Homeless gardener released from jail
A packed courtroom in Martinez erupted into applause Wednesday when a judge ordered the immediate release of Jorge Orozco nearly two months after he was jailed for trespassing as he turned a weed-choked riverbank in Pleasant Hill into a sculpted garden of flowers and stonework.
Orozco, 35, stood behind tinted glass in a yellow jail jumpsuit, looking a little stunned as Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Julia Campins issued her ruling and ordered him back to court on May 9. That’s when a separate judge will decide whether to dismiss the charges against him.
“Do we have people who can help him remember to come to court?” she asked the full gallery. A half-dozen hands went up, but it was Jennifer Su, who has been leading the support for Orozco, who rose and said she would take responsibility.
“I’m relying on his community support,” Campins said with a smile. “Yes, your honor,” Su responded, beaming.
Outside the courtroom, the 30 or so people who came to support Orozco, who is unhoused, shook hands all around and hugged in disbelief that Orozco had won release. The challenge now is to find a place for him to stay, given that the judge also ordered him not to return to the spot along Grayson Creek where he crafted his landscaping and lived in a makeshift shack.
But Su — who lives near Orozco’s garden and got to know him as she walked her dogs nearby — said the crowd has a few possibilities where Orozco might find at least a temporary home.
“I thought maybe we’d be able to bail him out, but this is even better,” she said. “I’m happy and optimistic that things will work out.”
Su and a group of well-wishers greeted Orozco on Wednesday evening as he walked out of the jail in Martinez, wearing a white T-shirt, black jeans and a grateful grin.
“I’m very happy, thank you,” he told them. “I will be OK. I am for sure going to the court hearing next week.”
One of the supporters offered to let him stay at his house, and Orozco took a ride there with several of the well-wishers.
The groundswell of support began in March after Orozco was arrested near the garden he maintains along Grayson Creek where it flows beneath Golf Club Road. County officials have dismantled his 200-foot-long creation several times, saying his work was counterproductive to their flood-control efforts, and he was booked into county jail on five misdemeanors including trespassing and injuring property, public nuisance and possession of drugs.
His garden was dismantled yet again in early April, and since then neighbors said the area has become a party spot, where people throw rocks at ducks and geese and leave garbage on the riverbank.
“I was shocked to learn they dug up his whole garden, ruined it, so I had to come today,” Casey Conroy said as he waited for the hearing to start. “Jorge is such an artist, a real community member and asset.”
He looked at the filled seats around him. “I’ve never seen anything like this happening in Pleasant Hill,” he said. “But then I’ve never seen anyone do what he does — take a block of land and turn it into something beautiful.”
Orozco had been gardening and living at the riverbank for a year and a half, and though many local folk considered him a treasured neighbor, environmentalists working to maintain the creek said he was damaging the landscape.
Members of Friends of Pleasant Hill Creeks said Orozco’s garden displaced native plants already there and introduced invasive species to the soil.
Local residents and business people, however, say Orozco’s cheery demeanor and attractive garden are a pleasure to have alongside adjacent Chilpancingo Park and a trail that winds by the creek.
Conroy, Su and others said they’d like to see him apply his gardening skills to a government, business or any other entity that might employ him.
Before becoming homeless a few years ago, friends of Orozco say he ran a one-man landscaping business, and his expertise showed in his work at the Creek: Carefully shaped bushes, purple and red flowers waving from heart-shaped planters molded from rocks, and pathways of inlaid stones. Before he came, locals said, there were disruptive campers on the bank who left trash and made noise, but his placid presence made them move on.
Neighbors and people who use the trail said he continuously cleaned up trash and weeded the park, as well as the sidewalks along nearby businesses. This week, they hung banners on the bridge that goes over what used to be the garden and Orozco’s shelter, reading “Paradise Lost,” and “Free the Gardener.”
Lomo Love of Concord said he met Orozco several years ago when he ran a landscaping business in the area and lived in a pickup truck-trailer combination.
“He wasn’t just a mow-and-blow gardener,” Love said. “He was a full-service garden and tree service — he could fell trees, climb around them like a monkey, do beautiful gardening. I had him come to my house once, and he did great work.”
Love said three years ago, thieves stole all of Orozco’s equipment, and shortly afterward he lost his trailer and truck “for some other reason I don’t know.” That’s when Orozco started camping under an overpass on Monument Boulevard, “and he dug out the embankment into three rooms.
“He brought in rugs and plywood — it was very orderly,” said Love. Orozco got evicted from that site, and that’s when he wound up under Golf Club Road.
“This is so fantastic to see,” Orozco’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Gabrielle Alexander, told the courtroom after the judge’s ruling. “It’s wonderful community support. Unfortunately we don’t see it that often, but it’s so very nice to see it here now.”
“I was shocked to learn they dug up his whole garden, ruined it, so I had to come today. Jorge is such an artist, a real community member and asset. I’ve never seen anything like this happening in Pleasant Hill.” Casey Conroy, community member