It’s an issue with how long these folks had held the tape.”īruette and Kuehn brought the tape to police five months after they had filmed the boy having sex with the dogs on three different occasions. Montgomery County Attorney Charles Thompson called the ruling “very appropriate.” He said the arrest “had absolutely nothing to do with homophobia. Tyrka said the men were “no dummies” and only filmed the boy because they are aware of the presence of discrimination against homosexuals.īut Motz said in the ruling that, “even assuming Birch was prejudiced against homosexuals, the record establishes that there was probable cause for plaintiffs’ arrests and prosecution.” Birch denied he was homophobic. On a personal level, I think they were very hurt.” “Before this happened, Jeff earned $120,000 per year and Brian made about $60,000. Bruette and Kuehn were computer programmers who lost a consulting contract they had with Hughes Network Systems after the arrests. The arrests “ruined” the men’s lives, he said. Tyrka said they expected to lose and had planned to appeal the ruling even before it was issued. Charges against Kuehn were dropped after he agreed to community service.
“A detective in a pedophile unit cannot afford to be naive,” Motz wrote.īruette pleaded guilty in 1999 to contributing to the condition of a minor and was put on probation. “There is no way you could think someone had committed these crimes when they themselves brought the tape to police and sought help,” said Douglas Tyrka, Bruette’s attorney.īut Motz said Montgomery County Police Detective Errol Birch was “under no requirement to accept their story.” Instead, they were charged with child abuse by a custodian, possession of child pornography, filming a child during a sex act, distributing and promoting child pornography, and contributing to the condition of a child.
The men said they filmed the 17-year-old boy in order to have evidence that he needed counseling and noted that they took the tape to police themselves July 1999 in an effort to get help for the boy. Frederick Motz threw out an $8 million lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Bruette and Michael Kuehn, roommates who said they were arrested only because they were homosexuals. WASHINGTON – A federal court judge has ruled that a Montgomery County police detective acted reasonably when he arrested two gay Germantown men who had secretly videotaped a teen-age neighbor having sex with their dogs in their basement.