By 3:30 PM last Thursday, the wooden benches of the Multnomah County Justice Center’s Community Court room had completely emptied. But the afternoon’s docket wasn’t finished.
To Judicial Referee Jon Ghastin, special prosecutor Travis Flynn, and the public defenders handling case upon case, it was clear that four defendants who hadn’t yet shown up weren’t going to walk through those double doors. So bench warrants were issued for their arrest.
The four absentee defendants are homeless. Each was arrested and booked multiple times by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) in April, both for erecting a tent or some other structure on Chinatown sidewalks and for ignoring officers’ demands that they stop putting them up.
The two resulting misdemeanor charges—interfering with a peace officer (IPO) for not complying with an officer’s orders, and erecting a structure on public property—are common for homeless people, who often face them in tandem.
And despite a recent landmark Oregon Supreme Court ruling, local authorities say that’s not going to change anytime soon.