Oxnard Loitering Law Left Hanging

Saying that police were wrong to arrest three Oxnard men for loitering, city attorneys dropped the charges Thursday and began tinkering with the law itself.

Police should have issued verbal warnings before writing loitering citations against Roberto Sanchez Reyes, Manuel Velazquez Garcia and Macrino Venegas, said City Atty. Gary Gillig.

So, Gillig declined to fight defense attorneys’ motions to dismiss the citations, which the court granted Thursday morning.

“We didn’t think we could win,” Gillig said. “The citations were improperly issued. There’s a procedure set out in city code, and we didn’t follow it.”

Because of the court challenge, Oxnard police have suspended using the loitering law until the city attorney can clear up any problems, said Assistant Police Chief Stan Myers, who oversees patrol operations.

“I have no problem telling my officers to enforce a valid ordinance,” Myers said. “I just want to make sure that the confusion is taken out of it so that we don’t have a misinterpretation. . . . There is some confusion as to the application of the law.”

Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley welcomed the ruling.

“It’s good to see that the police are actually taking to heart any mistakes they may have previously made and [are] correcting them,” Farley said. “I was pleasantly surprised.”

Farley had challenged the law on behalf of the three friends, who say they were ticketed for loitering after standing just two minutes outside Oxnard’s Ayutla Billar pool hall on 6th Street.

The three said they were trying to sort out their rides home when two Oxnard officers on bicycles rolled up and--without warning them--cited them for loitering.

Oxnard’s ordinance says police must first warn suspects they are loitering and to not return to the area for at least 48 hours, Gillig said.

If the suspects return and loiter again within that time, police can cite them, Gillig said.

But the law may have holes in it, as shown in similar municipal loitering laws recently ruled on by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, he said.

The appeals court upheld loitering laws in Pasadena and Seattle, but shot down San Diego’s loitering law--which is quite similar to Oxnard’s, Gillig said.

“The court really ripped it apart. Our review indicates we probably need to make some changes,” he said. “We have to try to accomplish a balance of interests here between the rights of citizens to free assembly versus making the sidewalks safe for people to use them.”

Myers said the loitering ordinance has its place in combating specific crime such as prostitution and in making Oxnard’s streets comfortable for people who are put off by large groups of people hanging out without purpose.

Myers said, “Under our community policing efforts, we’re trying to raise the comfort level of all of our residents to go into any area and patronize the businesses or walk on the streets without fear of something happening to them in a negative way.”

Gillig said he will bring a revised loitering ordinance to the City Council in September.