I met this morning with two victims of what seems to have been a very real gay witch hunt that took place on Portland State University campus late last year.

WITCH HUNTED: Taylor Vineyard (left) and his husband, Andy Klaus...

Vineyard was "arrested" and handcuffed by PSU campus security last October after a witness, Andrew Bridge, told campus security he had seen Vineyard masturbating with another man in the bathroom at PSU's Stott Center.

It turns out that the witness, Bridge, has been involved in at least four similar cases accusing men of having group sex in public, and that his testimony can't necessarily be relied upon.

KATU investigative reporter Dan Tilkin tracked Bridge down at his house last Thursday, after the District Attorney's office threw out the charges against Vineyard:

BRIDGE: HOSTILE TOWARDS KATU REPORTER...

Vineyard and Klaus allege that Bridge was also a witness, under a different name, Andrew Farris, in a public indecency case in the mid 1990s against Daryl Johnson, the former curator of Portland's Rose Test Garden. The case against Johnson was overturned by the state appeals court in July 1999, after the court ruled that it had erroneously "relied on Farris's statements as substantial evidence."

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else," says Vineyard. "People need to know who he is, what he's doing, where he is, and how to protect themselves."

The pair say they have been treated with contempt by security at PSU. Campus security chief Mike Soto allegedly called Vineyard Klaus's "little friend, partner, whatever" repeatedly on the phone in a conversation, the day after the incident. Soto did not return a call for comment.

"This was a homophobic conspiracy," says Klaus. "These security guards have gone from third rate rejects at the bottom of the pile to third rate rent-a-cops and they've got no professionalism whatsoever. They relied on the testimony of this man to victimize Taylor."

Klaus and Vineyard are now looking for an attorney to fight against the incident in court. "This has already cost us $3000 in attorney's fees," says Klaus.

"It was horrible, it was unfair, it was not right, it was clear that they hated me, thought I was disgusting, and that my just being alive was proof that I was a pervert," says Vineyard.

I hope they get some justice. And while I'd love to go round to Bridge's house like KATU reporter Tilkin to get sprayed with a water hose, I figured a phone call might suffice, since the scoop's already been made. Bridge is yet to return it.