A Jersey City police report for the arrest of Emily Pecot at last week’s board of education meeting says that the law enforcement action came at the request of BOE Director of Security Rhuddell Snelling and Board Vice President Dejon Morris.

Screenshot via reader submitted video.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

” … Mr. Snelling advised us that both he and the Board Trustee, Mr. De’Jon [sic] Morris, requested that a specific attendee, Emily Pecot, be removed due to her disruptive behavior. Mr. Snelling advised us that prior to our arrival Pecot was very hostile and verbally aggressive, and that they removed the superintendent from the board meeting due to concerns for their safety,” Police Officer Frank Rodriguez wrote in the May 21st report.

“We then approached Pecot along with Mr. Snelling and in our presence both he and Mr. Morris again asked her to leave the building; which she again refused. At this point we addressed her ourselves and requested she leave the building, to which she replied ‘WHY? I’ve done nothing wrong, I’m just sitting here.’We asked her again, and again she refused to leave so we placed her in handcuffs to escort her out and issue her a short form arrest summons for Defiant Trespassing.”

The report, which lists Morris as the complainant, also says that Pecot’s “colleagues” began surrounding and filming the officers after the arrest occurred, claiming they surrounded their vehicle and caused a disturbance, but no other arrests ensued.

The police report was obtained via an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request made with the city on Friday and it was released at about 4 p.m. today, roughly 90 minutes prior to the start of today’s special BOE meeting at their administrative offices, 346 Claremont Ave.

Footage of the arrest first uploaded by HCV went viral and four city electeds, including Mayor James Solomon, have spoken out against it.

Further, Trustees Dr. Matthew Schneider and Tia Rezabala denounced the arrest in a joint letter to the editor, with Trustee Natalia Ioffe also saying she did not agree with what happened on today’s episode of HCV Live & Uncut.

Up until this point, there had been no clarity from school district officials on how or why the arrest occurred.

Reached over the phone, Morris said he made a recommendation after repeated disruptions, reiterating that the school district’s preamble, or local rules, permits for such action.

“When she was disruptive in the back of the room, I asked the director of security to ask her to leave. She didn’t leave, police officers then asked her to leave, and she didn’t, so they arrested her. This came after the board president called a recess due to constant disruptions,” he said this afternoon.

“I gave a recommendation, because I didn’t think they knew, there is case law, it’s Brennan vs. the Board of Education, that says there is a 2C charge, defiant trespass, that can be applied to someone who won’t leave the meeting after they’ve been asked. Her actions, regardless of how passionate she was, caused her to be arrested. It wasn’t because she’s a special education advocate. It’s because her actions and her demeanor caused her to be arrested.”