Judge Rules Begging Free Speech
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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (AP) – A homeless man who argued that begging is a form of free speech – after he was arrested for asking a policeman for a dollar – has won his case.
By invoking a 15-year-old federal court decision that said New York’s loitering law violated First Amendment protections, 36-year-old Eric Hoffstead got New Rochelle City Court Judge Gail Rice to dismiss his case.
The Wednesday ruling nullified both the loitering charge and a misdemeanor drug charge stemming from the crack pipe allegedly found on Hoffstead when he was arrested.
The 1992 case applied specifically to enforcement in New York City and the state law, which prohibits begging in a public place, had never been changed. But when Hoffstead, who has been arrested 20 times in Westchester County – read about the decision, he urged his lawyer, Carl Birman, to use it. “This is a great victory for freedom of speech,” Mr. Birman said.
Hoffstead was still in the county jail on Thursday because he faces a trespassing charge in a separate case.
