Pastor Vows to Keep Aiding the Homeless Despite Sanctions

One day after a jury convicted him of illegally housing the homeless, the Rev. Wiley Drake vowed to stay the course of caring for the dispossessed, saying he owes it to the Lord to do so.

“This is bigger than Wiley Drake. This is bigger than Buena Park,” Drake told a media crowd and a handful of homeless people gathered outside his church. “It’s an issue that is happening all over America, and it’s an issue that has got to be dealt with.”

On Tuesday, an Orange County Superior Court judge signed a civil court order enforcing Buena Park’s zoning regulations. Shortly after 3 p.m., city officials attempted to serve Drake with the court papers ordering the removal of about 40 homeless men, women and children from the enclosed patio of the First Baptist Church.

Drake refused to answer the door, and later refused to accept the documents as they were thrust in his direction and fell to the ground. The pastor said earlier in the day that he would technically comply with the order--but would simply move the group to another building on church grounds, thus setting in motion a new legal fight.

D. Craig Fox, the deputy city attorney of Buena Park, was in no mood Tuesday to put up with what he called Drake’s shenanigans. He said the city would continue to press the battle in civil court to remove the illegal encampment from church grounds.

“It’s kind of silly that he won’t accept the inevitable,” Fox said.

The city attorney’s office succeeded Monday in winning a separate criminal case against the preacher. Drake, 53, was convicted of four of five misdemeanor charges of violating city zoning regulations. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 22.

Prosecutors have said they plan to ask for probation in exchange for Drake’s promise not to illegally house vagrants on church property.

“Certainly, if he doesn’t comply [with the terms of his upcoming sentence], jail is an option,” said Gregory Palmer, the assistant city attorney who prosecuted Drake. “It’s up to him to move those people. We’re not storm troopers. We never have been.”

Raising his Texas drawl more than once to excoriate Buena Park city leaders, Drake appeared Tuesday less like a man convicted of a crime than a crusader who seemed to relish the bright lights and cameras of network television.

Sporting a bald-eagle tie, Drake told the gathering outside the church he was not willing to abide by the sentence he faces. Compromise isn’t in the cards when it comes to the homeless, he said, because God doesn’t compromise when it comes to the poor.

During his legal fight, he said, he has received hundreds of calls from throughout Orange County, and one from Washington as well. He told reporters recently that Vice President Al Gore had phoned to urge him to persevere. But on Tuesday, officials in Gore’s office denied that Gore had made such a call.

Jon Alexander, Drake’s attorney, said he had spent Tuesday morning crafting an appeal of the conviction.

Several jurors who convicted Drake expressed remorse at having to reject the defense argument that Drake’s higher calling to help the homeless took precedence over the city’s zoning rules. Some said they would attend the First Baptist Church of Buena Park this Sunday to hear the preacher deliver his message. Some of them vowed to work for the church.

Nearly all the jurors interviewed said they wished they had been able to ignore the law when they cast their vote.

Legal experts said the civil order could provide a more immediate resolution to the ongoing dispute if the city is able to physically remove the homeless people instead of waiting for the minster’s criminal sentencing.

The civil court order required that Drake evict the homeless from the makeshift shelter in the patio area where they have been housed for about three years. The order, however, covers only the patio and no other part of the sprawling complex.

The largely male group of homeless “runs the gamut” in ethnicity and age Alexander said.

Cynthia Lee, a woman in her late 30s, is among those staying at the church and is eight months’ pregnant with twin boys, Alexander said.

He said other “guests of the church” include a 67-year-old man suffering from cancer and an aging attorney whose Wilshire Boulevard law firm fired him rather than give him early retirement.

“Why are they homeless?” Alexander said. “It’s a case of, ‘There but for the grace of God, go I.’ ”

Drake’s supporters contended Tuesday that the city would not have interfered with the homeless except for the efforts of a nearby property owner, who Alexander said feared a drop in home values because of the homeless living nearby.

Palmer disputed that, saying dozens of Buena Park neighbors supported his stance.

He said trying the Drake case “has given me fits. . . . I’m not some unfeeling big-government bureaucrat. This has been tough.”

Palmer said the minister possibly could care for the homeless legally if he applied for a conditional use permit from the city of Buena Park.

But such a permit would carry conditions that he refuses to accept--namely, the adoption of a “secular operation,” meaning no religious instruction. Drake said Tuesday he would not apply for such a permit.

Times correspondent Lesley Wright contributed to this story.