CORVALLIS - Three years ago, Dennis Sanderson was homeless and recovering from a gunshot wound. Now he's clean, sober and living in an apartment in Portland.

But he still believes the justice system treated his shooting differently because he was homeless and looking for cans in an alley when an Oregon State University student shot him on Oct. 14, 2006.

Josh Grimes, 19, was a member of the OSU chapter of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity when he shot Sanderson in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle. Grimes claims he was aiming for a trash bin behind Sanderson, and just wanted to scare him away.

Grimes was arrested about three weeks later and eventually pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. In April 2007, he was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 400 hours of community service at a homeless shelter and three years of supervised probation.

In a phone interview Thursday, Sanderson said Grimes' sentence was too light.

"If a college kid came snooping around my camp, and I shot him? I'd be doing 25-to-life," he said.

Angry, he went back to the AGR house a few times, yelling and intoxicated, although he knew he could end up in trouble. Then he thought of a wiser course of action.

"I figured I better get out of town," he said. "I came up to Portland, where I didn't know anybody to get in trouble with," he said.

In September 2007, Sanderson filed a lawsuit against the local and national AGR organizations, as well as Grimes. Monday, a jury awarded Sanderson $41,000 in economic and non-economic damages but said it was the local chapter and Grimes who were responsible, not the national chapter.

"I'm satisfied with the verdict," he said. However, he added, "I think they should have held the national (organization) accountable for it."

The civil trial was the first time Sanderson had seen Grimes since the criminal proceedings. Sitting at the same table as his shooter for several days wasn't easy, Sanderson said. That wasn't the only source of discomfort during the trial. Sanderson is undergoing interferon treatment for hepatitis.

"I felt lousy through that whole trial," he said.

How will he spend the money? Sanderson has a conservator - someone with legal authority to be in charge of his finances - who will decide how the money is used. About $6,400 of the money will go to medical expenses. The wound in his leg has healed, except for a dull ache that flares up when the weather changes.