A court-appointed defense attorney for Dukes County said she’s seen an increase in additional charges pressed against individuals experiencing homelessness on the Island following a state-ordered clearing of the State Forest last month.
Public defender Casey Dobel said that after being ousted from Manuel F. Correllus State Forest in the end of July, and with nowhere to go, the unhoused are often in public, which increases the probability that they’ll get the police called on them.
At the end of July, in an effort to mitigate fire risks and uphold the law, state officials hired a contractor to clean up a number of encampments in the State Forest, which they said they’ve done in prior years. Some Island officials said that about two dozen individuals were displaced, and some lost personal items, like medication and identification, during the clearing.
One such individual is George Baird who was summoned to Edgartown District Court for charges of assault and battery on a household member and disorderly conduct. He appeared before Judge Joseph Hurley on Monday. Dobel, as his legal representation, told the judge on Monday that Baird is a father and tribal member who was homeless in the State Forest, and that the trauma of his removal triggered a relapse with substance use.
According to a police report of the charges, Officer Steven Mathias was dispatched to a home in Aquinnah Saturday morning to respond to an alleged disturbance between Baird and his wife. In what Mathias called an agitated state, Baird allegedly advanced toward him, despite multiple requests to back up before the officer tased Baird. He then transported Baird to jail that morning, and filed a criminal complaint. Mathias later learned from another officer that his wife said Baird had been physically aggressive with her.
On Monday, Hurley set Baird’s bail at $100 without prejudice. As of Wednesday, he’s being held at Dukes County Jail and House of Correction.
At the hearing, Dobel said that Baird’s story is similar to her other clients. For privacy reasons, she told The Times that she couldn’t say how many people she represents were impacted by the state-ordered clearing of the homeless encampments, but that it’s “a chunk of people” who lost their sanctuary.
The defense attorney said blame shouldn’t be placed on any one party. It’s not the fault of the police officer, the person who called the police concerned about an unhoused person, or the person experiencing a crisis, Dobel said. “It’s just an unfortunate reality of the world that we live in,” she added.
“They’re not necessarily dangerous or scary people, but they will, sometimes, if something’s going on, behave in a way that might startle some people, or might upset some people,” Dobel said.
The recent eviction from the State Forest could be one such trigger, she said.
Island law enforcement say that they have responded to some calls relating to unhoused individuals, but that there isn’t necessarily an increase, or a correlation to the clearing of the State Forest.
Police are on higher alert in the summer, and there’s more people around to take note of an unhoused person, Dobel said. Sgt. Max Sherman of Tisbury Police wasn’t sure if there was a correlation between additional charges and the clearing of the forest. Oak Bluffs Chief Jonathan Searle also said he didn’t particularly see a connection.
Lieut. Chris Dolby of Edgartown said their department deals with six to eight unhoused individuals, and that from his perspective, they’re picking up charges because they’re committing crimes. He said he can’t make a correlation between what happened two weeks ago and the town’s crime rate.
But Dobel said that forcing individuals out of the shelter in the State Forest has triggered an increase in relapses. Dobel said she couldn’t say the forest clearing was the only reason, but that stressors involved in losing all of their personal effects can trigger relapses.
A lot of these people, many of whom, she said, are born and raised Islanders, work very hard to try to get sober, Dobel said. “But losing all of your belongings … all of your medication, all of your life essentially, some of them are going to turn to their tried and true coping mechanism. And that’s just human nature. That’s not anything special to the homeless population,” she said.
She acknowledged that living in the State Forest is illegal, but “just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it is morally or ethically wrong,” she said. They weren’t bothering anyone in the State Forest, she added.
Meanwhile, across the country, reports of homeless arrests and evictions have increased. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this summer that cities can criminalize homelessness and ban people from camping or sleeping in public.
Dobel said that there is an unwritten Island rule joked about in the Dukes County courthouse. That is, “Whatever you do, don’t scare the tourists.”
