ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A homeless man who used to get police tickets over and over for begging by the side of the road wins a major lawsuit and St. Louis County is ordered to pay him $150,000.
Robert Fernandez sued St. Louis County, after getting dozens of police tickets for begging by the off-ramp of Interstate 55 and Lindbergh Boulevard.
His attorney Bevis Schock argued that begging is "free speech," protected by the Constitution.
A federal judge agrees. Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. orders the county to strike out portions of its anti-soliciting ordinance and orders the county to pay Fernandez his damages.
Fernandez, a Mehlville High graduate in his mid-40s, filed the suit earlier this summer. County police have ticketed Fernandez more than 40 times.
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"The average person doesn't stand on the side of the road and ask for money," Schock says. "But the poor have always been with us, the poor will always be with us, there are a lot of reasons why people are poor. Sometimes it's because society has somehow caused problems for them, other times it's because they just want to be free."
Schock previously told KMOX that holding a sign asking for money is the same as holding a sign that says "impeach the president."
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