Prosecutor Says Rev. Drake Blames City

A Buena Park minister charged with violating city codes by operating a homeless encampment has tried to shift the blame for his predicament to the city, the prosecutor said in closing arguments Thursday.

Assistant city prosecutor Gregory Palmer said the Rev. Wiley Drake has tried to argue that the city is persecuting him when in fact, Drake has ignored the law and the rights of residents who have “invested their most substantial savings in their homes.”

“The case is not about the [homeless] people living there; the case is about him,” Palmer said. “He’s not true to his words. Don’t trust him.”

The defense had argued that Drake did not invite the homeless to the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, and that the pastor tried to discourage them.

But Palmer contended Thursday that the pastor encouraged the homeless to stay, knowing it was illegal. If you don’t want a stray cat to return, Palmer said, “don’t feed it.” Drake, he said, “is doing just that.”

The defense used the same analogy to argue that while Buena Park is prosecuting Drake for having the encampment, the city’s police officers are referring people to the church.

“They’re saying don’t feed the cat, but on the other hand, send the cat to the church for milk,” said John Alexander, Drake’s attorney.

About 40 homeless men, women and children currently live at the church, according to one defense witness.

Alexander, who was once homeless himself, told jurors in Municipal Court in Fullerton that the city wants “to get the homeless people off the lot, so that the people around there don’t have to look at them. . . . That’s what the case comes down to.”

The jury is expected to begin deliberations today.

If Drake is convicted of all five criminal misdemeanors, the prosecution will ask for a court order preventing those people from camping on church grounds. Drake also faces $1,000 in fines and six months in jail for each charge.