Delivering Justice Where It’s Needed
A thin man with a ruddy face and beat-up shoes shuffles to the front of the makeshift courtroom, removing a worn red baseball cap as he takes his seat.
Nervously, he eyes Ventura County Superior Court Judge John E. Dobroth as the jurist thumbs through a stack of yellow sheets listing the homeless man’s numerous citations for public drunkenness, illegal camping and other minor crimes.
They are costly infractions that 47-year-old Steven Cata has dodged for years because he had no money to pay them.
But on this morning, Cata steps forward and shows proof that he has worked off those fees through a court program aimed at helping homeless men and women resolve their offenses through supervised community service.
“Fantastic,” Dobroth says as he reviews Cata’s work. “His life is a little bit better.”
“A lot!” Cata adds.
Every month or two, Dobroth gavels Homeless Court into session at warming shelters and charity halls in Ventura County’s poorest neighborhoods. There are no bailiffs here, no majestic court chambers or intimidating legalese. Instead, the judge dispenses justice from a metal folding chair.
In deals worked out in advance between a prosecutor and a public defender, he gives credit to defendants for volunteer work. Ten hours of washing dishes or pulling weeds at a shelter, for example, would erase a $100 fine.
In this way, the judge resolves minor offenses typically associated with homelessness, such as public drunkenness, petty theft or sleeping on the beach, while encouraging defendants to turn their lives around.
Dobroth has no illusions. Chronic alcoholism, drug abuse and mental illness--societal problems well beyond the reach of one judge and a few lawyers--grip many of the people who come before him.
But so far, Homeless Court appears to be making a dent, if not a difference.
‘It’s a Plus for Everyone’
Since its inception a year ago, the court has handled 153 cases involving 65 men and women, according to court statistics. Fifty-eight defendants have successfully completed sentences and a dozen have achieved sobriety.
“It’s a plus for everyone,” Dobroth said recently. “A tiny little plus.”
Ventura County is one of only a few counties to offer Homeless Court. The concept was pioneered by San Diego more than a decade ago and has since been adopted by Los Angeles County.
In Ventura County, the program was an outgrowth of the annual Stand Down tent city in which homeless military veterans are provided free medical and dental checkups, clothing and legal assistance.
Stand Down is a military term used when a unit is shifted from a combat situation to one of safety and security. The programs are held nationwide.
For the last eight years, Dobroth and Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Grunert have volunteered at Ventura’s Stand Down to help veterans clear outstanding warrants, unpaid traffic tickets and other minor violations. In most cases, the judge assigns community service to be done during the three-day event.
“Our job was to take the minor misdemeanors out of the way so they could get on with their lives,” Grunert said. Homeless Court was a natural extension.
Homeless men and women often accumulate numerous citations for public nuisance violations but rarely have the money to pay the fines. In addition, they often lack the ability to get to court or are fearful of losing their possessions if remanded to jail, court officials say.
As a result, those cases accumulate in the system, compounded by new violations or warrants for failures to appear in court.
For some defendants, a mounting list of minor infractions can stand in the way of getting a job or obtaining a driver’s license--making it harder to lead productive lives.
That was the case for Monica Franco.
A 28-year-old single mother, Franco spent six months at the county’s homeless shelter in Camarillo before moving into federally subsidized housing with her five children this summer.
But standing in the way of a fresh start was a string of old traffic violations that prevented her from obtaining a driver’s license.
Franco hadn’t dealt with the violations because she was scared to appear in court, she said. When she learned a judge would accept community service in lieu of fines, she went to work cooking and cleaning at the shelter.
Over a period of weeks, she racked up 448 hours of community service--more than double the amount of her fines.
In July, Dobroth wiped away her citations for driving without a license. Breathing a sigh of relief, Franco said she planned to head directly to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“I think it’s great,” she said of the program. “It helps people who need help.”
This summer, the Foundation of the State Bar of California awarded Ventura County’s Homeless Court $5,000 in grant money, which will fund a court coordinator who will screen cases and schedule court calendars.
To reach its transient population, Homeless Court moves to different locations each month or so, often alternating between the Salvation Army shelter in Oxnard or Catholic Charities center in Ventura.
In July, however, the court staff set up in a Ventura College classroom to be closer to the Stand Down effort underway on the college football field.
Nearly 20 defendants, a mix of middle-aged men and women, sat behind desks like students in a math class as Dobroth, wearing his black robe, sat behind a teacher’s desk.
“Where are you staying?” he asked one woman after dismissing her case.
She paused, shifting her feet.
Helping Homeless Off the Streets
“I’m still staying in my car,” she answered, prompting the judge to launch into a lecture about available social services and housing.
After court concluded, Dobroth grabbed a brown bag lunch before tackling the cases associated with Stand Down.
He stressed that court officials are not close to solving the problem of homelessness, but they are clearing cases and hopefully helping a few people get off the streets.
“The police have the advantage of not having to arrest as many people . . . and the court clears cases that would otherwise languish,” Dobroth said. “It is just a neat little solution to everyone’s problem.”
