8:40am UK, Wednesday December 04, 2002

The Beverly Hills police officer who arrested pop star George Michael for lewd conduct in a park toilet in 1998 has been given the go-ahead for a £7m slander suit.

Marcelo Rodriguez has already attempted to sue George Michael.

180 singer george michael

George Michael

He claims the singer mocked him in a video for his chart hit Outside.

But the attemptwas thrown out of courts in Los Angeles two years on the grounds that public figures such as police officers are not entitled to sue.

Entrapment

But an appeals panel has now ruled that the suit could go ahead because Michael had made statements after his arrest that accused Rodriguez of "specific and objectively verifiable acts".

Michael, who publicly revealed his homosexuality after the April 1998 incident, accused the undercover policeman of entrapment in subsequent interviews and poked fun at the arrest in his Outside video.

Humiliation

He pleaded no contest to a charge of committing a lewd act and was fined £515 and ordered to perform community service.

Rodriguez is seeking £7m for humiliation, emotional and physical distress and medical treatment.