Jury sides with Bernice Pogue over Springfield Police

Presenter: The city of Springfield tried to break Bernice Pogue. They put their best prosecutor and their most qualified police officer up against her in court, where they spoke at length about their expertise in detecting drug use. For Bernice, it was much more than just an acquittal of a DUII case. It was Lane County residents telling her that they believed her. And that in turn gives credence to the story she has been telling outside of the courtroom, about local police harassment of the homeless. Bernice Pogue:

Bernice Pogue: I’m glad that someone—that you see it too, because that’s exactly what it was.

Springfield Police officers would just kind of, you know, park across the street from where we’re at and just sit and watch the kids and I mean, they are constantly driving by. I just know my experiences with them. So it was pretty constant.

And then if I was in Eugene, there was just a couple people who would work for the city—but not necessarily police officers, more park enforcement people—that tend to come out and mess with the homeless and tell them to move on.

But, you know, there was times where, honestly, I would have other people in RVs around me, and I’m the only one being targeted. I’m the only one being harassed. I mean, to the point where people were coming out of their trailers to watch and see what was going on.

My attorney at the time told me, ‘They are going to keep messing with you. You need to get out of that town. You need to stop going in that town.’ Even though my kids went to school there. 

So, you know, it wears on you because everyday, to get my kids to and from school, I have to worry about being pulled over.

People are going to believe them over me and they can harass me and put whatever they want on me. And what am I going to say? You know, no one’s going to believe me. It wears on you.

And the kids and I, we were being honestly woken up at like 3:00 in the morning on a school night, having to bring our slides in, and do all this because it’s not easy to move. People think, ‘Oh, you just hop behind the wheel and you can leave.’

It isn’t that case at all, especially when it’s your home inside. So you have to pack up certain things so they don’t get broken. It doesn’t—you know, no matter what, there’s times you can take a move and nothing falls.

And the next time everything fell and you just have to start all over. So it’s not easy to just hop in your car and move on when you’re living in your vehicle, you know, and I think that’s something probably I didn’t even realize until I was actually in that situation.

So having to do that 3:00 in the morning with nowhere to go, so you have to search and try and find a place where maybe you can park and get a couple hours of sleep and then your kids have to go to school.

My kids went from straight A’s to F’s. It was so bad. I ended up having them go live with their dad in California. So I spent a year without my kids and that, it still just really gets me.

So, it affects my life greatly. Not only that—the constant tows. The constant tows. I would run every resource I could get, ask for help, get it out. And then boom, two days later, they’re towing it again.

So honestly, I just couldn’t ask for any more help. I just had to be like, ‘It’s gone. I can’t keep doing this.’ I probably bought my truck and trailer at least three times just in the amount of tows that I’ve had, the amount I’ve had to pay in tows.

It’s not cheap at all because my truck and trailer are connected. So they tow them both. So that’s two vehicles on top of it. So that’s two separate bills that just rack up.

There’s just no way to get ahead. There’s no way to get to any type of okay. It’s not to even start to build your life. You just stay stuck. You just stay stuck and harassed and treated like you’re just garbage. 

I mean, even people walk by sometimes like this really nice couple. Really, I was disappointed, but I had started hearing, like, pounding down the side of my trailer and I had the door open. It was summer. I had the door open. The screen door was there and they—I just hear this pounding all of a sudden all the way down my trailer. 

And then this very nice couple just pop in and like, ‘You know, you can’t be here.’ I remember just thinking, ‘You know, you look way too classy to be acting so trashy. I mean, like, really, you know, just your humanity.’

You don’t feel human anymore. You don’t. You know, part of the reasons I shop at night is because during the day, you’re just kind of hiding out in your trailer because you don’t want the rude remarks. You don’t want the rude looks. 

You start hiding from the world because of the way some people come off and it’s not everybody. Some people just ignore you completely, you know. 

I have to say though, I had more nasty remarks or comments like, ‘Go get a job,’ or ‘Why do you think you get to live?’

You know, just, just nasty stuff. And it just, it’s heartbreaking. So it destroyed me on every level being there, quite honestly, and I honestly, truly did not think I was going to make it out alive.

And I think that was probably—it was just without a doubt—the lowest point in my life. Scariest point in my life. Left like, I’m garbage. I’m thankful I got out. I’m so thankful I got out. Carl Eisenbach took me home and asked me if I could have one wish, What would it be? And I was like, ‘To go home.’ 

And he took me home the next day, and on the way there, I was fine. And then it would just hit me and I would just start crying and just, it was a relief. And it was also like: ‘What the heck did I just deal with, you know?’

And just overall, you know, the treatment from everywhere and then that getting caught up in that court system.

One little ticket, you know, no matter what it be, you’re going you know, I was never sent to Community Court. 

But you know, I was having to check in, like I said, monthly and, you know, and I was put in jail twice for actually three times for reasons I shouldn’t have been.

One of them could have been questionable, I went to go check in with Ampm where I was parked because I just wanted to let them know I wasn’t going to be with my trailer because they would kind of watch it for me. 

Also, you know, a lot of good people in the community too. Don’t get me wrong, a lot. Very good. I wouldn’t be here without them. 

You know, I did what I was told. I was there first thing in the morning. Thought I was just signing a contract with pretrial services. So I ended up getting out, like, after lunch the next day.

So I don’t know how and I don’t know why, because I parked right in front of the courthouse. But when I got there, my car was still there without a tag and I was in two-hour parking.

So, you know, I think more people than I even know, were watching out for me and helping because that’s just not downtown Eugene, not right next to the courthouse. It doesn’t happen.

So it was a roller coaster. It was like, there’s good and then there’s bad. It’s a lot. It breaks you. It’s too much. No one should be on that kind of a roller coaster all the time. You can’t—how do you keep your sanity, you know? Yeah.

And it’s not like stuff you have control over like, because it didn’t matter what I was doing. If someone felt like coming to bother me about something, they got to come bother me. And there is not much I could do.

And then when my kids were gone, it was even harder because I don’t think there was much holding back on some of the harassment. So I literally lost everything. Everything. Like nothing to show for it.

My mother had passed, last year. I don’t even have her ashes. I don’t have any pictures. I don’t have anything. Everything’s gone. So, you know, most of us didn’t have a house and work up and save things, collect things.

I have to start all over. I’m 53 years old and I don’t have a thing to my name. And what all these tickets and stuff look like, even found not guilty, it still shows up. It’s going to affect me for a long time.

I found out that if you do a background check on me, there’s some nice little highlighted letters, saying that I’m on the government watch list.

How many people are going to actually ask me why or look into why? They’re not going to. They’re going to say, ‘I don’t think so.’ They’re gone.

So, you know, I’m happy that I had my day in court. The truth got to come out. And it turned out the way it did. Honestly, even if it didn’t turn out that way, I wanted my trial, I didn’t care. That was what it was for me. I was not just going to just take it. 

For two years. I was told, ‘Do a diversion.’ They would even threaten, like, talk sternly to people who went to court with me, friends, support systems say, ‘You need to talk her into doing this.’

Two years, two years. I ended up getting so mad. I’m like, ‘You ask me one more time for violating my rights. I’m like, I’m so tired I’m not doing a diversion. I want to go to trial.’ 

So I literally had three different attorneys. Some of them, I think, were trying to be a little nice to me because they knew something wasn’t smelling right. So again, I’m thankful for that. You know, those people who do quietly without anyone knowing, come and try and, you know, do the right thing when other people they’re working with are not. So, I’m very grateful for them.

They didn’t expect me to be prepared and have my ducks in a row and come back with all the receipts and all the proof.

But that was a changing point for me also because it made people aware that something was going on. So now there’s a judge in Springfield who, if my name comes across his desk, he may not deal with me. He needs to pass it on. Same thing with other people. So that shed light on it. 

And so when it was time for me to do trial there, when I said, ‘I just don’t trust this court, I want out, I want, I want a different venue, I want, I want out.’

And they were first told me I couldn’t do that, that I only had that option when I was first arraigned, and then after that, I can’t do that. I can’t request a different one. 

So, I was pretty bummed. But the next morning my attorney called and said that they had figured out a way that they were like, I guess like in a week they were going to become a court of record and they weren’t before.

So I did it. And I’m glad I did it, because that’s how I ended up with the team I had and who really listened to me, really did their homework, really dived in. And I am so, so happy that I got to speak my truth, that all the truth came out.

Because, you know, it’s one thing when you have people, you know, neighbors and stuff or something that don’t like you, or it’s way different than having somebody in power who, who knows that people are going to believe them over, you know, a normal citizen or, or me or me.

So, hard path. But it got me where I needed to be. And I am not broken. I absolutely love who I am right now. I am so comfortable in my skin. I’m ready to live life. I have time to make up for it. I just want this to stop. You know, I’m lucky I got lucky. But I almost didn’t, you know.

And I had a lot going for me. And I have a lot of opportunities. Not everybody is hard headed as can be. Even when a part of me says, ‘Just do as they’re saying, you’re putting yourself in more danger.’ My stubborn self just: ‘No, no, no.’

So I feel for people who are already broken or just don’t, I don’t know, it’s—We could be doing better. We shouldn’t be treating each other like this. We’re all struggling. 

And it’s easier to pick on someone who has it worse off than you than to say, you know what? I might end up there too. I’m struggling too, you know, struggle. Struggle—there’s no normal day to day. You don’t wake up, take a shower, you know. There’s no schedule, there’s no, you know, routine.

There’s nothing because you’re at the mercy of whomever whenever and then I’m starting to say, ‘Look, I’m being harassed,’ you know, my kids are blaming like, ‘No, the cops keep coming over, keep coming over, you know, keep doing this.’ So they’re hearing it from all of us. 

And then once that stupid DUII thing happened, of course I’m telling my family, you know, ‘Hey, this just happened.’ And I did show them my breathalyzer. 

I will come back a little more, you know, and so people are thinking, like, ‘Is she on drugs?’ you know, blah, blah, blah. So in ways, it made it easier for them to maybe accept what I was going through.

So I get it. It hurts. It wasn’t true. It hurts when you want your support system, your family to have your back, not further knock you down. I think it just hurts even more. 

It’s not like I can brush it off and be like, you know, no, I, I’m in tears. I feel, you know, so not, not really accepted, not wanted, and not understood anymore at all. And it kind of sucks when I’m feeling like myself again. So excited. I’m not ready for those little remarks or those little blows or someone’s, you know. So, you know, there’s a lot.

So it’s a lot. And I, the people that are still in it, I, my heart bleeds and I will, I promise I’ll keep speaking out. I will be doing whatever I can to help shed light because I don’t think people truly get the intensity and how just rotten it is.

Presenter: Bernice Pogue’s story of ongoing harassment by local police is now on the record, and so is a jury verdict that says, ‘Bernice, we believe you.’

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See also: Springfield Police tell the homeless: Move out of the city