Home for 75-year-old Nancy Wood has been a tent — sometimes two — in Fountain Valley’s Mile Square Park.
But the city wants her gone.
Police officers have tried for months to persuade her to leave. Even the sidewalk would be a better alternative, police told her. But she stood fast, saying she had a right to sleep in the park.
Her insistence has led Wood to the defendant’s table at Orange County Superior Court in Westminster.
After dozens of contacts, officers began arresting Wood, tearing down her encampment and finally charging her with seven misdemeanor counts of being in the park after closing hours — each count punishable by a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. During Wood’s criminal trial Wednesday, three counts were dismissed by Orange County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Roberts because of a lack of evidence. A fourth count also may be dismissed Thursday, when the jury trial continues.
Alexandra Halfman, a lawyer with the City Attorney’s Office, said Fountain Valley will not seek jail time or a fine if Wood is convicted on the remaining charges. The city just wants a “stay-away” order keeping Wood from the park, Halfman said.
Police have long encountered Wood, but the last straw came in 2020, when her encampment stood in the path of a park reseeding project, according to police Sgt. Brent Emerson.
“She was physically blocking them from doing their jobs,” Emerson said in court.
During her opening statement, Halfman added: “The park is not a very good place for you to live, it is not safe (at night).”
Wood’s public defender, Daniel Maher, responded that Fountain Valley city officials are pursuing a case of “not-in-my-backyard.”
“She bothered nobody, she just wanted to live in her tent,” Maher said during his opening statement.
Maker said that at the time of Wood’s arrests, two shelters were available to the county’s homeless, none in Fountain Valley. The city is not a party to the agreement struck by U.S. District Judge David Carter in 2019 allowing some cities to enforce anti-loitering laws, but only if they have provided adequate shelter space and link homeless people to services.
Maher said officers, sometimes up to 10 of them, would surround Wood’s tent at 3 a.m. and then pull her out. Then they started to tear down her encampments, pile her belongings into a dump truck and haul her in handcuffs to the police station, where she would be released.
Wood’s defense is one of “necessity,” she needed to hunker down in the park to protect herself, Maher told jurors.
He added that the city’s version of help for the homeless is a pamphlet listing shelters where it is difficult to find a bed and phone numbers that nobody ever answers. If you leave a message, maybe someone will call you back, he said.
“The city’s position is ‘go to sleep on the sidewalk, as long as it is not in our park.’ “
Wood remains homeless in Fountain Valley.