August 1999 Cover
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A year and $55,000 later
In a just America, the surprise wouldn't be that a judge dismissed charges against journalist Bruce Mirken,
but that it took almost a year to stop a groundless prosecution.
On July 7th, Sacramento, California, Superior Court Judge Rudolph Loncke threw out charges of
"attempted lewd conduct with a minor" against Mirken, a journalist who has written often about gay youth.
"It was simply a case of having a judge who had the nerve to do what the law clearly required him
to do," Mirken told The Guide.
But niceties of justice and the law were lost on Sacramento police and prosecutors, who cooked up
the case against Mirken using a "minor" who never existed.
Mirken, whose writing has appeared everywhere from local gay newspapers around North America
to big-city dailies, was arrested in July 1998 after going to a Sacramento park to meet a gay 13-year-old boy
who turned out in reality to be an undercover cop. Reporter and "boy" had met in an America Online chat
room. Mirken insisted on meeting the "youth" in a public place and steered discussion away from his entreaties
for sex. When Mirken showed up in the park, police arrested him, and then raided his San Francisco
apartment, seizing his papers and computer.
Scouring Mirken's hard drive, prosecutors used evidence of thoughtcrime-- images they "unerased"
from his disk, traces of on-line sexual fantasies, Mirken's choice of screen names-- to make their case against
reporter in the courtroom and with local media.
The depth of law enforcement's animus against Mirken is suggested by an illegal raid police
conducted July 1st on the office of his lawyer, Bruce Nickerson. The raid, in violation of established procedure, came
in the guise of a probation search of one of Nickerson's employees. While claiming to look for illegal
pornography on the lawyer's computer, police had the chance to examine Mirken's legal briefs and plans for
cross-examining prosecution witnesses.
But the American criminal justice system convicts every one it tries, whether or not they are
found guilty. Though charges against him are dismissed, Mirken is left with a legal bill and related expenses of
some $55,000. But Mirken says that contributions to his defense fund will cover most of his costs. Any extra, he
says, he will donate to groups aiding gay youth-- actual ones. **
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