SAN ANTONIO – Two weeks after Edgewood ISD police arrested a woman at a school board meeting, records obtained by KSAT Investigates show police say she resisted arrest.
Edgewood ISD police arrested Maribel Gardea after she went over her time limit during public comment at an August 19 board meeting.
Gardera disputes this claim and the subsequent arrest.
Gardea is the executive director of MindShiftEd, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families advocate for their kids’ education.
She wanted to speak during public comment in both Spanish and English at the podium about a presentation from Edgewood police and the counseling department regarding “Student Safety and Awareness.”
The board told her to “go ahead,” according to footage from the board meeting.
According to the police report, Edgewood ISD officers were directed to escort Gardea from the podium after they said she refused to leave, according to the report.
The report states the district’s police chief, Jesse Quiroga, and another officer told Gardea to stop and leave the board room. Gardea refused, according to the incident report.
Board meeting video shows the officers walking up to Gardea at the podium. The microphones were cut off after her time was up, so there is no audio of the interaction.
Quiroga and two other officers “had to physically escort Gardea into the hallway,” according to the report.
EISD police told Gardea she was being detained due to disrupting the meeting and trespassing, the report states. Police said she refused after officers told her to leave the building.
Officers tried to put her in handcuffs after they said she was non-compliant.
“She then actively began to resist the detention by pulling her arms away and saying she wasn’t going to go into cuffs,” the report stated.
Video shows officers walking her to a patrol car outside of the Guerra Center, which is where the board meeting was being held.
Gardea was taken to EISD headquarters to be processed, where police say she signed a criminal trespass notification.
Hours later, Gardea was booked into the Bexar County Jail on three charges: disrupting a meeting, criminal trespass and resisting arrest.
The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office dismissed all three charges that same week.
Days after her arrest, Gardea told KSAT that Edgewood ISD “bullied me into going into jail and saying I did all these things, and I don’t believe that’s true.”
Edgewood ISD police said there is no body camera footage from the officers who handled Gardea’s arrest. However, bystander footage of the arrest shared online shows an EISD police sergeant wearing a radio and what appears to be a body camera.
KSAT Investigates reached out to Edgewood ISD Thursday afternoon for clarification.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
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