Blogger’s Arrest Charges In Meet The Candidates Scuffle Dismissed (2024)

A Nassau judge dismissed charges against a local blogger cuffed by police after livestreaming a meet the candidates night in Jericho.

Posted Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 8:41 pm ET|Updated Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 10:22 am ET

The charges stem from a meet the candidates night at Jericho High School in 2019 when Kevin McKenna was approached by school officials telling him that he was not allowed to film on school district property. McKenna, who is the founder of The Oyster Bay News, can be seen in a video posted to his Facebook and filmed by another attendee, questioning why he could not film and then appearing to struggle with school officials.

McKenna claims he was assaulted and when he called Nassau County Police to make a report, he was arrested instead and he was later charged with third-degree criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a violation.

McKennsa said he was “in shock” after the scuffle, but he stayed at the meeting.

The charges against him were dismissed because the Nassau County District Attorney’s office missed its deadline to prosecute the case, according to a decision rendered by Justice Tricia Ferrell in First District Court in Hempstead on Friday.

In addition to the charges, seven stay away orders preventing McKenna from having any contact with the seven members of Jericho’s Board of Education were also revoked. The ruling was finalized on Monday.

A spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas’ office declined comment on the dismissed charges. Jericho School District officials were not immediately available for comment by deadline.

Attorney Steven Metcalf of Manhattan said that McKenna could have served anywhere between one-to-three years in a state prison if he was convicted. He welcomed the dismissal also from a standpoint that his client would be avoiding incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Kevin’s age is a factor; even a couple of months could have had devastating effects,” he said.

Metcalf said that school district officials knew McKenna and they were aware that he regularly filmed meetings and they still did not properly inform him of their rules by handing him a pamphlet stating that he could not film the meeting. “Kevin was known. There was a target on his back upon him going there,” he said.

Metcalf credited attorney Martin Tankleff as instrumental in winning the case. Tankleff, a justice advocate who was exonerated for the murder of his parents in 2007, was able to research a roughly 10–year-old district court case establishing case law that helped McKenna out in his bid to have his arrest charges dropped.

Tankleff said that “defendants need zealous advocates that continue to fight” and pursue justice, but it helped that McKenna was willing to fight as well. “We see this time and time again where individuals just want a case to end,” he said, adding, that defendants sometimes want to take the easy way out by taking a plea deal. “In this case, Kevin said, “‘Absolutely not, I want to continue fighting.’”

McKenna claims that he should not have been stopped from filming because it is a practice allowable for several reasons, including that there was a quorum, or majority of the Jericho Board of Education present, and the meeting was held in a public place making the gathering a public meeting under New York State’s Open Meetings Law.

He said it was an attempt by incumbent school board members to “suppress” voters from learning about a challenger running for a seat on the Board of Education.