Warm Sands, Ca – from www.swrnn.com – An Indio judge today refused to dismiss charges against 14 men arrested in a sting targeting public sex in the Warm Sands neighborhood of Palm Springs.

Attorneys for the men claimed Palm Springs police unfairly targeted gay men and used discriminatory language during the June 2009 operation.

Before the ruling, an attorney for one of the men told the court Palm Springs police were “obsessed” with running gay men out of Warm Springs.

It is gay sex versus heterosexual sex, and the response was completely disproportionate,” attorney Roger Tansey said on the eighth day of the criminal case against the men. “They are obsessed with getting the gay guys.”

Another defense lawyer said no police records supported the idea that Warm Springs residents were complaining about men having gay sex in public, as police claimed after the June 2009 string.

“There was a multi-day sting directed at gay men when the crime pattern had nothing to do with gay men,” Joseph Rhea said.

The sting involving decoy police officers occurred over four days in June 2009 in a parking lot outside a Warm Sands resort that has a predominately gay clientele.