HIRE UGLY NARCS

A Florida appeals court set an interesting precedent when it ruled a drug
offender couldn't be prosecuted because his customer was just too darned cute.

After a West Palm Beach man was arrested for selling drugs at a nightclub
notorious for such activity, he told the judge that he was gay and lonely,
thought the male undercover cop was handsome and hoped to be paid for his
drugs with sex, as well as money.

The woman judge took judicial notice that the cop indeed was "very
attractive" and threw out the case on the grounds that the defendant had
been lured into breaking the law.

The Fourth District Court of Appeals upheld that ruling this week, adding
that the defendant had never been arrested before and never was under
suspicion of criminal activity until that incident.

If that is entrapment, it is a common police tactic. Officers go to places
known for drug activity and arrest people who try to buy or sell them
drugs, rarely knowing if their targets have previous arrests. What must an
officer do now? Ask if the suspect finds him sexually attractive before
proceeding -- then walk off unless the man assures him that he has no
interest in romance but has been arrested on drug charges before?

What about prostitution busts? Before she tries to get a man to offer her
money for sex, must the decoy hooker be overweight and have her hair in
curlers -- or be reassured by the man that he personally finds her unappealing?

It's frightening to think how far the courts might take this new precedent
that sexual arousal excuses breaking the law if the perpetrator had a clean
record in the past.

Surely, the ruling will be overturned by a higher court, or the Legislature
will set new guidelines through statutory law.