Skid Row Court Gives Defendants a Clean Slate

Instead of sitting on a mahogany bench in an ornate courtroom, Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan held court Monday from a folding table in a stark homeless mission on Los Angeles’ skid row.

Spectators sat on blue plastic chairs.

Every defendant--22 in all--who stood before Judge Tynan had the charges against them dismissed.

All the defendants also happened to be formerly homeless.

“I might shed a few tears before this is over,” Tynan warned shortly after calling the makeshift court to order.

This was not a typical day in Los Angeles Superior Court. The peculiar court session in the Union Rescue Mission at 525 S. San Pedro St. was Homeless Court--the first of its kind in Los Angeles. Tynan will hold the sessions once a month at skid row missions.

Homeless Court was started in San Diego in 1988 and has since spread to other cities.

It allows homeless people to have minor outstanding warrants dismissed if they complete a six-month program at a local mission and demonstrate that they are making improvements in their lives.

Outstanding warrants often keep the homeless from getting jobs and driver’s licenses.

Peter Starks, 51, a Vietnam veteran, was one of the defendants who had charges dropped Monday.

For 15 years, Starks lived on the streets of Los Angeles, pushing around his belongings in shopping carts and subsisting mostly on drugs, alcohol and potato chips.

But about a year ago, with the help of New Directions mission, he escaped the streets.

“I got tired of Caltrans moving my stuff,” said Starks, who lived under various freeways. “I had a couch and six shopping carts and would come back and all my stuff would be gone.”

He now has an apartment and a job as a chef at a restaurant. He is also in a drug and alcohol self-help recovery program. But he couldn’t--until Monday--escape his embarrassing criminal record.

He was wanted for possessing six shopping carts without the owner’s permission.

“I always knew it was there,” he said of the warrant. “My fear was that the police would stop me one day and see the warrant and they wouldn’t want to listen to how I had gotten away from it and changed my life. I would just end up in jail.”

Orlando Ward, 40, also had charges dismissed Monday. Like Starks, Ward was homeless because of drug and alcohol addiction until he got tired of it.

He said he went to “get some rest” at Midnight Mission one day and ended up getting sober.

But he had a slew of outstanding warrants for minor traffic infractions and riding a train without a ticket. He couldn’t get a driver’s license.

“I had jobs offered and taken away from me because of it,” said Ward, who has since been hired by Midnight Mission. He said that although it is great to have his record clear for practical reasons, it also will help him feel better about himself.

“It’s the emotional side. The court is recognizing that I have changed. I have overcome this,” Ward said. “It does an awful lot for your self-esteem.”

Not everyone is thrilled with Homeless Court. Some homeless advocates, including the Rev. Alice Callaghan, who directs Las Familias del Pueblo, a nonprofit community center on skid row, say they fear it will be abused by police.

“I think it is a way to force people into programs by giving them bogus tickets,” Callaghan said.

Homeless advocate Ted Hayes questions whether it will work.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “But I bet a lot of [the homeless] end up right back here again.”

But the dozens of court officials who gathered Monday at Union Rescue Mission to watch the Homeless Court’s first session insisted that their motives are good.

“What is so important about a court like this is it sends a message that the system cares about everyone,” said Judge Harry Pregerson, of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who helped organize the new court.

Counselors at the missions refer defendants to the city attorney and public defender.

Once a month, Tynan will hear their cases. Tynan said he will only dismiss warrants for minor “quality of life” offenses, like trespassing and jaywalking.

He said the biggest asset is that court sessions will be held in the community where the homeless feel comfortable, rather than in an intimidating courthouse.

“This is going to remove a lot of fear from the hearts of these people,” Tynan said. “These people have not always been treated fairly by the system. We want them to know we’re on their side.”