Calif. Restroom Sex Sting
Overturned by Judge Panel

A Fresno man's conviction for soliciting sex from a sheriff's deputy in a Roeding Park restroom nearly five years ago was overturned by a three-judge panel, it was announced Thursday.

But the ruling, which threw out the conviction of Stephen Lake, 51, did not address whether the bathroom stings were discriminatory because they targeted only homosexual activity. Instead, judges Donald Black, Kent Levis and Debra Kazanjian ruled that prosecutors did not establish that someone was likely to be present who would have been offended by Lake's conduct, an element needed to prove a crime took place.

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