The city has dropped its panhandling case against Henry L. Coulter, the homeless man who — in exchange for change — helps people park in the vast public lot under I-4 near Church Street downtown `”City guards its million-dollar lot,” Feb. 19`.
Prosecutor Ken Hebert says he realized he’d need witnesses. When he encountered problems getting them, he backed off.
Coulter remains in jail on a robbery charge. But in dropping the case, Hebert — who insists the city is confident that its law banning panhandling in the lot and elsewhere would withstand a constitutional challenge — avoided having to prove so in court.
Apparently Coulter was the first panhandler willing to fight the city; absent a charge, he no longer has a fight.
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 1998.