Tony Phillips, 44, the homeless man who fought with a police officer assigned to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s security detail earlier this month after the officer pushed him twice, was arrested this morning for violating a court order as city officials did homeless outreach.
Phillips last week was ordered by a judge to stay away from Cedar and Larkin streets, where a fracas broke out between Phillips, 44, and SFPD Officer Joel Aguayo on March 6 after the officer pushed Phillips twice. On Friday, March 14, Phillips was released from jail with orders from a judge who felt he, not the officer, had been assaulted. He was given orders not to return to the intersection.
Phillips has long frequented the alley at the edge of the Tenderloin and has been known to set up camp there. His attorney, Ivan Rodriguez, said Phillips lives there.
Officers accompanying the Healthy Streets Operation Center, which deploys city agencies in response to homeless encampments “unhealthy street behavior” were offering city resources around Cedar and Larkin when they noticed Phillips this morning around 9:40 a.m., according to a police statement.
The officers “placed him into handcuffs without further incident,” the statement said.
Phillips’ other pending criminal cases include squatting, loitering, and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Rodriguez, Phillips’ court-appointed counsel, told reporters in court on Friday that Phillips was given a shelter bed after he was released from jail early that morning. Rodriguez was not immediately available for comment when contacted today.
The district attorney charged Phillips last week with assault and other crimes for the altercation with Aguayo, which went viral and raised questions about the comportment of the mayor’s security team and Lurie’s approach to engaging with the public on the streets. On Thursday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Sylvia Husing released Phillips from jail, stating that Phillips was the one who was “violently assaulted.”
Per the request of Assistant District Attorney Erin Loback, however, Husing also issued a stay away order that Phillips should not return to the vicinity.
Rodriguez argued against the stay away order last week, arguing that Phillips, who is homeless, “has a right to be in a public area.”
“He’s being accused of living on the sidewalk because he has no other place to go, ”Rodriguez said.