at a meeting of local police chiefs to do what was necessary to clear up the situation and make the rest rooms again more available to travelers, according to Sheriff Mack Holley.

Sheriff Holley said the rest stops have been plagued by people who have used them for unnatural sex acts. Property damage to the buildings has also been caused by those people he added.

With the numerous complaints from citizens and the fact that the situation has been getting progressively worse in recent weeks, Sheriff Holley assigned several met two months ago to begin a preliminary investigation and conduct surveillance of anyone spending an inordinate amount of time at the rest stops.

On the first weekend of this month, a combined force of sheriff's officers, and BYU Security officers with backup assistance from Highway Patrol officers, made nine arrests at the two rest stops.

Last weekend the officers arrested five additional suspects.

Sheriff Holley said the problem at the rest stops proved to be more extensive and widespread than at first thought. He said after a few weeks of surveillance the officers documented by name through license numbers, more than 100 men who frequent the rest stops and are believed to engage in homosexual activity.

The combined force of sheriff's officers and BYU officers only worked the rest stops for three nights to make a total of 14 arrests.

“I'm sure there will be people who will think that we must have something better for our deputies to do, but the situation at the rest stops got to the point where there were so many citizen complaints that we had to do something,” said Sheriff Holley.

The sheriff added that law agencies always have trouble with outdoor rest stops in warm weather but are probably having trouble with the freeway rest stops because they are heated.

BYU Security had reports of students being involved in homosexual activities at the rest stops and when they found out the sheriff's’ office was taking action, they wanted to get in involved, according to the sheriff.

Highway Patrol Facilities

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were used after the arrests for booking and photographing of the suspects.

Officers were used as decoys in the case because a recent law prohibits electronic bugging or photographing of public rest rooms. Such devices would be of little use anyway, according to one detective, because all signaling between the suspects was nonverbal.

The officers said they hadn’t had enough experience In this field to know all of the signs and signals homosexuals use to contact each other, but they were able to contact more than enough suspects by just “tapping their toes," reported to be a method of signalling.

One sheriff's officer said that for every one suspect they arrested, they had to let three go. "There were so many of them out there Friday night, it as like fish packed in a barrel,” he said.

Sheriff Holey said the officers have plans to continue surveillance al the rest stops and officers will be patrolling the area with the idea of reducing homosexual activity at the stops.

County law enforcement officers involved agreed that the result of driving homosexuals from the rest stops will be to drive them to other public places such as city and state parks when the weather gets warmer.