Man Says Arrest Is City’s Retaliation for Lawsuit : Courts: Jailed trespassing suspect who is homeless will miss civil trial against Santa Ana. He can’t post bail for two outstanding warrants.

A homeless man who is suing Santa Ana, alleging that maintenance workers threw out his belongings during a sweep of the Civic Center in 1989, was arrested Friday on suspicion of trespassing, prompting the man’s attorney to charge that the arrest was in retaliation for the lawsuit.

“This is not a coincidence,” said attorney Christopher B. Mears, who is representing Mashone (Big Man) Bonner in his harassment lawsuit. “He is suing the city of Santa Ana, and they choose this time to pick him up and throw him in jail.”

Police officials denied the allegation, saying Bonner was arrested as a result of a resident’s complaint.

Bonner, 45, was taken into custody about 9:30 a.m. after allegedly trespassing at a Security Pacific Bank branch near the Civic Center, where he has lived since 1985. Police said that an official with the bank’s on-site property management company signed a complaint against Bonner.

Police Sgt. Art Echternacht said that officers had nothing to do with initiating Bonner’s arrest. He said officers were required by law to take Bonner into custody after the official from the property management company signed the complaint.

Although Echternacht did not know the details of the trespassing charge, he said that Bonner apparently had been asked to leave the location several times but refused to do so.

Once he was in custody, police learned that Bonner had two outstanding arrest warrants, Echternacht said. One warrant was for failure to appear in court on a possession of drug paraphernalia charge in Orange. The other warrant charged him with failure to appear on a repeated loitering complaint in Santa Ana.

Bonner was being held at Orange County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail.

Officials from the property management company could not be reached for comment, and bank officials said they were not involved in the incident.

Mears said Bonner’s arrest was further harassment against his client because of the lawsuit. An Orange County Superior Court jury is scheduled to continue deliberating the case Monday.

“How many strikes does this guy have to have against him?” Mears said. “He’s black, he’s homeless, he’s victimized every day of his life and has to go to trial to protect his rights. And then they have to throw him in jail?”

Mears added that he was considering filing another lawsuit against the city because of the arrest.

In his lawsuit now in court, Bonner alleges that Santa Ana employees in 1989 illegally seized his belongings and threw them away.

The city’s attorney, Phillip D. Eaton, contends that the employees may not have been the ones to discard Bonner’s belongings, and even if they did, they did nothing wrong. He said that Bonner’s mementos were kept in a garbage bag that was unmarked and stashed in bushes near the Orange County Hall of Administration.

Bonner can’t make bail, so he will not be able to be in court when the jury is finished deliberating the case, Mears said.

“I am going to ask the judge to tell the jury why he is not there,” Mears said. “When he’s not there, I want them to know. I don’t want them speculating that maybe he’s not there because he doesn’t care about the trial anymore.”

Bonner, who is also known as “Mayor” and “Mr. Santa Ana,” was involved in a second lawsuit against the city after a sweep of the Civic Center in 1990. During that sweep, he and about 30 other homeless people were arrested on various offenses, including suspicion of littering and jaywalking.

Last August, the City Council agreed to pay 28 of those people a total of $400,000 to settle their civil rights lawsuit. Bonner’s share of the settlement was $22,000.

In an interview earlier this week, Bonner said he gave more than half of his money to his mother, daughters, grandchildren and some of his homeless friends. The rest has been invested for his grandchildren’s education, he said.

“I don’t want my (grandchildren) to be in this position,” he said, referring to his homeless situation. “I want them to have a start. In today’s society, the way things are now, they cannot even afford to buy a home. This gives them a head start, and this is my opportunity to help.”