Homeless Sweeps Accord Reported Near : Litigation: An agreement that would block police from targeting street people is expected to be adopted, a Legal Aid lawyer said.

Legal Aid attorneys said Thursday that they are nearing a settlement in a lawsuit to block Santa Ana police from conducting sweeps that specifically target homeless people.

“There really are no disagreements on this case now,” said Robert Cohen, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, which filed the class-action suit on behalf of the homeless in September. After negotiating aspects of the suit with city officials, Cohen said, “nothing has been left unaddressed. We expect the city to agree to the terms.”

City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said, however, that no agreement has been reached. He said any proposal will have to be approved by the City Council before the suit can be settled. Cooper said that city officials were still looking over terms of the proposal.

“Maybe Legal Aid is jumping the gun on this one,” Cooper said.

The Legal Aid lawsuit stems from two police actions in August in which 90 homeless people were cited for minor municipal code infractions--mostly public drunkenness, littering and urinating in public--during sweeps at the Civic Center. Seven of them were arrested on outstanding criminal warrants.

In the first sweep, 64 homeless people were rounded up and transported to Santa Ana Stadium where police officers scrawled numbers on their arms for identification and then shackled them to benches for several hours before handing out citations. In the second sweep, suspects were just cited and released.

The Legal Aid suit charged that the sweeps, particularly the one that took place on Aug. 15, violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Legal Aid lawyers charged that the sweeps were part of a citywide campaign initiated in 1988 to “drive the homeless from the city of Santa Ana.”

A court document filed Thursday outlined the proposed settlement, in which police would agree not to write identifying numbers on the arms of suspects cited for city code infractions or misdemeanors, and not detain them for an excessive amount of time. The proposal also calls for police to stop using Santa Ana Stadium as a temporary holding facility for homeless suspects, and not handcuff and shackle homeless people who are accused of misdemeanors or minor infractions.

In numerous interviews, Police Chief Paul M. Walters has said that the sweeps were aimed at criminals and did not target the homeless.

Cohen said the proposed accord does not settle the criminal proceedings for the homeless who were arrested. They still face hearings on misdemeanor charges.

The city would still be allowed to conduct sweeps at the Civic Center, Cohen said, as long as they are not a “concerted effort to drive the homeless from Santa Ana.”