Hunter
06/23/21
An area transient has been taken into custody three times in a five-day period, turning down offers to take advantage of other resources to deal with his alleged issues.
The first incident occurred June 16th in the 1600 block of Langenberg Avenue, where 26-year-old Amos Lavela was called in for trespassing on the property. He was no longer welcome at the residence, and had been told so by the resident. Police say they spent between 45 and 50 minutes trying to resolve the situation without arrest, but Lavela declined all attempts to assist and help him. Officers asked Lavela multiple times to leave the property but he declined. They also offered several options to resolve his issues, but Lavela reportedly lost his documents and didn’t want to go through the process of replacing them. Mobile Crisis was called, but he refused to talk to a counselor. Police went so far as to offer to give Lavela a ride anywhere in the city, but he declined, saying several times during the interaction that he just wanted to go to jail. Officers had no choice but to arrest him and charge him with Trespass.
On the 18th, Lavela was ambulanced to Mercy Hospital for leg pain. He refused medical care and was discharged at around 3am, but refused to leave the facility. He asked arriving officers to take him to jail for Criminal Trespass. They offered other options like Shelter House, Guidelink Center, Mobile Crisis and the like, but he reportedly refused any assistance except for jail.
Lavela was taken to Mercy again by ambulance on the 20th around 1am. Arriving officers found him in a treatment room, and staff said that Lavela refused to talk to them and wouldn’t cooperate. Once discharged, he again refused to leave and said he wanted to go to jail.
Lavela was charged with a total of three counts of Trespass and the court has fined him $260 for each violation.