Groups File Suit Against Camping Law

A public interest law firm and a liberal bar association have jointly filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Santa Monica’s encampment ordinance, which prohibits living in the city’s parks.

The legal action was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday on behalf of two homeless men whose belongings were confiscated when they were cited by police for violating the ordinance enacted last spring.

As described in the legal documents, the two men are William Pollock, a carpenter and former United Auto Workers member, who became homeless in 1992, and Guy Williams, who works part time in a Santa Monica bookstore. Both men are military veterans.

Those personas stand in stark contrast to descriptions from Police Chief James T. Butts of the kind of people he says violate the encampment law. Butts has said the group includes men with long felony arrest records, which shows that some among the homeless are dangerous.

The homeless crime issue exploded again last week when five Santa Monica transients were charged with the beating and stabbing of ABC television reporter Gray Shepard.

The suit was filed by the National Lawyers Guild and Public Counsel, an arm of the county and Beverly Hills bar associations.

Although Robert M. Myers, the former city attorney, is not directly participating in the lawsuit, he is a member of the Lawyers Guild and a leader among local public interest lawyers. Myers was fired by the City Council in September in part because of his refusal to prosecute violators of the encampment law. Myers maintained that the ordinance would not pass constitutional muster and promised that it would be challenged by public interest lawyers.

Public Counsel attorney Richard Novak, who has frequently spoken out in support of Myers’ views at Santa Monica public hearings, said he is going to ask a judge to issue a writ of mandate voiding the encampment law. The city has 30 days to respond to the claim, Novak said. No court date has been set.

The lawsuit came as no surprise but it did short-circuit an effort by Councilman Herb Katz to find out what Myers’ successor acting City Atty. Joseph Lawrence is doing about prosecuting under the encampment law.

Katz is pressing for prosecutions under the law but withdrew his agenda item from Tuesday’s meeting rather than risk a public discussion of a matter that is the subject of litigation.

Lawrence has said he is reluctant to prosecute under the law until it is tested, but after meeting with Butts, he said he would be willing to review citations under a state encampment law that is more legally appealing to the prosecutor.

“That is a viable tool for the police to use,” Lawrence said. “I suspect there will be increased use of it.”

In an unusual scenario, the Santa Monica law was written by outside attorneys after Myers refused to write it and said no one on his staff would be a part of it. Lawrence said the outside law firm would also have a hand in defending the legal challenge to the law.

In addition to the city, the lawsuit names Butts, City Manager John Jalili and Mayor Ken Genser. It says that one homeless man, Pollock, has been forced to sleep outside the city because of police harassment and threat of further citations.

The other plaintiff, Williams, said he is unable to determine what behavior is prohibited under the encampment law and fears being arrested because he is homeless.

The lawsuit argues that these men and others must lug their belongings with them because they have no place to live except the streets, parks and alleys of the city.