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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2015)
News Page 4 Transit troubles BY EMILY GREEN STAFF W RITER his past July, at the Tigard Transit Center, Chris Tejero was arrested and slapped with two misdemeanor charges after he boarded TriMet’s WES Commuter Rail line without paying for a ticket He was arrested despite the fact that the conductor gave him permission to board because the ticket kiosk wasn't working properly. During trial, a jury listened to testimony from the WES line’s conductor. Tejero had also provided his attorney with bank statements showing a history of consistent payments. The jury acquitted Tejero, but not before taxpayers paid for his arrest, jail processing and time spent by court staff who were present for multiple courtroom appearances. Plus, 12 registered voters were summoned to the courthouse to hear Tejero’s case. It toqk the jury 20 minutes to find him not guilty. Tejero’s story exemplifies what defense attorneys claim are common petty cases that contribute to a significant waste of diminishing court resources. They also say that in some cases, serious criminal charges ar& pressed in scenarios where a simple ticket or warning would be more appropriate. a 'T 'r iM e t has a history of filling Multnomah County courts. After it cracked down on fare compliance in 2011, floods of people went to the Justice C enter to get their fines reduced or to fight tickets on what has become known as “TriMet Tuesdays.” For boarding TriMet’s WES line, Tejero was charged with “interfering with public transit,” or IPT - a Class A misdemeanor, which carries the same weight as a drunken driving or misdemeanor assault charge. The definition of IPT allows transit officers to issue this serious criminal charge in circumstances that - were they to take place anywhere other than on transit property - usually would result in a ticket or Class C misdemeanor. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in prison. A Class C misdemeanor is punishable by up to 30 days in jail. Attorney Chris O’Connor, with Metropolitan Public Defender Services, explains that interfering with public transit isn’t what it sounds like. “The things most people think of as ‘interfering’ are very different than what is getting charged,” he says. “The overwhelming majority of IPT cases are for re-entry onto a bus or MAX train or platform after previously being excluded. It is A Street Roots • March 6-12, 2015 business day following the date of issuance of this exclusion.” While there are two places where the officer issuing the citation can write the date of the incident, nowhere on the form does it indicate the actual start and end date of the exclusion. Tejero was excluded as the result of his July a rre st He says that during that period, on days when he wasn’t able .to find a ride, he had to walk for two hours to get to work. Metropolitan Public Defender Erica Rothman has defended clients in both Multnomah and Washington counties. She was instrumental in prompting a bill in this legislative session that would change IPT’s definition. The change would mean that people who did no more than set foot off TriMet property when they weren’t supposed to no longer would face a serious criminal charge. She says she has up to four or five clients per week facing charges from transit police, and it’s usually an IPT charge. Under a Class A misdemeanor, people are more likely to be jailed, at least briefly, when they are being processed. But the charge can bring an actual jail sentence too, Rothman sayS. “Within both counties that I’ve practiced in, I’ve seen people sentenced to jail time on these matters, upwards of 30 days in some cases,” says Rothman. “And I don’t want to say these are exceptional cases, because I’ve seen so many of them,” she says. According tckdata compiled by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, for those who received jail sentences resulting from IPTs from 2010 to April 2014, the average sentence in Washington County was 28 days, iii Mül^fem^n Coun^, the a^rag esen ten ce was 15 days at a cost of $2,520 for each inmate. During the same time period, Multnomah County dismissed 31 percent of issued IPT cases. (Washington County dismissed 9 percent and Clackamas dismissed nearly 10 percent.) Many of the people Rothman says she’s seen facing this charge are homeless or mentally ill. She says it’s often people who ridé the MAX to stay warm, or to get to very rare to see someone charged with this social services spread out across the tri- crime for actually interfering with the vehicle county area, but who lack money for the fare. or stopping the vehicle.” Sara Mulroy, who also works as a public Jane Fox, a public defender who handles defendér in Multnomah County, says she had cases in Multnomah County’s Community a client who was homeless and had been Court, says IPT charges make up 25 percent racking up IPT charges for a long time for of h er caseload, and it’s rare that a client taking the MAX or sitting in bus shelters actually interfered with a transit vehicle. while he was excluded. “Almost always, he Because most IPTs only go to Community was stopped by officers that knew him,” she Court in Multnomah County, Fox handled 7 says. about 420 IPT cases last year. Her client was able to finally get housing Fox says 99 percent of her clients charged and a bus pass, she says. “However, he still with IPT are accused of entering TriMet was picking up these IPTs when he was property while under an “exclusion.” She riding on the bus,” says Mulroy. “And this says in many cases, the rider has no idea was once he had a bus passl He had valid they were excluded from TriMet property at fare, he was riding on the bus to services he the time of arrest, so it comes as a surprise needed, and he was still stopped and charged when they find themselves facing significant with them as crimes because he was criminal charges. excluded.” Most people receive temporary exclusions Another side effect, Rothman says, is that from TriMet property for not paying fares, IPT plays a significant role in what she calls but in some cases exclusions aré issued for the “trafficking of petty warrants.” behavioral reasons. Sometimes when people get charged with an “The way TriMet counts the exclusion is IPT in one county, they already have an IPT not how normal people would count. The or other misdemeanor chargé pending in exclusion says it’s 30 days, but it doesn’t another county. They get arrested and start until 11 days after you get (cited),” Fox booked into jail, which causes them to miss says. “So (the offenders) count 30 days, but their court date for the first IPT. So the there’s still another week, so they get back judge overseeing the arraignment they' on the bus and get another charge,” missed places a hold on them so they can be TriMet’s Notice of Exclusion form states that the exclusion begins “on the eleventh See WRONG STEP, page 5
