SANTA ANA – A local homeless advocate was successful this week in fighting a citation he received for riding his bicycle without a bike license, which is a crime in Santa Ana, after a judge said his bike was apparently subjected to an unlawful search.

Igmar Rodas, who represented himself at the trial Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court, told Judge James Crandall that Officer Salvador Lopez had turned his bike upside down to look for a bike license without his consent. Lopez, in turn, said it was a necessary step to check if the bike was licensed.

Crandall dismissed the citation, saying the bike flipping raised constitutional concerns.

“It does appear there was an unlawful search of the bicycle at that time,” Crandall said.

Santa Ana’s municipal code bans cycling on a bike that hasn’t been registered with the city, a requirement that is apparently little-known in the city of 330,000 people.

The judge asked Lopez what portion of bikes in Santa Ana were licensed.

“I’d probably say it’s a very low percentage,” the officer replied.

At the same time, Crandall upheld the other citation Rodas received, under a different Santa Ana law: cycling on a sidewalk in a business district. The area did meet the state Vehicle Code’s definition of a business district, Crandall said.

Together, the two bicycle citations would have cost Rodas nearly $400 in fines and assessments.

Lopez, who patrols the Civic Center, an area dominated by a homeless encampment, questioned how he was supposed to enforce the bike license law without turning a bike upside down.

Crandall suggested he could look underneath a bike or check the city’s database of bike licenses.

When an officer flips a bicycle upside down, Crandall said, “that becomes a search.”

Lopez said he and his partner, Officer Joe Castellanos, were driving south on Flower Street on May 20 when they saw Rodas riding north on the sidewalk toward Santa Ana Boulevard.

The two officers made a U-turn to cite Rodas for riding on the sidewalk, Lopez said, and the officers also noticed he didn’t have a bike license, prompting the second citation.

Rodas, on the other hand, told the judge he had been riding in the street, as allowed by law, until he saw the officers make their U-turn, and went onto the sidewalk to get out of their way.

Rodas, who is an outspoken critic of the Santa Ana Police Department, told Voice of OC he assisted several Civic Center homeless people in filing written complaints against Lopez and Castellanos recently. He started helping prepare the complaints before his May 20 citation and then submitted them in June, he said.

During the trial, he claimed to have expected retaliation for his activism.

Lopez firmly denied any retaliation.

“There’s no specific individuals … I target,” Lopez told the judge. “That’s not accurate, sir.”

Rodas sought, and received, a 30-day stay of the sidewalk riding ruling so he could prepare an appeal.

Earlier in the morning, Crandall – who frequently greeted defendants and police officers with a smile and a “good morning” – was surprised to learn of another Santa Ana law, one that bans standing on medians.

A man had been selling flowers on a median and was cited, without a warning, by an officer.

“That’s against the law?” Crandall asked the officer, noting that such scenes are common.

The fine for the ticket was $295.

“That’s a lot of flowers,” Crandall quipped.

While finding the man guilty, citing the fact that the law is the law, Crandall waived the fine.

“I just think that you’re out trying to make a living,” which is “commendable,” Crandall said, but people do have to follow laws.

The bike license and sidewalk riding laws were enacted in the 1970s, while the median law was first enacted in the 1950s and last updated in 1999.

The city of Long Beach, which many biking advocates consider a regional leader on bike-friendliness, eliminated its bike license requirement in 2011. Los Angeles ended its licensing mandate in 2009.

For a longer version of this story, see voiceofoc.com.

Contact the writer: Contact Nick Gerda at ngerda@gmail.com Voice of OC is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on public policy in Orange County.