Newark school leaders seeking indictment of teacher union leader
Newark public school officials are seeking the indictment of a top officer of the Newark Teachers Union. They are charging John Abeigon, the NTU’s director of organization, with “defiant trespass,” a fourth degree crime that carries with it possible penalties of up to 18 months in jail, a $10,000 fine, and revocation of state teaching licenses.
The charges against the 58-year-old union leader arise from an incident in March that followed the death, probably as a result of meningitis, of an 6-year-old pupil from the Oliver Street School. Abeigon says he went to the school to determine whether it had been adequately cleaned and disinfected to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Newark school administration had not been totally honest about its handling of the tragedy, initially issuing a false report that the child had not been in school when she was contagious. A spokeswoman for Cami Anderson, the state-appointed schools superintendent, said officials had “misread” attendance reports.
Abeigon said he was ordered out of the school before he had the chance to speak with the teacher who had the child in her class. Instead of leaving, he took a stairway up to the second floor and did try again to speak with the teacher. He was again ordered out of the school. Weeks later, he was served with a summons to appear, not before a municipal judge in Newark, but before a state Superior Court judge, Siobhan Teare.
At that initial appearance–last Friday–Abeigon’s attorney, Joseph Fusella, was told by an assistant prosecutor the leadership of the Newark Public Schools was seeking a grand jury indictment of the union leader. That’s why it was in state, rather than municipal, court–and headed for the grand jury.
“I had never been told the charges against me until that day,” said Abeigon.
Another hearing has been scheduled for next month. The Essex County prosecutor’s mujst decide by then whether it will go along with presenting the case to a grand jury or reduce the charge to a disorderly person’s offence and send it down to municipal court.
This site has obtained the complaint signed by Douglas Petty, the principal of Oliver Street. Petty contends Abeigon “pulled away” from school officials while he was being escorted out of the building, “ran” upstairs and was later “found” outside the classroom of the child who had died and was again escorted outside.
The complaint from Petty calls the crime “criminal trespass.” The law cited is Newark school leaders seeking indictment of teacher union leader | Bob Braun's Ledger: