Jail for Sleep Hearing for Two Homeless Musicians

Homeless musicians Anna Richardson and Miguel de Leon face 15 days in jail, 240 hours of Community Service, and fines of thousands of dollars for violating a court order banning them from sleeping at night after 11 PM (the City's Sleeping Ban) in the downtown area of Santa Cruz.

They were cited but not convicted for lying on blankets or sleeping during the day on three occasions--in October 2009, January 2010, and February 2010. The evidence against them are police reports.

Santa Cruz has no legal sleeping place for 90% of its homeless population. It provides $90+ fines for sleeping on any public property after 11 PM or camping ("with the intent to remain in that location overnight").

Richardson and deLeon have been singled out for harassment in a high-profile campaign by City Attorney John Barisone, the Downtown Association, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

They continue to defy this attempt to run them out of town by continuing to play music lawfully downtown and use the public spaces there.

The fact that the citations issued have never been taken to trial (and there have been so few) indicate a serious attempt to respect the preposterous Sleeping Ban Injunction of last May.

A full trial on the legality of singling out these two for special harassment in a costly civil court injunction that evades legal protections for the two musicians was scheduled to be held in June. Barisone has up-ed the ante by schedule a special contempt of court hearing for March 19th three months before the formal hearing on the Permanent Injunction.

For more on the history of this case, see
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/19/18596078.php
&
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/29/18599000.php

Demonstrations in front of two businesses that provided supportive declarations were held at numerous points throughout the summer in spite of police harassment:

"Pledging Non-Discrimination--Round Three-Bunny's Redux"
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/18/18602497.php

"Merchants Use Cops to Suppress Tablers--Join the Protest at Bunny's Shoes"
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/24/18612318.php

"Quiet Protest at Lulu Carpenter's Saturday"
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/08/23/18618668.php

Attorneys Jonathan Gettleman and Mark Briscoe will be representing the musicians.

Anna and Miguel encourage everyone to join them at 9 AM on Friday morning in court to show a Judge, likely to be swayed by the city authorities that the community is watching.

We are also asking the City Attorney to estimate the costs of this city harassment effort.

Those outraged by this action should e-mail Mayor Mike Rotkin at mrotkin [at] ci.santa-cruz.ca.us or City Attorney John Barisone at jbarisone [at] abc-law.com.

Letters can be sent to the Sentinel at news [at] santacruzsentinel.com Please e-mail copies of those letters to rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com .

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) supports the right of homeless people to sleep legally in Santa Cruz--not anywhere and everywhere, but somewhere. We emphasize that point in your letters.