Tuesday, July 13, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.
From his office window at 30th Street and Charleston Boulevard, native Las Vegan Don Walford has a panoramic view of a once peaceful neighborhood now blighted by crime.
He sees prostitutes who long ago were chased from the tourist corridor of Fremont Street jaywalk into the street to flag down potential clients.
Cars with dark-tinted windows and California license plates routinely pull into the parking lot in front of his American National Insurance Co. office to deliver drugs to street dealers, he says.
In a second-story apartment across the street, he once witnessed and reported to police a mother and father using their preteen children to make drug deliveries on their bicycles.
Fed up and looking for ways to retake his neighborhood from the criminals, Walford a few months ago joined a new Las Vegas citizens' rights organization called Downtown Advocates Monitoring of Justice Systems, or D.A.M.
He is proud to be among those who put the bug in the ear of city officials to go after repeat offenders by leveling legitimate misdemeanor charges against them, such as jaywalking and possession of drug paraphernalia, and ask Municipal Court judges sentence them to maximum terms of six months in jail.
"We did this effort to go after the habitual criminal, not the homeless as has been reported by the news media," Walford said. "We want the street hoodlums -- the drug dealers, those who commit battery, prostitutes and other criminals -- off our streets."
Last week, it was learned that among those affected by that apparent policy have been the homeless, who have been sentenced to lengthy stays in the city jail.
Walford said the media focus on the homeless in this issue upsets him.
"Each Christmas my family makes 100 meals for the homeless and we also give to the Salvation Army and other agencies throughout the year to help," he said. "We are not targeting the homeless. Being homeless is not being a criminal."
Many members of the group, who monitor Municipal Court sessions twice a week, said the judges appear to be putting away criminals, not the homeless, for the long stretches.
"Maybe every seventh person going before a judge appears to be a homeless man," said Doug DeMasi, a founder of D.A.M. and operator of Chick's Wheel Alignment at 10th Street and Ogden Avenue.
Before local news media outside his garage Monday, DeMasi read a statement: "We business owners and residents are outraged about the misrepresentations of crime downtown. ... There is absolutely no correlation between crime and the homeless. We are targeting drug dealing and prostitution and associated crimes."
The Rev. Stephen Smith of the Downtown Community Church at Ninth and Ogden streets, which has ministered to the homeless and otherwise poor, joined D.A.M. several months ago and also takes offense to being labeled anti-homeless.
"This is about targeting people who ruin the neighborhood -- the criminals," he said. "Sure, the charge may be trespassing, but then you see their rap sheets and they have a hundred arrests for drug crimes.
"This activity would not be tolerated in Green Valley or Summerlin; it should not be tolerated in downtown Las Vegas," Smith said.
City Attorney Brad Jerbic said that as part of the policy change, people with prior felony convictions, prior failure to appear in court charges and similar offenses can no longer be released on their own recognizance without a municipal judge's approval.
"We have plenty of room in our jail for them," Jerbic said.
The city jail at Stewart Avenue and Mojave Road had 1,221 detainees in its 1,200 bed facility on Monday, but being just above capacity is not unusual, said Lt. Karen Coyne, spokeswoman for city detention facilities.
She also said it was too early to tell whether the jail will have problems holding people for longer terms.
"If these are repeat offenders who are brought in here every month, week or every other day, then it (longer stays) might not impact us. It might even benefit our booking process because we would not have to book those people so many times."
Whether the jail cells are being filled with the homeless or by drug dealers and prostitutes getting heavy sentences for minor crimes, critics say the tactic tramples on people's rights.
Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, says that while he sympathizes with the community activists and understands their concerns, he sees the repeat offender policy as threatening the "integrity and independence of the court."
Jim Carmany, court administrator for the Las Vegas Municipal Court, said the judges are not being forced to follow the policy but rather are doling out tougher sentences based on how the deputy city attorneys present their cases and whether the charged person is indeed a repeat offender.
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