A Portland man's plan to help rid the city of some problematic eyesores -- and make some money doing it -- ended with a jury finding him guilty of 13 misdemeanor crimes and a judge convicting him of 22 state and city code violations.

John Phillip Maher had acquired a slew of decades-old RVs to get them off the street and salvage the metal from them, he testified during a three-day trial last week.

But he appears to have become overwhelmed and angry at government officials who told him that he needed a dismantler's license and a proper place to store the RVs before he tore them apart.

Maher, 55, then became part of the problem, city officials said, when he abandoned 11 derelict RVs on North Portland streets and refused to move them under police orders.

Maher's prosecution comes at a time when city officials have been on a crusade to clear the streets of dilapidated motor homes -- some that have been abandoned and others that serve as unsanctioned living quarters for people on the verge of homelessness.

In the past year, the city has towed about 300 RVs off the streets and public property.

Maher had collected at least 13 RVs from towing companies and was storing them on a friend’s grassy lot at 6048 N. Columbia Way last spring. After a city official told him he couldn’t keep them there, Maher moved 11 of them to the shoulders of the 10000 block of North Lombard Street and 5000 block of North Columbia Court.

That prompted complaints from outraged community members.

Over the course of weeks, the parked RVs grew even more unsightly as opportunists stripped some of them of their wheels or aluminum siding. One caught fire, and insulation and garbage began to accumulate around many them, investigators said.

“Kids were playing around them,” said Detective Jeff Myers, who tried to get Maher to move the RVs. “There were (intravenous) needles. It was just a horrible, horrible mess.”

Myers testified that he at first asked Maher to move the RVs with no intention of penalizing him. When days passed and Maher hadn’t acted, the detctive said he wrote Maher 22 citations for unlawfully storing property on the street and abandoning vehicles.

When that didn’t motivate Maher, Myers leveled misdemeanor allegations against him. And when more time passed and Maher hadn't acted, Myers ordered him to report to jail, where staff photographed and released him.

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Demer said Maher claimed he owned three tow trucks capable of hauling away the motor homes. But Maher offered no explanation for refusing to move them.

In a recorded phone conversation with police, Maher described dumping the RVs on the street as despicable.

“I know I shouldn’t do it,” he said in the recording. “I know it’s a disgrace to the neighborhood. ... I’m not a moron.”

No doubt, dismantling the RVs was going to be a big job for Maher. Before salvaging the metal from the motor homes, Maher said he had to first hire someone to remove the garbage -- including drug paraphernalia -- from the living quarters.

“These RVs were full of debris, such as bags of diapers, kitty litter, clothing,” Maher told jurors.

He said he also had to tear excess parts off of the motor homes and pay a fee to the man whose equipment he’d planned to use. Maher said he needed about 20 RVs to create an assembly line to make the venture profitable.

Demer said Maher planned on making $100 to $150 per RV from the scrap metal after expenses. For 1 1/2 days of estimated work, that could be $2,000 or $3,000 -- pretty good money for his time, the prosecutor said.

Demer said Maher could have run his business above board by becoming certified as a dismantler. The state requires auto dismantlers to get a license to ensure the proper disposal of waste water, oil and fuel removed from vehicles.

Maher also could have avoided any trouble with the law, Demer said, by working out a deal with one of the area’s 40 certified dismantlers to use their facilities. But Demer said that would have involved giving the dismantler a cut of his profits.

“I think his attitude in all this is the rules don’t apply to him,” Demer said.

Maher testified that he didn’t need a dismantler’s license. He said government regulatory officials simply didn’t understand the law.

But the six-person jury didn’t agree.

Jurors unanimously found Maher guilty of two counts of running a motor vehicle dismantling business without a certificate and 11 counts of attempting to run a motor vehicle dismantling business without a certificate.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Greg Silver also found Maher guilty of 22 state and city code violations for unlawfully storing property on the street and abandoning vehicles.

Maher will be sentenced in December. He could face days in jail and be ordered to pay $15,000 to $20,000, the estimated cost to the city of disposing of the RVs and cleaning up the mess around them.

In the meantime, the city is taking steps to address and regulate the proliferation of RVs.

City leaders said they're not insensitive to the homelessness crisis. On Sunday, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly announced that she'll ask city employees to immediately de-prioritize enforcing a code that forbid camping in RVs if they're parked on private property. Eudaly plans to hammer out a more permanent solution in the future.

And on Oct. 29, city officials are holding a free RV turn-in day for owners who want to clean their hands of their old motorhomes but don't want to shell out for the costs of their disposal.

-- Aimee Green