Friday, Sep 5, 2008
Navy investigators seeking ecstasy dealing at Washington dance clubs are accused of targeting gay sailors.
Jul 18, 2000 | It was already after midnight on a clear, cold night last winter when Army Criminal Investigations Division Agent Carlder Robertson, an attractive, clean-cut military investigator of mixed ethnicity in his early 20s, entered Velvet Nation, an upscale gay nightclub in Washington's Southeast district. The warehouse was packed with a crowd of mostly gay, shirtless men with chiseled torsos dancing sweatily to music by Whitney Houston and Madonna, remixed by trendy DJs from Miami and New York.
Robertson had been called to the club by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to follow up on a tip by an informant that military members were peddling ecstasy at Velvet Nation and other dance clubs in what the Navy incorrectly dubs Washington's "rave scene." Once inside, Robertson approached men he would later describe as having the physical appearance of those on active military duty, and struck up a conversation, talking over the deafening sound system. They chatted about Velvet Nation's music and the theme of the club, which happens to resemble a military boot camp, thanks to the prevalence of buff, narcissistic, cargo-shorts-clad men who could easily grace the cover of a men's fitness magazine.
After establishing rapport, Robertson and other agents, including Air Force Office of Special Investigations Agent Thomas Roach, asked the apparent service members where they could find ecstasy. One of the men was Petty Officer Eric Brady, a Navy hospital corpsman with five years in the service and three promotions under his belt, who was under the command of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. According to the Navy's version of events, Brady was one of the soldiers who obliged agents' requests for the psychotropic drug, and allegedly exchanged pills for money during the sting.
The agents' visit to Velvet Nation that night -- the account of which is based on interviews with those present at a recent pre-trial hearing on the pending criminal case against Brady -- wasn't the last. After a second visit and another two alleged drug transactions, Brady was arrested and charged with violating Article 112A of the Navy code, which prohibits the distribution of illicit drugs.
But that wasn't the end of the matter. The sailor's lawyer contacted the Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network and gave the gays-in-the-military advocacy group a heads up that the Navy was conducting a drug-sting operation in D.C.-area gay bars. And SLDN in turn began trying to investigate the investigators, to make sure that the anti-drug operation was not in fact a ruse for identifying and discharging gay and lesbian service members.
"We're concerned that the military is selectively targeting patrons of gay-friendly establishments," says Michelle Benecke, executive director of SLDN. But the Navy has staunchly defended its investigation, first reported by the Washington Blade in June, saying it is a clear-cut case of cracking down on drug dealing in the D.C. "rave club" scene, and has nothing to do with its targets' sexual orientation.
"The focus of this particular undercover drug operation is and has always been on military members suspected of selling drugs in the Washington, D.C., area," says NCIS spokesman Paul O'Donnell, defending the operation. "Neither the sexual orientation of the military suspects nor that of the establishments' clientele is relevant."
Washington's non-voting representative to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., does not share O'Donnell's interpretation of events. "My concern is that in the hearing, the Navy was unable to indicate institutions or bars or similar establishments that were not in the gay community that they were also targeting for drug use," Norton said in a recent telephone interview.
"Drugs [are] one of my major problems in the District of Columbia. If they want to help reduce drug distribution, the last thing they need to do is target a narrow range of gay bars. Until they come forward with evidence that they are generally interested in institutions that Naval personnel may frequent to use drugs, I am exercising my judgment against them. The armed services have been anything but faithful to the so-called don't ask, don't tell policy."
Yet while the Navy insists that it focused not on gay clubs, but on clubs known for on-site drug sales, the only establishments known to be targeted cater to predominantly, though not exclusively, gay crowds: Velvet Nation, JR's Bar and Grill, Badlands and Tracks (which has since closed). "Sting," a Friday night party in the same space housing Velvet Nation that draws a straighter crowd, was the only straight club disclosed during the April 28 Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury).
So far, the Navy has not made public the names of any bars or clubs targeted by the investigation that do not cater to a predominantly gay crowd. But O'Donnell insists that the targets were chosen based on evidence that drug dealing went on there -- evidence that included the testimony of sailors who were interrogated after urinalysis testing had indicated they were consuming drugs. He also says witnesses used in the operation had been "instructed that sexual orientation is irrelevant in any way."
For its part, SLDN says it is concerned about the tactics used in the investigation, not with the specific charges that have been leveled. The issue has been a tough one for SLDN. Always alert to military policies that target gay personnel, the advocacy group was quick to look into charges that the sting operation targeted gays. But it's been reluctant to align itself with a drug culture that has become a staggering social and public relations problem for the gay community.
With research showing that gay men apparently consume illicit drugs in greater proportion than their heterosexual counterparts, public health advocates worry that drugs like ecstasy decrease inhibitions to the point that users may choose to engage in unsafe sex practices and increase the risk of HIV infection. And the focus on gay clubs in the sting operation might be a result of research, not mere prejudice, since anyone who patronizes gay nightclubs knows they seem to attract more than their share of drug taking and drug dealing. (This writer, for example, recently observed a patron at Badlands, one of the nightclubs targeted in the NCIS investigation, purchase cocaine after less than five minutes of searching.)
"We don't condone or defend drug use or the military's right or interest in combating it," says Beneke. "We do oppose selective use of military investigative authority in a way that contravenes" the military's policy on gay soldiers.
Did the Navy conduct a witch hunt? It's hard to say. The sexual orientation of the military personnel involved in the sting hasn't been officially confirmed. But even giving the Navy the benefit of the doubt, the fact remains that the NCIS mounted a sting operation in which the majority of venues catered to gays, and its top brass was ill-prepared to answer the tough-questions -- and face the culture clash -- that ensued. Given the current negative climate surrounding "don't ask, don't tell," the sting operation triggered a predictable backlash that the Navy is, weeks later, still trying to manage.
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