AnonymousSource: Disability Rights California
After ten months of litigation, Stephen David Price reached a settlement with the City of Santa Barbara and individual officers over the summary destruction of Price’s property, which included a draft sequel to his published quizbook, scripts and screenplays. Officers destroyed these items without any regard for their value or a meaningful opportunity for Price to reclaim them. This settlement specifies terms to accommodate Price’s disabilities in all future law enforcement-related encounters and to ensure that the total destruction of his property never happens again. The terms for interactions with Price will also appear in a “Study Flag,” or notice, which will appear for Santa Barbara Police Officers any time they pull up Mr. Price’s profile. As agreed upon, Santa Barbara Police Officers must provide adequate time for Price to secure and preserve his possessions, and must communicate with him in a manner that accommodates his disabilities.
Stephen David Price was represented by the law firms of People’s Justice Project and Disability Rights California. This case will remain under the jurisdiction of Judge John F. Walter for three years for enforcement of the settlement terms.
In light of the nation’s discussion on police reform, this settlement highlights the need for alternatives to police intervention, such as utilizing trained medical and mental health professionals instead of police when responding to people with mental health disabilities in the unhoused community. CAHOOTS, (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), based out of Eugene, Oregon, has been using this model for over 30 years with great success.
In 1993, Price won an Emmy Award for a documentary entitled “Images ’92.” Price’s career spanned over 16 years, taking him from ABC News in Dallas, Texas, to CBS News working with renowned journalist Dan Rather. He also worked on documentaries that received many prestigious awards and recognition. In 2001, while driving to San Diego County to report on a high school shooting, Price was in a catastrophic car accident where he suffered significant traumatic brain and bodily injuries. As a result of these injuries and the inability to subsequently work, Price’s housing stability along with his health rapidly deteriorated and he found himself living out of his car on the streets of Santa Barbara. His car was eventually towed and impounded for unpaid fines, and since then, Price has lived on the streets. In hopes of finding a path back to his career, he often writes and creates works that he hopes will take him out of poverty.
Surveillance footage in this case showed Price’s drafts and works, along with essential belongings like his bedding, being tossed by Santa Barbara Police Officers into the bed of a truck to be disposed of as trash.
“Many people experiencing homelessness have no choice but to live outside, yet cities throughout the state punish them for being unhoused by ticketing and jailing them under state laws and city ordinances that criminalize life-sustaining activities such as sleeping or sitting down or using cardboard as a bed (littering) or possessing personal property in public,” said Joseph Biko Doherty, co-counsel and attorney with Santa Barbara-based People’s Justice Project. “Criminalizing and punishing people for experiencing homelessness isn’t just cruel and inhumane, it is ineffective, costly, and oftentimes illegal,” he said. “I hope this case serves
as a reminder that no one is above the law and no one is beneath its protections, regardless of housing or disability status.”
As the housing crisis worsens and homelessness continues to grow across California, Disability Rights California, who also represented Price, fought to ensure that Price’s rights were protected. Aisha Novasky, attorney for Disability Rights California, stated, “This Study Flag is a start for Santa Barbara to recognize the importance of disability accommodations. It puts all officers who approach Mr. Price on notice of his disabilities and that there is no excuse when they use communication methods that only exacerbate his symptoms. There is also no excuse to throw out his property without recognizing the value it has to Mr. Price. This case, to us, is how you protect your community: by knowing the needs of a person with disabilities and meeting those needs.”
By Larry Nimmer
Here is an interview I made with Steve Price, a well-known Santa Barbara homeless man, shortly after he settled a lawsuit with the City of Santa Barbara, regarding his Civil Rights being violated. [Above] is a press release from his lawyers.
It is a lie to say people have “no other choice but to live outside”. No one is buying this victim excuse. Sorry he turned this lie into taxpayer paycheck. There are plenty of places in this state where he an live on any relief benefits he now already gets. Try harder next time. But don’t pick high cost areas if you want shelter. This is not rocket science.
Peoples Justice Project is a small presence in our community on behalf of the indigent and unhoused population. Congratulations to Mr. Doherty and the Project for this effort. We need to support such work by contributions and political backup.
Was he a native, or did he just end up here because we have great resources? We need to pay cops double salaries if they have to be social workers too.
Now I really believe he hit his head. He is still babbling incoherent lies and weird stories. I remember when he show up in SB with a packrat old car ( not a new minivan ), flaunting what appeared to be fake press passes that some independent journalists use to squeeze into limited-access events. He yelled at people and scared little children. He hoarded trash and left his pile of junk and imaginary fairy dust in front of the Courthouse for years. ( was it trash? yes. I saw it first hand.) Back to the story about hitting his head.. seems plausible. Somebody just get him the help he needs and off the streets.
Mr. Price is a hoot. “The lawyers got a LOT more than I did…” 15 mins of fame, and Larry could hardly get away from him fast enough.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Zero. Hit a responsive chord, eh? Trona has space for you an all your friends, for no more than an SSI check. How can anyone be “down and out” the way you describe and still not qualify for all the generous federal welfare benefits that have always been on the table. It is obvious, you want people to live in Santa Barbara on someone else’s dime. So stop the stream of insults and say thank you for pointing this out. Game’s over. We don’t cater to grifters any longer.
Deeply impressed with Mr. Doherty and People’s Justice Project. They are the best of our very lopsided ™justice” system, representing what too many label “despicables.”. Those who make cruel comments must be profoundly fearful of the vagaries of fate….or forget there but for the grace of God , go you or I. It annoys such that life is uncertain with no assurances that money or denial guarantees against the unexpected or unpleasant.
That was a very interesting interview with Steve. I’ve seen hm around SB for years and wondered what his deal is. I knew I hadn’t seen him in a while, because I guess he moved on to Carp. I think some of the complainers don’t understand the nature of mental illness/damage. These people are not rational and cannot think/reason like a “normal” person, so it is unreasonable to say that he can live elsewhere with the benefits he already has. He needs a social worker or guardian to help him out and guide him.
5:53. You made the case for re-opening state-funded care institutions. Fairness and economies of scale. Hiring 24/7 babysitters for every impaired person who shows up in this town is not even a starting argument. This must be tackled by the state and utilize state resources, along with reforming the Lantern-Petris-Short Act, Senator Limon and Assemblyman Bennet need to stop wasting everyones time and get moving on this before their next re-election campaigns.
I agree w you Pit
Looks like a scammer who is living off the rest of us to me.
Steve is not a scammer. He’s not that organized. Obviously intelligent with dramatic, unpredictable mood swings. Can be charming, witty, creative and obnoxious from one day to the next.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck then it’s a duck. This guy has scammer written all over him. He lives his life at other peoples’ expense and now sues to get more.
Good luck Steve.
Hopefully you will finally get the disability benefits from your accident. Unfortunate that your valuable personal papers were confiscated and thrown away by those sworn to protect citizens.
What a tragic story. Hope the settlement allows for a roof over your head and a safe place to keep your writing.
Steve has his good points and his bad points… he’s an exaggerated version of many of us. I wonder if Steve would prefer to be a martyr than a winner of a big settlement… time may tell.
Byz, you clearly have no concept of things outside of your little window. Talking to you is like clapping with one hand.
BYZ – really sounds like you have no idea at all what you’re talking about. Have you ever been in need of these services? Have you ever applied for them? Have you ever found yourself even unable to pay rent/mortgage at some point? We know the answer is no. You’re a fake and phony. We don’t cater to fraud anymore.
Every SB tax payer should be appalled that their tax dollars are subsidizing this scam.Doherty(self promoting lawyer hoping for career advancement)plus Price(manipulative, lying sociopath)together orchestrated this scam. That is true definition of CAHOOTS! How convenient Price’s belongings were taken in view of a security camera. RU serious? Price claims no one offered him help. That outrageous lie
is a humongous insult to the perhaps hundreds who have.
You are praising a scam artist and general sociopath. This guy used to scream obscenities nightly near the police station when I lived there, for years. He would give me and my kids stink eye and scream towards us once we were across the street. Mr. Price, you seem to have calmed down lately, back on your meds, but I’m not a government employee and I think you deserve a different kind of justice. Literally the biggest piece of human waste in SB.
Doesn’t matter if he was a jerk, a scammer, or whatever. The cops destroyed his property, regardless of how you characterize it, without notice or chance for him to retrieve it. He lost work. He should be compensated. Easy. Would you all be this upset if he wasn’t homeless?
The government (police) can’t destroy your property without notice. That’s all that matters here.
It’s a little bit of a slippery slope though…
Walk past any homeless encampment and you will see a lot of “stuff”… how hard do we want to make that to clean up ? Not saying that’s specifically the case here… but there is often a staggering amount of stuff that sure looks like junk that I don’t want to make it too much harder for the cleanup crew to cleanup…
Admittedly I am not well versed in legal matters but hoping one of my fellow readers is savvy enough to answer my query. Because the city of SB is not a private business but functions in the public sector & because we live in the era of accountability & financial transparency, are we collectively as taxpayers, privy the the settlement amount in the Price case?
The question to ask about Mr. Price is simple and that is “why Santa Barbara?” He could have gone anywhere in his travels, but he opted for Santa Barbara. I think this debacle will encourage more houseless neighbor scammers to come on up and try their luck.
But again, why Santa Barbara? Could it be there’s a network within the houseless neighbor crowd that has rated and ranked Santa Barbara as the land of milk and honey for their ilk?
I know for a fact that during the covid mass influx of houseless neighbor campers here in Isla Vista it was certain members of the Isla Vista Community Service District with ties to the Home For Good organization that were directing the houseless neighbors to come to Isla Vista.
They promised them services. How did that turn out? Disastrous during the occupation, but the county and stakeholders managed to step up and rectify the harm caused by the “do good” parties that created the problem.
There is so much wrong with this story and what happened that led to the lawsuit, from the outside looking in it looks like Price’s legal team managed to find a loophole of sorts.