By Candia Dames
WASHINGTON – A federal court judge has ruled that a Montgomery County police detective acted reasonably when he arrested two gay Germantown men who had secretly videotaped a teen-age neighbor having sex with their dogs in their basement.
The Tuesday ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz threw out an $8 million lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Bruette and Michael Kuehn, roommates who said they were arrested only because they were homosexuals.
The men said they filmed the 17-year-old boy in order to have evidence that he needed counseling and noted that they took the tape to police themselves July 1999 in an effort to get help for the boy.
Instead, they were charged with child abuse by a custodian, possession of child pornography, filming a child during a sex act, distributing and promoting child pornography, and contributing to the condition of a child.
“There is no way you could think someone had committed these crimes when they themselves brought the tape to police and sought help,” said Douglas Tyrka, Bruette’s attorney.
But Motz said Montgomery County Police Detective Errol Birch was “under no requirement to accept their story.”
“A detective in a pedophile unit cannot afford to be naive,” Motz wrote.
Bruette pleaded guilty in 1999 to contributing to the condition of a minor and was put on probation. Charges against Kuehn were dropped after he agreed to community service.
Tyrka said they expected to lose and had planned to appeal the ruling even before it was issued.
The arrests “ruined” the men’s lives, he said. Bruette and Kuehn were computer programmers who lost a consulting contract they had with Hughes Network Systems after the arrests. They are unemployed today, he said.
“They are staying now with Mr. Bruette’s parents,” Tyrka said. “Before this happened, Jeff earned $120,000 per year and Brian made about $60,000. This has ruined them economically. On a personal level, I think they were very hurt.”
Tyrka said the men were “no dummies” and only filmed the boy because they are aware of the presence of discrimination against homosexuals.
But Motz said in the ruling that, “even assuming Birch was prejudiced against homosexuals, the record establishes that there was probable cause for plaintiffs’ arrests and prosecution.” Birch denied he was homophobic.
Montgomery County Attorney Charles Thompson called the ruling “very appropriate.” He said the arrest “had absolutely nothing to do with homophobia. It’s an issue with how long these folks had held the tape.”
Bruette and Kuehn brought the tape to police five months after they had filmed the boy having sex with the dogs on three different occasions.
Motz found it “troubling” that the men waited “until they might themselves be accused of illegal conduct before turning the tape over.” He also questioned why Bruette and Kuehn decided to film the boy three times then “unnecessarily” showed the tape to one of their friends.
Bruette said in a statement to police that he was trying to help the boy who frequented his home to play with his dogs — a German shepherd named Sparky and a golden retriever named Abby — and to use his computer and watch television.
Bruette said he set up a small camera in his basement because he believed the teen may have been stealing from him. In his statement to police, he graphically described the boy’s sexual contact with the dogs, and said he witnessed and taped repeat activities over the next few days.
“I had two concerns,” Bruette said in his statement. “One, that his actions were unnatural and he needed some counseling. And two, that I need evidence that his actions were done on his own volition, without any direction.”
Bruette said he told the boy’s sister about the incidents and asked her to tell her mother. When the boy was confronted by his parents, he denied the incidents, according to court documents, and Bruette decided to bring the tape to police after he realized that “this whole matter had reached a boiling point, so to speak.”
Tyrka said Bruette is reluctant to help others as a result of the arrest.
“Jeff helped (the boy) get back into school. He bought him food and clothes,” Tyrka said. “He was helping out a kid in need. Now, instead of having that approach in life, he’s going to wonder, `What’s going to happen to me if I stick my neck out?'”
