Schizophrenia

The suit said Dear is serving a 20-day sentence for begging after being unable to pay a $200 fine.

The suit said Dear was brought before Municipal Judge John Shea on Feb.

28, the day of his arrest, and found guilty of the misdemeanor offense.

The ACLU is seeking class-action status for all defendants jailed as the result of what the civil liberties group calls the court's ''pay or stay'' policy.

Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU, said Thursday that such a sentence ''means the rich pay to get out of jail and go home, while the poor stay in overcrowded Orleans Parish Prison to pay off the debt with jail time.'' Cook said the practice has been banned by the U.S.

Supreme Court and the Louisiana Supreme Court.

''It's past time for New Orleans to comply with the fundamental principle that rich and poor alike should be treated equally under the law,'' Cook said.

Pamela Metzger, director of the Tulane Criminal Law Clinic, said the city pays about $23.50 a day for each municipal prisoner, meaning it would cost taxpayers about $500 to house Dear for a sentence imposed in lieu of a $200 fine.

Metzger said those arrested for such common municipal offenses as begging, public intoxication and obstruction of public passage ways typically are in need of mental health treatment — now in short supply in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to Shea, the city's other three Municipal Court judges are named as defendants in their off...

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