Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: SAT 11/23/2002
Section: A
Page: 33 MetFront
Edition: 3 STAR
 

Panhandler's fight leads him to lawyer

By THOM MARSHALL
Staff

IT TOOK BILLY a while to get himself a lawyer.

He has no money to pay even an hour's worth of billing. No money for anything else, either. No home. No car. No job.

He said he came to the building on Texas Avenue that he knows to contain many law offices, started on the first floor and kept working his way up until he found a lawyer who would take his case. Sixth floor. Randall Kallinen.

Billy, 41, is in trouble again for panhandling. A couple of weeks ago a policeman issued him two citations, each with two comments. The first ticket says: "Carry a sign bearing a legend `Homeless need help with spare change' " and "Solicit contributions in roadway."

The second ticket says: "Solicit for charitable contributions without permit" and "Fail to file financial disclosure."

Holding a sign for motorists to read while stopped at an intersection is a method Billy often uses to come up with four or five bucks "to get something to eat."

He said he spends some nights at a downtown mission and on other nights, "I'll get me some boxes and just go to sleep wherever I can find a nice, warm spot."

He gave up trying to find a job, saying: "I've been in prison, and people don't hire people who have been in prison."

Found new spot, then caught

Enforcement of the city ordinance against "aggressive panhandling" that was passed a few months ago has made it tough to solicit handouts in the downtown area. So Billy gets on a bus and rides to a likely-looking spot, gets off and makes a sign. He was in the 6500 block of Westheimer when he got the tickets. That's well outside the downtown area targeted by the new ordinance.

"It was a good spot until the law comes messing with you," he said.

Kallinen said it isn't clear from the wording on the tickets precisely what violations Billy is charged with. He said a homeless person "has the free speech right to be at that road asking for help."

He speculated that police might be conducting some kind of crackdown on panhandlers using signs. But a spokesman at the Houston Police Department said there is no such campaign under way.

Citations such as those issued to Billy "are usually complaint driven," the spokesman said, meaning some business owner in the area where he was panhandling, or some motorist passing by, called to report something.

Like if a fellow is in the roadway, obstructing the flow of traffic, for example. But Billy said he was in the median.

"How could that be the roadway when you're in the median?" he asked.

Attorney, case a perfect match

If, instead of using his floor-by-floor approach to attorney shopping, Billy had spent hours researching which lawyer to contact, he may well have wound up in the same office.

Kallinen is a board member of the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and views Billy's situation as a civil liberties case. He also currently represents many of the people who were arrested several months ago in the notorious police raid on a Kmart parking lot. Authorities later dropped all those charges, and some of the folks rounded up that night now are suing the city.

Tickets such as those issued to Billy are "a way to harass the homeless," Kallinen said. "They're picking on him because they know he won't fight back."

The lawyer said he expects the charges to be dropped when they get to court. Billy asked why he even had to show up if the charges would be dropped.

"I can't help you if you don't show up," Kallinen told him. Then he explained the old saying: "You may beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride," which means that even if the charges get dropped, you still have to spend some time (and money, if you have it).

If a homeless guy simply tosses such tickets without going to court, next time the cops stopped him for something and checked the computer and found those outstanding charges, the homeless guy could wind up in jail.

"If it ain't one thing," Billy said, "it's another."