Legal News Headlines

 
Copyright 2008 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

 May 13, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 613 words

BYLINE: John Ellis The Fresno Bee

BODY: 

A federal judge ruled that Fresno violated the constitutional rights of homeless residents whose personal property was destroyed in a series of 14 city raids on makeshift encampments between February 2004 and August 2006.

The 39-page ruling issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger found the city violated homeless residents' Fourth Amendment rights -- which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Wanger also cited the homeless residents' 14th Amendment rights to due process, which an American Civil Liberties Union attorney said dealt with the city treating the property of the homeless worse than it was treating other people's property.

"This is sending a message to Fresno, and any other city, that they have to respect the constitutional rights of all their residents," said Michael Risher, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, one of two organizations that filed the suit on behalf of the homeless residents.

But Wanger's ruling left much to be decided at a jury trial on other issues in the lawsuit scheduled to begin June 10.

Among those issues are just whose rights were violated, what property was destroyed, what compensation, if any, those homeless residents are entitled to, and what role, if any, the California Department of Transportation played in the city's actions.

Some of the raids took place on Caltrans property near Highway 99.

City officials declined to comment because they did not see the ruling until late Monday afternoon and had not had a chance to review it.

Larry Arce, CEO of the Fresno Rescue Mission, a downtown ministry to the homeless, was a supporter of the city's actions and initially had chided the ACLU for filing the lawsuit. But on Monday, he said Wanger was right to rule in favor of homeless people's constitutional rights.

"Everything that's done should be done with dignity," Arce said. "We all want to see them get ahead and get out of the conditions that put them out there in the first place."

Arce still defended the city's motives behind the cleanup. "I don't believe [the city] did it maliciously," he said.

Monday's written ruling -- which followed an oral ruling issued last month by Wanger following a hearing -- is another in a string of victories for the homeless and their advocates, who sued Fresno in October 2006, alleging that city work crews illegally confiscated and destroyed personal property while raiding the settlements.

For instance, one homeless resident said his shopping cart, which contained clothing, family photographs and his blood pressure medication, was destroyed in a raid.

Attorneys for the homeless said property was seized without giving homeless residents a chance to reclaim it and the city rarely, if ever, gave notice that it was coming.

Already, Wanger granted a preliminary injunction that stopped the city from continuing the practice, and later gave class-action status to the case covering "all persons in the city of Fresno who were or are homeless, without residence, after Oct. 17, 2003, and whose personal belongings have been unlawfully taken in a sweep, raid or cleanup by any of the defendants."

When Wanger issued a preliminary injunction in November 2006, he stressed that it did not stop the city from conducting the sweeps. It only stopped it from destroying personal property unless it was contraband.

At the time, the city announced it would start cataloging and storing any items seized in future sweeps of homeless encampments.

The city said no sweeps have taken place since Wanger issued the preliminary injunction.

Bee staff writer Paula Lloyd contributed to this report. The reporter can be reached at jellis@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6320.

LOAD-DATE: May 13, 2008