The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department ran Kayla Walton out of Calabasas for being poor and Black.
On the day after Thanksgiving in 2020, Ms. Walton was standing on the sidewalk near the exit of a Trader Joe’s parking lot in Calabasas. She held a sign asking for monetary assistance.
Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputy Konrad Thieme arrested her holding a sign asking for monetary assistance. He told her that panhandling was prohibited in Calabasas. And he cited her for a misdemeanor violation of Calabasas Municipal Code section 9.03.040. And he cited the title of the violation as “Panhandling.”
But there is no such prohibition on panhandling. Section 9.03.010 does not prohibit panhandling. And neither does any other section of the Calabasas Municipal Code. Deputy Thieme made it up.
Section 9.03.010 does prohibit certain types of solicitation. The section’s title is “Solicitation” (not “Panhandling,” as Thieme wrote). And it prohibits people from “solicit[ing], or attempt[ing] to solicit, employment from a location within a commercial parking area.” Essentially, section 9.03.010 appears to be a prohibition on day laborers seeking work within private commercial parking lots. But Walton was neither soliciting employment nor within a commercial parking area. She was panhandling on the sidewalk. Thieme’s arrest report concedes as much.
A passerby saw Thieme arrest Walton and began to film the encounter. Throughout the interaction, Thieme insisted that it is illegal to panhandle in Calabasas.
After we brought suit, the County quickly settled the case. We obtained $17,500 for Officer Thieme violating Ms. Walton’s First Amendment rights and briefly detaining her.