A homeless woman was arrested Monday for trespassing at a public restroom in Leesburg that she had been warned away from the previous month.
An officer with the Leesburg Police Department responded to a suspicious person in a public restroom, located at 305 W. Main St., around 6:22 a.m., Nov. 22, according to a Lake County notice to appear. Dispatch advised they received a call from a complainant who stated a man was in the men’s restroom, and woman was sleeping in the women’s restroom.
Upon arrival, the officer met with both subjects, one of whom was identified as 54-year-old Dianne Kujawa. Both subjects stated they were in the restroom to seek shelter from the weather, the notice said.
The complainant got to the scene and advised that he was an employee of the City of Leesburg. He requested both subjects be trespassed from the location. He also stated they locked the bathroom while they were inside of it, and the public was unable to access the facilities, the notice said.
The male suspect was trespassed, and he signed a trespass warning, the notice said.
Dispatch advised that Kujawa had been trespassed from the location before. Due to this, she committed the offense of trespass after warning. She was issued a misdemeanor citation and summoned to appear at Lake County Courthouse on the morning of Dec. 11. She signed the summons and agreed to appear at her court date, the notice said.
However, at about 8:53 a.m. Monday, another LPD officer spotted Kujawa back at the same public restroom, according to an arrest report from the LPD. She was sitting down outside the stalls inside the women’s restroom.
While speaking with Kujawa, dispatch advised that she had been issued a misdemeanor citation in November for trespassing in the restroom. She was then detained, during which she said that her trespass had been removed by a Lake County judge, the report said.
Kujawa was ultimately charged with trespass after warning. The New Jersey native was transported to Lake County Jail with bond set at $1,000.
This case comes after Leesburg officials warned that the homeless were a threat to the city’s downtown area, including where the restrooms are located, in October. Following a public hearing later that month, advocates urged commissioners to help Leesburg’s homeless rather than criminalize their condition.