‘We’ve Got to Help Grandma’

The case of the homeless woman challenging Buena Park’s anti-camping ordinance took a twist Wednesday as her long-lost family unexpectedly showed up for an emotional reunion.

It was a good day in court for Diane Grue, who has been homeless for 10 years. Not only did her family arrive just as she took her place at the defense table, the judge warned prosecutors he was on the verge of telling jurors they should find her not guilty.

Whether or not Grue ultimately wins her trial, her unusual decision to take her case to a jury will have lasting effects: That’s how her family found her.

“I knew Grandma had some tough times, but I had no idea she had been on the street all these years,” said her granddaughter Charlene O’Brien, 28, of Garden Grove.

O’Brien read about Grue in the newspaper and called her mother, Cheryle Johnson of Hesperia, early Wednesday morning.

“We’ve got to help Grandma,” O’Brien told Johnson, Grue’s former daughter-in-law.

The two went to North Justice Center in Fullerton, where Grue is being tried, Johnson in such a hurry that she still had wet hair from a shower.

O’Brien also brought her 5-month-old son, Michael. Grue never knew she had any great-grandchildren. She learned O’Brien also has an 8-year-old daughter who was with her father Wednesday.

Grue, 66, had lost touch with her family after the 1989 death of her son, Danny, in an accident. He and Johnson had divorced earlier, and Grue, who went into a depression after his death, eventually lost her job and began living part-time on the streets.

Grue had just taken her place at the defense table Wednesday when Johnson entered the courtroom with the bailiff, who tapped Grue on the shoulder.

The elderly woman turned, looked at Johnson, and said, “Oh, my God.”

The two women hugged and Johnson led Grue out to the hallway to meet her extended family.

She also immediately offered her former mother-in-law a home.

“You come live with me,” said Johnson, 46. “We’ve got plenty of room.”

But after the initial hugs and exclamations, Grue was reserved with her family. She declined to hold her great-grandson, saying she had to get through her current troubles before she could think about the future.

Since losing track of her family, Grue has lived the first half of each month in cheap weekly-rate motels, using her Social Security check. The last half of the month, she lives on the streets. Buena Park has been her base for several reasons: She has a $30-a-month storage locker there for her possessions, and she can get meals and take showers at the First Baptist Church.

On Nov. 25, Grue and five others were arrested for camping near the railroad tracks just east of Stanton Avenue. The others were allowed to pay fines, but City Prosecutor Greg Palmer insisted on a 15-day jail sentence for Grue because she was a repeat offender, arrested six times in two years. She decided to fight it in court.

Two weeks ago, over Palmer’s objections, Superior Court Judge James P. Marion offered Grue a deal: no jail time, minimal community service and probation if she would plead guilty.

But Grue refused. In great part, she said, it was because the Rev. Wiley Drake, pastor at First Baptist Church, had talked her into fighting the case. Drake has his own ongoing dispute with the city over the scores of homeless people who use services at his church’s property.

But Grue said it wasn’t all Drake.

“I just don’t think I committed any crime,” she said.

Tuesday, after a full day of court witnesses, Grue said she wished she’d taken the judge’s offer. “I just want it to end,” she said.

But Wednesday was a different day.

After the excitement over her family’s arrival settled down, her attorney, Jon Alexander, walked in with a letter from the Union Pacific Railroad Co. that showed the encampment where Grue was arrested was on private property, not public property. Alexander had received the information just the night before, and he told the court about it moments before the jury was expecting to hear closing arguments in the weeklong trial.

The information makes a major difference in one of the two counts against Grue--possessing camping paraphernalia on public property. But Palmer argued that it makes no difference on the main count, violation of a city ordinance against camping in an area of public access.

But Marion wasn’t buying it. Although Palmer insisted that he has carefully avoided calling the arrest site public property, the judge said tersely that Palmer had certainly led everyone to believe that that was what he meant.

“If Mr. Alexander’s evidence is true, then I think I’m going to have to instruct the jurors that if they find it was private property, then Miss Grue is not guilty.”

Palmer argued that if Grue wins this case, then every homeless person in Orange County will think it’s OK to set up camp near railroad tracks.

The case continues today.

Palmer acknowledged late Wednesday that unless the judge agrees with him on the public access issue or unless he can show that the encampment was partly on public property, his case stands little chance.

“Right now I’m numb,” he said.

What might be left on the table is the bigger legal issue: Grue’s challenge to the constitutionality of Buena Park’s homeless laws.

But Grue no longer cares about that. She just wants out.

“I could be going to jail for six months,” she said. “I just can’t sleep thinking about it, can’t eat. And I’m a big eater. I just want out of this.”

She isn’t certain about whether to move in with her former daughter-in-law, who has young children from a another marriage. Grue has a boyfriend who stays with her and isn’t certain how that would be greeted at Johnson’s house.

She went back to her motel room after court Wednesday, saying she needed a quiet place to sort it all out. But her family gave her a lift there and said they hope she joins them soon.

“It hasn’t been easy these last years,” she said. “But I’m a survivor. I’ve shown that.”