Judge dismisses charges against friend of birds

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Sept. 4, 1998 | 11:28 a.m.

Marion Goodwin is as free as a bird.

After a one-hour trial Thursday, North Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge Warren VanLandschoot dismissed charges against the renowned bird-feeder, ruling bread scraps are not garbage.

"I don't want my wife thrown in jail for feeding the birds tomorrow," VanLandschoot said, putting an end to the seemingly absurd 4-month-old case. "We agreed we wouldn't throw old bread away, that we'd feed it to the birds."

Goodwin became a jailbird May 25 when he was booked on littering charges after North Las Vegas Police officer Philip Hicks, a 27-year veteran of the force, spotted Goodwin scattering bread and birdseed in a vacant parking lot.

The 77-year-old war veteran said he owes it to pigeons because they delivered vital messages during World War II and provided food for his family during the Great Depression.

Goodwin escaped without a fine Thursday and VanLandschoot even gave him permission to forge ahead with his mission. The judge did, however, ask him to shy away from neighborhoods.

"Keep in mind that some people don't want pigeons near their homes," VanLandschoot said. "They nest on people's doors and do doodie on their heads. But it's not a civic disgrace."

Goodwin was not only characterized as a repeat bird feeder, but North Las Vegas deputy city attorney Emmett Lally and Hicks accused the longtime resident of being a drive-by bird feeder.

Hicks testified that Goodwin drove his van across a parking lot, tossed the bird food out while on the move and continued onto Las Vegas Boulevard. He was eventually stopped, his van was impounded and the evidence -- which amounted to a bucket of bird food -- was seized.

"He said he was merely feeding the birds," Hicks said of Goodwin. "He didn't understand that throwing something on someone else's property was wrong."

The question to be resolved Thursday was simple. Bread: Garbage or food?

"The whole issue of this case is going to be, 'What is bread in the long run?' " VanLandschoot said, setting the guidelines early for the trial that even had the judge chuckling.

"Was the bread edible to you, as a human being?" Lally quizzed Hicks. "I wouldn't have eaten it," Hicks responded.

Goodwin's attorney Andrew Leavitt handles murder and rape cases in North Las Vegas, but never before has he defended a criminal like Goodwin. He said the outcome of Thursday's trial would affect people across the city.

Senior citizens would be apprehended for feeding pigeons from park benches and people could no longer feed birds in their own backyards.

"If the city doesn't want people feeding birds, they should pass a statute," Leavitt said. "It is not illegal to throw bread for birds to eat, judge."

Hicks said Goodwin has been warned repeatedly. He was arrested for the same offense in 1996, but that case also was dismissed. Hicks added that police have received complaints about Goodwin and Hicks was ordered to catch him.

In the end, VanLandschoot said bread is indeed food -- whether it's for humans or birds. In fact, he said he and his wife often feed the birds that flock to their ranch estates home.

"Mr. Goodwin, if you want to feed the birds, it's not against the law. But stay away from duck ponds," VanLandschoot said, referring to a recently passed federal statute that outlaws feeding ducks.

After the trial, the judge answered a question that has passed through the minds of people who followed the case: Why would a city with a high crime rate and a tight budget pursue these charges?

VanLandschoot said the trial was funded by "soft money," meaning court personnel were working anyway and nobody was forced to put in overtime.

"I'm not going to say whether this should or shouldn't have happened," said VanLandschoot, who admitted he hadn't ever handled a case like Goodwin's. "It was a case that had to be heard. Some funny things were said. You have to have a sense of humor if you're a judge."