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SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLERThe judge scolds the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office for letting a prostitution sting go too far.
TAMPA - A judge tossed out the case against a local prostitute Monday, saying Hillsborough investigators went too far in an undercover investigation by not arresting the woman until after she performed oral sex on their confidential informer.
In granting assistant public defender Michelle Lambo's motion to dismiss the case against Karadine Rieder, the judge found that "the behavior of law enforcement and its agent was so egregious that it violated the defendant's due process rights."
The dismissal highlights the sensitive and challenging nature of undercover sex investigations, in which officers or their informers need the targets to trust them - but are not supposed to engage in sexual acts with them.
Hillsborough Circuit Judge Debra Behnke's decision also comes as Tampa Police Chief Steve Hogue considers the need for a written policy on exactly how far undercover officers are allowed to go when investigating prostitution.
"You would hope officers would use common sense and not get naked and touch people in an inappropriate location," Hogue said Monday. "But maybe we do need a policy if we don't have one. I am going to look into it."
Rieder was arrested Nov. 5 east of Tampa and charged with offering to commit prostitution, after Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives got an informer to offer her $200 in exchange for sex.
State criminal records show she has been arrested and convicted repeatedly over the years on prostitution and drug charges in Hillsborough County.
In a hearing before Behnke last week, Lambo argued that the detectives and informer should have arrested Rieder as soon as she agreed to take the money and perform oral sex.
Instead, Rieder and the informer got naked in a motel room as the detectives listened through a bugging device while waiting in a room down the hall, court records show.
By the time detectives burst into the room to arrest Rieder, she had already begun performing oral sex on the informer.
"There's nothing that allows the government to engage in sexual activity to make a sting operation or to make a bust," Lambo argued before Behnke. Lambo described the officers' conduct as "outrageous" and said it put both the informer and her client at risk for sexually transmitted diseases.
Sheriff's Detective John Couey testified before Behnke that it's not uncommon for informers to take their clothes off during prostitution stings, because the women want to be assured the men aren't cops.
Couey said informers are discouraged from actually engaging in sexual activity, and they are supposed to give detectives a signal to come in and make their arrest.
In this case, assistant state attorney Monica Frost conceded, the informer "may have waited a little long" to give detectives the signal.
Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder would not comment specifically on the Rieder case, but he said the agency will consider whether to keep using the informer involved.
"If we determine that he did have any kind of sexual activity, we don't plan on using him again," Reder said. "They're coached not to do that."
The sheriff's office uses informers so that deputies don't have to be in awkward situations where a prostitute asks them to get naked or do other sexual acts.
But in the Tampa Police Department, undercover officers pose as "johns." The department has no formal policy for how far officers can go to gain the trust of prostitutes.
During a trial last month in which a former nightclub manager was acquitted on multiple counts of aiding and abetting prostitution inside the Pink Pony club, Tampa detective Dale Tuvell testified that while undercover officers are "discouraged" from touching the pubic areas of dancers in strip clubs, "that would be appropriate" as long as there is no sexual intercourse.
"We don't penetrate," Tuvell said. "That's basically about it."
Yet department officials insist officers are supposed to have no physical contact, period.
Hogue said that while "you can't write a policy for every behavior, because it's really a matter of common sense," it might be time to consider putting guidelines in writing.
"In these sex cases," he said, "we'd rather they lose the case than commit a sex act."
Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com