You were lucky you didn't get necklaced with them thar tires. Besides, you should have held out for an oil change as well.
Swingers arrested in '99 raids sue Broward sheriff, deputies
February 16 2003
Embarrassed swingers have swung back with federal lawsuits four years after the Broward County Sheriff's Office's notorious raids on their clubs.
Eight people arrested in the swingers' club busts in 1999 at Athena's Forum in Pompano Beach and Trapeze II near Tamarac have filed four separate lawsuits against either the Sheriff's Office or the deputies who arrested them.
They argue they never should have been arrested and have endured humiliation and stress after the raids exposed their private lives.Among those suing are a Fort Lauderdale police officer and a former Deerfield High School math teacher who resigned rather than fight the Broward School Board to keep her job.
Each plaintiff had been charged with a misdemeanor count of lewdness, but their cases were either dropped by the Broward State Attorney's Office or dismissed by a judge.
Last week marked the end of the four-year window in which people arrested in the Feb. 7, 1999, Trapeze II raid could sue. The statute of limitations for filing suit over the Athena's Forum bust ran out last month. Trapeze II is still in business as a swingers club, while Athena's Forum has since been through several changes and bills itself as a private club.
The swingers club crackdown attracted national media attention, becoming titillating fodder for daytime talk shows. More than 50 people were arrested -- many either married or part of a couple -- and had paid fees to join the clubs so they could either watch or take part in consensual sex.
The clubs were raided after undercover deputies staked out the establishments following reports of illicit sexual activity. Deputies said they raided Trapeze II because of anonymous complaints from neighbors. Most of the criminal cases didn't stand up. At least five judges ruled that for prosecutors to secure convictions on the lewdness charges, they needed to prove that someone other than police officers were offended by the sex acts inside the clubs.
Two married couples -- Raymon and Lynette Hall and Allen and Mary Ann Silvers -- filed separate lawsuits last week over the Trapeze II raid. They admitted they had sex in the club's back room, but argued that what they did was legal. Raymon Hall is a Fort Lauderdale police officer; his wife has worked as a police dispatcher.
After prosecutors dropped about 20 of the swingers club cases in July 2000, the Halls said their arrests had exposed a part of their lives they wanted to keep confidential from family, friends and colleagues.
"I got arrested for making love to my wife in private, behind closed doors in front of no one who was offended but [sheriff's] deputies," Raymon Hall said. "We have no private life anymore. [The Sheriff's Office] made sure of that."
Two other couples arrested on Jan. 17, 1999, at Athena's Forum have filed lawsuits in which they argue they weren't having sex at the club before the raid.