Judge Rules for Woman in Homeless Case
A judge Thursday dismissed the case against a homeless woman accused of violating Buena Park’s public camping ordinance, as the city prosecutor advised town leaders to tighten up the law.
The trial ended as a personal victory for Diane Grue, who not only won her case but found her long-lost family through her legal wrangle. But although her case started as a potentially landmark challenge to the constitutionality of the city ordinance, that issue was never resolved. And if the city puts new teeth into the law, her case ultimately could end up making matters tougher for homeless people in Buena Park.
Judge James P. Marion announced his ruling Thursday moments before jurors were about to hear closing arguments at Grue’s weeklong trial in Fullerton. Marion found that the homeless encampment near the railroad tracks, where Grue and five others were arrested, was actually on private land and thus not covered by the city’s law against public camping.
Homeless Days Over
City Prosecutor Greg Palmer said he already has written a memorandum suggesting to Buena Park officials that they broaden the wording of the law to include any area where the public has access.
“It would be similar to getting drunk in public at a private bar,” Palmer said.
Grue, 66, who was the only one to fight her case in court, said that at this point she doesn’t care what Palmer does because her homeless days are over. On Wednesday, her granddaughter and former daughter-in-law, who had read about the case in the newspaper, amazed Grue by showing up in court and offering her a home. She had not seen them in 10 years, since about the time she became homeless, and had not known that she has two great-grandchildren.
“I’m a tough old lady, but my days on the streets are behind me,” Grue said.
She plans to accept an offer from her late son’s ex-wife, Cheryle Johnson, of Hesperia to live with her.
Grue was arrested Nov. 25 when police discovered her and five friends camping near the railroad tracks just east of Stanton Avenue. The others were permitted to pay fines, but prosecutor Palmer insisted on 15 days in jail for Grue because she was a repeat offender. Even when Marion agreed to eliminate the jail time and give Grue probation, she insisted on her day in court.
She was encouraged by the Rev. Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, an advocate for the homeless. Drake has his own ongoing feud with the city over the number of homeless shelters on his church’s grounds.
Drake was outside the courtroom Thursday to thank the jurors and berate Palmer to the media for taking the case to court.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said. Though the case did not end up as a constitutional challenge to the city’s encampment laws, as Drake had hoped, he said that any victory against the city on this issue helps the cause.
“What this means is that five innocent people pleaded guilty,” Drake said. “There ought to be a lawsuit in there somewhere.”
Palmer had argued that the city’s ordinance covers any area with public access, but the judge disagreed. In his view, the judge said, if it is private property, then there’s no case.
Leaning Toward Acquittal
Palmer tried to rescue his case with an argument that a California Department of Transportation sound wall on the property included a border of eight inches of public property. The homeless, he argued, had included those eight inches to store their gear, and police pictures proved it. But the judge called the argument “ridiculous.”
Jurors said afterward that they probably would have acquitted Grue because of the private property issue.
Grue got one more piece of good news before leaving the courthouse. She still owed a $100 fine from a previous probation violation. As she stood in line at the clerk’s office to pay it, Marion called and ordered the $100 waived.
