By Marisa Kendall | CalMatters
Wickey Twohands awoke early on the day he was scheduled to go on trial for sleeping exterior.
First, he dropped off all his possessions — a bedroll, blankets, garments and a few meals — at a good friend’s home for safekeeping. Then the 77-year-old caught a bus to the courthouse in downtown Fresno. He arrived an hour early, earlier than his lawyer and even the decide, and took a seat on a bench within the corridor to attend.
“I didn’t want to miss it,” he stated.
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Twohands was set to be the primary individual to go on trial for tenting in Fresno for the reason that metropolis made it a misdemeanor in September to sit down, lie, sleep or camp in any public place. Cities throughout the state have handed related measures banning or proscribing encampments following the U.S. Supreme Court docket giving the go-ahead in a ruling out of Grants Go, Oregon. Now some attorneys who signify homeless campers are champing on the bit to place these new ordinances earlier than a jury. At the very least three circumstances — Twohands’, a second case in Fresno, and one in San Francisco — are headed for trials that may take a look at this new wave of enforcement towards homeless encampments.
“This trial is a way to vindicate an innocent man, but it’s also a way to show this ordinance shouldn’t be enforced, shouldn’t be prosecuted,” stated Twohands’ lawyer, Kevin Little.
He has one other tenting case scheduled for a pre-trial listening to in April, which doubtless will get a Might trial date.
It’s uncommon for unhoused defendants to get their day in courtroom. After police cite or arrest somebody for unlawful tenting, prosecutors usually resolve to not file expenses. If the individual does get charged, the costs usually are shortly dropped — typically because of a diversion program, the place the defendant guarantees to keep away from extra citations or meet different necessities.
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Different occasions, the defendant doesn’t present up for an preliminary courtroom date, so as an alternative of setting the case for trial, the courtroom points an arrest warrant. The aggravating, unpredictable nature of life on the streets doesn’t lend itself to protecting appointments, and many individuals overlook their courtroom date, can’t discover transportation to the courthouse, can’t depart their belongings unattended on the road, or just don’t see the purpose in exhibiting up.
‘I want justice’
In San Francisco, legal professional Samantha Pérez with the Public Defender’s Workplace hasn’t been shy about demanding a trial for shoppers charged with tenting. She has one case heading that approach later this yr. The consumer is Linda Vazquez, a 52-year-old long-time San Francisco resident who was briefly handcuffed, cited for tenting after which launched in October.
“I’ve had clients who are angry, and that’s why we both feel empowered to…kind of make the city answer for these methods. And just to get justice,” she stated. “People associate criminal charges with having done something wrong, and they haven’t done anything wrong, so (they say) ‘I want my name cleared. I want justice.’ Trial is a great path for that.”
In April, she and her colleagues will go to courtroom and argue that Vazquez’s case needs to be dismissed as a result of San Francisco’s anti-camping ordinance is simply too obscure to implement. It is going to be the primary time the ordinance has been challenged on these grounds. And it marks a uncommon alternative for an unhoused individual to publicly problem the arrest in entrance of a decide, as an alternative of quietly accepting a diversion program.
If Pérez doesn’t achieve getting Vazquez’s case thrown out at that time, she’ll proceed pushing it towards trial.
However to date, there doesn’t appear to be a lot curiosity on the opposite facet, from the district legal professional’s workplace or the courtroom, in taking these circumstances to trial. That reluctance baffles Pérez and her colleague, Deputy Public Defender Amy Tao.
“If they’re going to file charges, then they should be able to prove it,” Tao stated.
First: Choose Brian J. Stretch presides over an arraignment for ‘unlawful lodging’ on the Corridor of Justice in San Francisco on Nov. 27, 2024. Pictures by Jungho Kim for CalMatters Final: San Francisco Public Defender Samantha Perez speaks with Linda Vazquez after her arraignment for ‘unlawful lodging’ on the Corridor of Justice in San Francisco on Nov. 27, 2024.
The Public Defender’s Workplace has gotten a number of unlawful tenting circumstances prepared for trial for the reason that metropolis began cracking down on encampments in August, Tao stated. However on the date every trial was supposed to start out, the decide dismissed the case within the “interest of justice,” she stated.
That may very well be a matter of useful resource allocation, Tao stated. There are solely so many courtrooms out there, and attorneys, clerks, bailiffs and different personnel already are stretched skinny.
As one other strategy to keep away from trial, prosecutors usually supply a diversion program. Defendants who go that route comply with abide by sure guidelines — akin to avoiding any new citations for a number of months — in alternate for having their expenses dropped.
But when folks proceed to dwell on the road, it’s laborious for them to keep away from new tenting citations, making diversion a poor selection, Tao stated.
The town of Fresno supplied Twohands a diversion program, which he and his lawyer declined. In an announcement to CalMatters, Metropolis Lawyer Andrew Janz lamented Twohands’ refusal to just accept this system, which he stated would safe him everlasting housing.
Fresno’s tenting ban specifies that the courtroom can grant diversion or probation as an alternative choice to fines and jail time, identified Councilmember Miguel Arias, who cosponsored the ordinance.
“If you’re lying or sleeping illegally, we’re going to offer you help,” he stated. “If you choose to accept that help, we’re going to press pause on these pending charges. If you choose not to accept help, we’re going to proceed with the charges.”
If somebody rejects assist, they need to be held accountable, which might embrace seeing a case all through trial, Arias stated.
The town didn’t specify the phrases of Twohands’ diversion supply, stated Little, his legal professional. However he doubted whether or not this system would assist Twohands — there are few long-term housing placements — except the town gave Twohands particular remedy by getting him into housing not out there to different seniors on the road.
“If the city agrees to put its money where its mouth is and offer the same benefits to ALL unhoused people subject to enforcement under this ordinance that they are now offering to Wickey, then we would not hesitate to accept,” he stated in a textual content message to CalMatters. “But if they are only being offered to Wickey in order to avoid court and public scrutiny of the ordinance, then no thank you.”
Twohands, a soft-spoken African-American man with a grey beard, hopes by taking his case to trial, he may assist change the best way Fresno police goal folks for sleeping exterior.
“It’s not a crime to survive,” he stated. “I haven’t killed anyone. I’m not trying to kill anyone. I’m just trying to live.”
Police arrested Twohands in October for tenting in a public place and illegal possession of a purchasing cart. He was launched from jail after simply 10 or 20 minutes, he stated, however police confiscated his purchasing cart and all his possessions.
When he obtained out of jail, he returned to the streets to await his trial. Twohands knew he couldn’t return to the place he was arrested, a vacant patch of land in entrance of an condominium constructing the place Twohands was pleasant with the proprietor. As a substitute, he now strikes across the metropolis, sleeping wherever he can.
Paperwork Little filed with the courtroom preview the arguments he may use earlier than a jury. For instance, he says Twohands was standing up — not mendacity down or sleeping — when he encountered the police officer, and the officer noticed no proof of tenting. He additionally plans on calling skilled witnesses to testify in regards to the organic necessity of individuals dwelling on the road to sleep.
The dangers of trial
If Twohands is convicted of unlawful tenting, a misdemeanor, he might face a yr in jail and a effective of as much as $1,000 — although Little says it could be “unheard of” for him to get any jail time.
However even with out jail, trials include all types of extra dangers and hardship for unhoused defendants. That’s why the San Joaquin County Public Defender’s Workplace has but to attempt to convey any of its tenting circumstances earlier than a jury, as an alternative settling for probation to save lots of its shoppers the headache, stated Public Defender Judyanne Vallado.
The county’s courthouse in Lodi was closed for 2 years, so anybody cited for tenting there must make the trek to Stockton for trial, a visit that would take an hour by bus, Vallado stated. Between the a number of pre-trial conferences, jury choice and the trial itself, the defendant may very well be in Stockton a complete week. That’s untenable for many individuals who’ve nowhere secure to go away their pets or possessions.
“Just for one stupid trespass,” she stated. “Just for falling asleep on the sidewalk because you had nowhere else to sleep. That’s a lot.”
In consequence, tenting circumstances in San Joaquin County — the place each the county and the town of Stockton have made it unlawful to camp anyplace — are resolving with out trials. Defendants usually are ordered to finish probation and to remain 100 yards away from the place they had been caught, Vallado stated.
A posting for an “encampment resolution” hangs on the wall of a constructing on Cedar Road in San Francisco on Nov. 27, 2024. Unhoused people might be cited for violating California penal code 647(e) PC/M for ‘unlawful lodging’ by San Francisco police. Photograph by Jungho Kim for CalMatters
It’s irritating, Vallado stated. Her workplace needs to go earlier than a jury and combat again towards what its attorneys say is the unjust apply of punishing folks for having nowhere to sleep.
“We’re not helping them by just signing them up for probation and a stay away order that we don’t think is legal,” she stated.
Vallado additionally worries that some folks cited for tenting aren’t even given the prospect to combat their expenses. As regulation enforcement ramped up its crackdown towards homeless encampments and native jurisdictions began passing new tenting bans, sooner or later the Stockton courthouse began sending all tenting circumstances to its site visitors courtroom, Vallado stated. The general public defender’s workplace doesn’t employees that courtroom, as a result of previously, it handled minor site visitors infractions that didn’t require a lawyer. Vallado didn’t even understand tenting circumstances had been being despatched there till lately.
That’s an issue, she stated. Whereas any defendant in that courtroom can request a lawyer, even when there isn’t one current, many could not know they’ve that choice. Ideally, her workplace would assign a lawyer to that courtroom, she stated. However they’re already quick six attorneys.
“We’re definitely short-staffed,” Vallado stated. “It’s not a great time to be staffing additional courtrooms.”
The Lodi courthouse was set to reopen this month, nevertheless it’s unclear what meaning for the county’s tenting circumstances.
Linda Vazquez’s day in courtroom
It was 9:15 a.m. — quarter-hour previous the time Vazquez had been informed to indicate up in courtroom for trial — and the decide nonetheless wasn’t there.
“Oh come on,” she muttered, visibly harassed. “I have to get back to my doggies.”
Vazquez had left her tent late and in a rush that morning after a CalMatters reporter woke her up. She didn’t have time to make preparations for her three canine, Sebastian, Bella and Jordan, so she simply zipped them up inside her tent and hoped for one of the best. Bella lately had puppies, which had been sleeping in an outdated transportable child crib contained in the tent, and Vazquez hated to go away them alone.
Police cited Vazquez for tenting on the fringe of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood one afternoon in October, whereas she was cooking chicharrones for lunch on a transportable camp range. It was her second quotation in two weeks.
Whereas ready for that case to go to trial, nonetheless sleeping each night time in the identical place on the sidewalk, Vazquez was cited once more for unlawful tenting in November. Since then, she moved right into a motel, nevertheless it’s unclear how lengthy she will be able to keep there.
When the decide got here in and known as her case at round 9:30, he postponed her trial to present her lawyer, Pérez, extra time to place collectively her protection. Then Vazquez needed to go as much as the fourth ground to get fingerprinted earlier than she might begin the lengthy stroll again to her canine.
As she left the courthouse, she stated she felt good about how her listening to went.
However does she need her case to go to trial?
“I’d rather it not,” she stated. “But if we have to, let’s do it, because you’re wrong. Because you shoulda put me up in housing.”
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