The defiant trespass case against a Jersey City parent arrested at the May 21st board of education meeting was dismissed at a virtual municipal court hearing this morning.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
While the hearing had been highly anticipated for over two months, the hearing was largely uneventful, with letting parents into the Zoom proceeding taking longer than it did for Judge Cynthia Jackson to dismiss the case.
“Ms. Pecot has been a tireless advocate on behalf of children with disabilities in Jersey City. She should be applauded for that, but instead she was punished by the government. Instead of protecting the rights of protecting people with disabilities, they choose to shoot the messenger,” Leo Hurley, counsel to Pecot in the matter, told HCV.
“Said different, certain government officials used their positions of authority to orchestrate the arrest of an innocent woman in order to stifle dissent on issues of public importance, in the exercise of her core constitutional rights in the most important of forums: Discussions in an open public forum among other Americans and their decision to do that is troubling. Almost as troubling as those actions was the refusal of the government to acknowledge the violations of the 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendment Rights of Ms. Pecot.”
He added that Pecot is calling on the BOE and the city to ensure a similar scenario does not happen to other community members, as well as “to focus on fixing the inequitable mess that is special education in Jersey City” instead of punishing parents for advocacy.
Hurley declined to comment if they were considering filing a civil lawsuit in the matter.
When Pecot, a part of the group Parents United for Special Education Reform, got arrested for allegedly disrupting the BOE meeting for yelling out, the story made national headlines and a cell phone video of the incident first posted by HCV went viral.
Subsequently, four Jersey City elected officials, including Mayor James Solomon, spoke out against Pecot being arrested, as did several BOE trustees – with the first being Tia Rezabala and Dr. Matthew Schneider, the latter who has since resigned from the board.
The police report of the incident says that BOE Director of Security Rhuddell Snelling and Board Vice President Dejon Morris requested the arrest of Pecot, with the latter listed as the complainant.
Morris denied that he or the board of education were responsible for the arrest, reiterating many times that the BOE has a preamble that is clear that disrupting meetings will not be tolerated.
Police body camera footage of the incident, obtained via an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, shows that Snelling directs police to arrest Pecot, noting that she had been warned not to yell out and asked to leave, which she refused to do.
“You’re gonna drive away a mother with children, disabled children, do you understand what’s happening here? You don’t understand what’s happening here and you’re doing something very wrong right now and it’s going to look really bad for the police department,” Pecot told two Jersey City police officers at the time.
” … I’m not doing anything, I’m exercising my right to be here as a constituent.”
Further, a recording of the 911 call made at the now infamous school board meeting reveals that Snelling was the one who called the police.
With the case now in the rearview, attention will likely shift to the 13-person BOE race for four seats, with Morris seeking re-election and Pecot helping another slate, “For Stronger Schools,” that includes parent advocates and former Trustee Gina Verdibello.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Leo Hurley, counsel to Emily Pecot in the matter. News correspondent Dan Israel contributed to this report.
