Disabled Homeless Veteran Arrested for Refusing to Leave Hospital
FREMONT — An elderly homeless disabled veteran was arrested at a local hospital on Tuesday afternoon—accused of creating a ruckus by trespassing, damaging a doorway, and elbowing a police officer in the face.
Police were dispatched to the hospital after the man was discharged, but refused to leave the premises. He stayed, pounded on the emergency room doors, and caused a disturbance.
When two officers arrived at the hospital they encountered 61-year-old Bruce Meiers, a man homeless for more than 10 years, known for reciting poetry in the streets of Fremont and Newark, and public drunkenness.
“He’s a very well-known transient. We have frequent interactions with him on a weekly, sometimes daily basis,” said Fremont police spokesperson Geneva Bosques.
Meiers was subject to a prior restraining order to keep away from the hospital—unless he required emergency medical care.
When the officers ordered him to leave, Meiers allegedly responded by elbowing one of the officers in the face, but the officer was not injured.
Officers ushered Meiers away from the hospital to the sidewalk and wrote him a citation for trespassing, but he refused to sign it. Instead, he immediately tried to go back to the hospital, according to the police.
Police said he threatened to cause physical damage to the hospital if he didn’t get what he wanted from the hospital.
The doors to the hospital emergency room sustained an estimated $500 in damages from repeated pounding.
The disturbance ended when police arrested Meiers. He was taken from the hospital and booked at Santa Rita Jail on September 19 at 7:46 p.m., where he remains in lieu of $87,500 bond.
Meiers is charged with making criminal threats, trespassing, vandalism, battery against a police officer, and contempt for disobeying an order to stay at least 100 yards away from the hospital—unless he has a medical emergency.
