Homeless Man Awarded Cash in Rights Suit Found Dead

One of 30 homeless people who received cash awards to settle a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Santa Ana was found dead in a Garden Grove motel room early Monday, friends and authorities said.

Gregory Smith, 32, was found in his room at the Fire Station Motel on Harbor Boulevard by the manager and fellow tenants, according to Jere Witter of the Orange County Legal Aid Society. Friends said Smith, an epileptic with a congenital spinal defect and a history of alcohol abuse, had suffered a severe seizure Sunday evening.

A coroner’s spokesman said Smith was tentatively listed as having died of natural causes, but an autopsy is scheduled today. Authorities were attempting late Monday to notify his only known kin, his mother in Reno, Nev.

Smith’s death came nine weeks to the day after he and 29 other transients won a $400,000 settlement from the Santa Ana City Council over police sweeps of homeless people in the downtown civic center in August, 1990. Smith and the others alleged that they were herded into the city stadium and chained to bleachers after officers drew numbers on their arms for identification.

Smith immediately moved from his old haunts near Santa Ana’s 2nd Street promenade--known among the homeless as the “Shortcut”--to a motel. He also gave money and small items to fellow transients, said one friend who asked not to be named.

But the sudden wealth may not have been the boon it would seem for the man who was always seen wearing a football jersey. Several weeks ago, he was beaten and robbed of about $500 in cash in his unlocked motel room. About three weeks ago, friends said, he tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists during a particularly severe bout of depression.

“He just died inside,” said Witter. “The money bought him a roof to die under, that’s about all it did.”