EAGAR - After failing to comply with a court order to keep homeless individuals from living on his property in a variety of shelters, none of which were meant for full-time occupancy, 'friend of the homeless" Glenn Jacobs is to spend five days behind bars.
At a disposition hearing held last Thursday, Round Valley Judge Sherry Geisler told Jacobs to get his things in order and report to court on Tuesday to let her know which five days he will spend in Apache County Jail.
For many years, Jacobs has allowed a string of homeless individuals to reside on his Poverty Flat property in what the town codes deemed inappropriate housing - campers no longer mounted on truck beds, travel trailers, mobile homes, etc., all equipped with inadequate or non-existent water and sewer/septic facilities.
Last year, Town Attorney Doug Brown pursued criminal charges against Jacobs for violating town zoning codes, and in April 2006, Jacobs was sentenced for 30 violations. At the time, Geisler fined him $540 on one of the violations and put him on two years unsupervised probation telling him he must remain in compliance with the code and be a law-abiding citizen. She also fined him 10 days in jail and $100 for each of the other 29 counts, but said she would suspend them if Jacobs remained compliant throughout his probation.
Over the past year, Jacobs, 65, failed to remain compliant to the judge's order.
Jacobs said very little at the Thursday hearing, except to tell the judge, "... the Town of Eagar wishes to put me in jail for doing a kind deed."