Homeless Vet Found Guilty in Test of Ban on Camping
A judge on Wednesday convicted a homeless man of violating Santa Ana’s anti-camping ordinance, saying the 49-year-old Vietnam veteran could have chosen to sleep someplace other than the Civic Center the night he was cited more than three years ago.
Jim Eichorn, the first of about 50 homeless defendants cited by police during the winter of 1993 to take his case to trial, said the decision will not end his legal battle against an ordinance that he believes makes “homelessness a crime.”
“I’m disappointed, but the lawyers are getting right on an appeal,” Eichorn said.
Stressing that he didn’t believe Eichorn was a criminal, Judge James M. Brooks of the Municipal Court in Santa Ana sentenced the man to 40 hours of community service after finding him guilty of the misdemeanor.
The 1992 ordinance makes it a crime punishable by up to six months in jail to use a sleeping bag or blanket or to store personal effects on public sidewalks, streets, parking lots and government malls.
The camping citations against Eichorn and others had been on hold pending a legal challenge over the ordinance that went to the California Supreme Court.
Although the high court upheld the ordinance last year, Eichorn’s attorneys said the ruling left open the question of its constitutionality as applied to people who are involuntarily homeless.
Attorneys with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, representing Eichorn for free, argued during the nonjury trial that their client was being punished for being homeless, and had no other choice but to sleep in public on the night he was ticketed.
“Making it a crime, subject to any penalty, for being homeless is cruel and unusual,” defense attorney Brett J. Williamson said.
During the two-day trial, the defense called local homeless experts who testified about a shortage of local shelter beds and affordable housing, as well as the growing number of homeless who say they are forced to the streets because they can’t find work.
A 14-year resident of Santa Ana who is still homeless, Eichorn maintained that he had exhausted all other options on Jan. 25, 1993, when he was cited by Santa Ana police for lying in his sleeping bag outside Building 12 at the Civic Center.
Eichorn, who has been homeless on and off since 1980 after the loss of a job as a machinist, testified he had been turned away from a Santa Ana shelter sometime before he was ticketed because the beds were full. He also insisted it was not an option to stay with his elderly mother in Long Beach.
“I’m an adult and I don’t have to go to my mother’s,” Eichorn said.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Pierce, however, told the judge the city could not be responsible for providing shelter for every resident. City officials have long contended they have a right to reasonably control the use of parks and other public areas.
Many of the camping citations were dismissed through a community service arrangement, or because of technical mistakes after a judge found that many of the homeless defendants had not formally waived their right to trial within 45 days when the cases were originally delayed.
The bulk of the homeless cited at the time were never located once the district attorney’s office resumed the prosecutions.
Eichorn, who says he is constantly looking for work and earns money by donating blood, could have had his case dismissed as well, but chose to fight the ticket on “principle,” his attorneys said.
