Fla. Rep. Bob Allen (R): Oh, I'm not gay, I'm a racist asshole.

[QUOTE=Bricker]
The problem is that he solicted the sex AFTER he was allegedly terrified by the officer’s intimidating Big Blackness.

Your theory of the case does, I admit, raise a question of fact that should go to a jury, so I’ll temper my earlier “no way it will fly” comment to merely a note that I think it’s very unlikely to come back with a not guilty for entrapment. But the defense is viable as a matter of law.
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My reaction to the whole story was the same as what Nametag articulated so well. I thought entrapment too.

What further puzzled me is the second reported story referenced here said that he was staking out a nearby condo. I’m wondering why he had to go to the bathroom in the park, even assuming the bathrooms were anywhere near the perimeter of the park. What was the officer actually up to, since he wasn’t assigned to an undercover horny homo sting at the time?

Further, even if the bathroom in the park was the only place to relieve himself, why didn’t he just rebuff Allen, rather than engaging in the fairly leading exchange I read?

ETA: Allen is a stupid, racist (or race-baiting) git.

[QUOTE=Nametag]
The story doesn’t say that Allen denied cruising for gay sex, by the way, and his story (and the officer’s own report) spell out an excellent “entrapment” defence against charges against soliciting prostitution, which is the only illegal act I can see here.
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How do you reckon entrapment? I am no legal genius but my understanding was that to prove entrapment, you have to demonstrate that you convinced someone to do something they wouldn’t ordinarily do. The officer just offered to give oral sex. Allen saw that and raised it to actually volunteering to give the BJ. The idea was his, he’s guilty.

Not that I agree with the whole prostitution statute anyway, but when it’s applied to a closet gay who persecuted other gays… well… he’s made his bed, now he can lie in it. We do live in a nation of laws, after all, as the Republicans like to keep reminding us.