COSTA MESA : Man Cleared in Test of Dayworker Law

A Costa Mesa man was found innocent Thursday of violating the city’s year-old dayworker ordinance, marking the first setback in the city’s controversial bid to restrict curbside hiring of workers.

Orange County Municipal Court Commissioner Robert H. Gallivan ruled that the city failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant Jose Garcia Quintana had violated the ordinance, which prohibits the hiring of people off the streets.

Violations are an infraction under the city’s municipal code and carry a $100 fine for a first offense.

Critics of the ordinance charge that it is being selectively used against Costa Mesa’s immigrant population.

Defense attorney Steven J. Brewer--a Tustin divorce lawyer who offered to defend Quintana after reading about his arrest--applauded the ruling but said he doubted the city would stop enforcing the ordinance.

“They picked the wrong case to try,” Brewer said. “But I don’t think this will dissuade the city from pursuing these arrests, not unless they are forced into court to prove each case.”

Quintana, 31, and 15 other Latino men were arrested during a police sweep of suspected dayworkers at Lions Park on Sept. 14.

The arrests were videotaped from an unmarked police van parked across the street from the park, and the tape was introduced as evidence at Thursday’s trial.

City attorneys had sought to prove that Quintana was among a group of men who approached a pickup truck driven by a police officer who was masquerading as a construction boss. The police officer, William Ellwood, alleged that Quintana yelled the Spanish word trabajo , which means work, and gestured with his hand to indicate his expected hourly wage.

Quintana, testifying on his own behalf, admitted being in the park to visit friends, but he said he approached the truck only to hear the conversation between the undercover officer and several other men. He said he had no intention of soliciting work.

Quintana also testified that he told his friends he suspected that the pickup truck contained an undercover policeman.

Gallivan ruled that the videotape was confusing and at best inconclusive, and that there was enough doubt to exonerate Quintana.

Costa Mesa Deputy City Atty. Jerry Scheer said Thursday’s defeat would not cause the city to re-evaluate the measure.

“I am satisfied the process is working and in a sense encouraged by the court today, because it indicates that the judicial system and the city’s ordinance work in tandem,” he said.

In a related proceeding Thursday, an employer, Barnes Cooper, pleaded guilty to hiring a worker off the street and illegal parking near Lions Park, also on Sept. 14. Cooper was fined $250.

Cooper’s attorney, Cathy Jensen, said her client pleaded guilty because he could not afford to spend several days in court away from his job.

The most controversial part of the ordinance singles out three areas of the city--Lions Park, 18th Street and Harbor Boulevard and Santa Ana Avenue and East 20th Street--and prohibits anyone from being at those sites with the “intent” to solicit employment from people in a motor vehicle.

According to the ordinance, police can arrest suspects based on circumstantial evidence, even if they are not able to catch violators in the act.

Another provision of the ordinance aimed at both workers and employers bans curbside soliciting throughout the city. It is this provision under which Quintana was cited.