Undercover crackdown on public sex cleans up Pinckney Island, say law enforcement officials

For more than five years, the public had complained to law enforcement agencies about men engaging in indecent activity at the Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge.

So far, 2008 is the first year no incidents have been reported.

In 2006, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hired Jane Griess as manager of the Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex -- which includes Pinckney Island and six other sites -- she made it a top priority to eliminate the indecent behavior.

Families were afraid to bring their children there, she said.

"We've been doing a number of details," Griess said. "We've closed a number of areas. That gives us a better ability to regulate what's happening in there. The only time we arrest anybody is if they assault or fight. ... The combination of closing areas and doing details has reduced incidents."

WHAT HAPPENED AT PINCKNEY?

With more than 4,000 acres of undeveloped land at Pinckney, there are plenty of private areas where refuge officers were finding lounge chairs and condom wrappers.

To remove the potential for indecency, Griess posted signs in wooded areas throughout the island, closing them to public use. She had shrubbery cleared around the parking lot and increased undercover operations with the help of federal agents.

From May 2006 to November 2007, there were 36 incidents resulting in citations or arrests, according to records obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Freedom of Information Act.

This year, no incidents have been reported nor have any arrests been made.

Almost all reported cases unfold the same way: An undercover agent approaches a man in the woods or in a car. The man asks if the agent is a law enforcement officer; the agent denies he is. They take a walk and the man either exposes himself, fondles the agent or asks for sex. At that point, the agent identifies himself as an officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and issues the man a citation or arrests him, depending on the severity of the violation.

On all documents from the freedom of information request, the federal agency blacked out names and identifying information, saying"release of this information would be an unreasonable invasion into privacy." The documents also mention that some of the materials concern "on-going law enforcement proceedings."

The documents indicate men were coming to the island in mid-afternoon or early evening and waiting in the woods or near the marshes. Some would wait in their vehicles in the parking lot and ask other men to join them.

The men told agents they found out about Pinckney Island by word-of-mouth among local residents or through the Internet. Some mentioned they stopped there regularly.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THESE CASES?

During all undercover efforts, federal agents were wired with a microphone and video camera to record each case.

Rhett DeHart of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charleston has prosecuted seven of the cases and said the quality of evidence has led each defendant to take a plea agreement. The men paid fines between $500 and $1,000 and are banned from the refuge for life.

"This is a serious matter," DeHart said. "They were gay guys trying to meet other gay guys, which there's nothing wrong with, but it resulted in public sex, which was a problem on the refuge. ... This is not a place you want to do this because law enforcement is conducting sophisticated operations."

OTHER PROBLEMS?

Griess acknowledges extra enforcement has reduced the number of incidents on Pinckney and says that enforcement will continue.

She said the crackdown at Pinckney may have moved the activity to other areas, including Hilton Head Island.

"Fish Haul park has the same activity," she said. "The same folks are there. It's an issue all over."

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner agrees, but says eliminating the problem is probably impossible. Tanner has not conducted sting operations at area parks recently and does not have an investigator assigned to the issue.

"There has been an increase in private communities, at Fish Haul Creek park and other facilities that have become available for various reasons," Tanner said. "We moved the problem around."

Tanner said he is aware of a Web site that lists local parks, bathrooms in area retail stores and gated communities where there are private places the site refers to as "cruisy."

Fish Haul and Jarvis Creek parks are listed, as are bike paths in Sea Pines and the beach and parking lots near the playground of Dolphin Head Park in Hilton Head Plantation.

Comments added in May say Fish Haul park "is a good place to pick up men. Every time I go, I hook up now that Pinckney Island is no longer cruisy. Go behind the bathrooms to the lake."

Security offices at Hilton Head Plantation and Sea Pines say residents have not reported any incidents and the communities are constantly patrolled.

While Tanner says the incidents are a concern, they are not the highest priority for the Sheriff's Office. Priorities are set according to the perceived threat to public safety, he said.

"This is absolutely a concern, but other things may take precedence," Tanner said. "As information comes in and resources are available, the opportunity to work a case with a conviction in mind, then those cases might be worked."