Homeless man arrested for charging phone in park

By Lee Williams

SARASOTA - A homeless man spent the night in jail Sunday after police arrested him for charging his cellphone in a public picnic shelter at Gillespie Park.

Darren Kersey, 28, was charged with theft of utilities after Sarasota Police Sgt. Anthony Frangioni spotted him charging his phone at about 9:20 p.m. Sunday. Unable to come up with the $500 bail for the misdemeanor, Kersey had no choice but to stay in jail.

In his arrest report, Frangioni wrote that he told Kersey that the “theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy.” Frangioni also told Kersey that he should charge his phone at local shelters, according to the report.

But Monday morning Circuit Judge Charles Williams threw the case out, saying Frangioni lacked the legal justification to make the arrest.

Frangioni, a 14-year veteran of the Sarasota Police Department, did not return calls or emails seeking comment for this story. Neither did City Manager Thomas Barwin.

Police spokesman Capt. Paul Sutton said Chief Mikel Hollaway, who was off Monday, will be reviewing the case today. Following the review the department is expected to issue a statement, Sutton said.

The arrest threatens to add to a rolling battle between Sarasota and the American Civil Liberties Union, which have clashed over various homeless issues.

Last spring, the ACLU accused police of violating the civil rights of more than 6,500 people over four years by using trespassing warnings to shoo people off downtown sidewalks. After a lawsuit was filed, the city suspended its program and is in the process of rewriting portions of its trespass ordinance.

The interaction between police and the homeless is the top priority for the local ACLU, said Michael Barfield, who heads the legal panel for the organization’s Sarasota chapter.

“We have been monitoring the efforts to root the homeless out of the parks, and have several actions planned against the city,” Barfield said. “So much happens on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep up with it. Every day there’s something new.”

The city’s policies toward the homeless have garnered unwanted attention through the years. In 2006, Sarasota was called the “meanest city” in the nation by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless, but eventually disappeared from the organizations’ lists.

It is not difficult for homeless advocates to point out that people with money are treated differently by city officials: for those able to afford an electric car, Sarasota offers free electrical power at vehicle charging stations throughout the city, including one at City Hall.

Gillespie Park is a quiet reserve in the 700 block of N. Osprey Avenue. It has a small pond, ducks, playground equipment, several picnic shelters and a police substation that is not always staffed.

There were eight homeless people in the park Monday morning, including two charging phones in the same picnic shelter where Kersey was arrested hours earlier.

They say Kersey’s arrest is just another example of the scrutiny from police that they face each day because they have nowhere else to go.

Maura “Cookie” Wood relies on the outlets to charge her electric wheelchair. She competes with others because the outlets are in use throughout most of the day. Wood said she is not worried that it may lead to her arrest.

“I hope they do,” she said.

Wood, 42, suffered a debilitating stroke and cannot walk more than 20 feet. Her speech is slurred. She lives with friends in a homeless camp but is trying to find an assisted-living center willing to take her.

Without the ability to charge her chair, “I’d be stuck,” Wood said. “They’ll have to arrest me for sleeping in public, in my chair.”

Angel Cowling, 45, and Edwin Sieg, 41, were charging their phones in the picnic shelter at Gillespie Park on Monday. They pointed out there are no signs indicating it is against the law. They rely on their phones to keep in touch with what remaining family they have, and in case they need to call 911.

Cowling said he became homeless only recently, after she and her husband separated when their home improvement business failed.

“It’s not fair,” she said. “These are the only outlets around here.”

Other homeless have similar stories.

“If I sit down, they come up, ask for ID and run my name,” said Fred Hall, 51, a North Carolina native. “If I spread a blanket and read a book, they arrest me for sleeping. It’s crazy. They do the weirdest things to us.”

Barfield, with the local ACLU, said Kersey’s arrest is a “striking example of the city’s war on the homeless.”

“What’s telling is this was the judgment of a supervisor, and that tells me that the war plan is coming from the very top,” Barfield said. “This is ridiculous.”

Holloway, the current police chief, will retire in January.

His replacement, Ocean City, Md., Police Chief Bernadette DiPino, said she was not familiar with the facts of Kersey’s arrest.

DiPino said she hopes to implement a community-based strategy for dealing with the homeless, in which civilians who are familiar with local resources can intervene, rather than police.

DiPino envisions social workers helping the homeless find clothing, food, shelter, medical care and counseling.

“That’s the direction to take. It’s not fair for me to comment on what they’re currently doing,” she said. “Getting help and problem solving is community policing at its finest.

“Arrests will always be an option, but sometimes there are better ways of handling things.”