Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Saturday, September 20, 1997 3:34 PM EDT
The Indianapolis Star-News today reported that William L. Colson, 39, had told a suspicious park ranger it was his job as a Marion County Health Department HIV outreach worker to pass out free condoms to homosexuals who meet at the park.
Such a service existed once, but health officials halted it two years ago and have since refocused their efforts on injection-drug users.
Colson was fired after a two-week investigation triggered by his visit to the Southside park, where he was stopped near the greenhouse by Park Ranger Guy Hammons.
Hammons told the Star-News that he had seen Colson earlier in the year at a Westside park that is frequented by homosexuals who are seeking sexual partners. The ranger's suspicion grew when he confronted Colson at the Southside park.
Hammons said, "He had a knapsack full of condoms in his car. He explained he was a health department worker and was passing out condoms to homosexuals in the parks as part of a HIV outreach program."
In making his report, Hammons questioned the wisdom of the government providing condoms to men seeking sex in city parks.
He said of homosexuals, "We don't care what they do in private. But we wish they wouldn't do it in city parks where mothers are playing with their children."
An investigation also revealed that Colson has been convicted twice for public indecency in a city park.
A judge ordered him to stay away from Brookside Park after he was convicted of public indecency in Feb. 1996 and given a one-year suspended sentence. In that case, a city vice detective claimed he was walking in the park when Colson approached and made a physical sexual advance.
Colson was also convicted in April 1995 of public indecency for a similar incident in the same park. He was fined $17 and assessed costs of $123.
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