8 of 15 Santa Ana Homeless Have Camping Charges Dropped
A Municipal Court judge Friday dismissed charges against eight homeless people accused of illegal camping on public property, finding technical violations in the way the 3-year-old cases were handled.
But Central Municipal Court Judge Charles Margines declined to dismiss charges against seven other homeless defendants who contended their constitutional rights are violated by Santa Ana’s controversial anti-camping ordinance, passed in 1992.
The misdemeanor cases are part of a larger group of about 60 that were revived by the district attorney’s office in June, soon after the California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the ordinance.
The ordinance makes it a crime punishable by up to six months in jail to store personal effects or to use a sleeping bag or blanket on public sidewalks, streets, parking lots or government malls.
Attorney Todd A. Green argued that charges should be dismissed against seven defendants he is representing because the ordinance discriminates against those who are “involuntarily homeless.”
“They’re being charged with a crime of having nowhere else to go,” Green said. “It can’t be a crime to be poor and not have a job and to be in public.”
The judge, however, ruled that such constitutional arguments involving the individual defendants are premature, something Green said he intends to appeal to a higher court.
The judge also delayed a decision on Green’s request for $8,000 per defendant to hire expert witnesses for the pending trials. The attorneys, who are representing the homeless clients for free, said the witnesses are needed to support defense contentions that the homeless were sleeping in the Civic Center almost three years ago out of necessity, not choice.
“In January, 1993, when I was ticketed for ‘camping,’ I was just sleeping in the Civic Center,” defendant James Warner Eichorn said in a court declaration. “It was raining hard outside. I stay there because it is safe and is near where Catholic Workers and other organizations distribute food and clothes to the homeless. The only other place to sleep was the armory, but that was full and they turned me away. A bus took me to the armory, but when I could not stay there I had to walk back to the Civic Center, a couple of miles.”
Meanwhile, the judge agreed to dismiss another eight cases, finding the defendants had not formally waived their right to trial within 45 days when the cases originally were delayed in 1993 as the issue moved to the state Supreme Court.
Defense attorney Cathy L. Jensen said she intends to investigate whether the mistake was made against other defendants, most of whom have not been located.
