SWAMPSCOTT — The report from an independent investigation into the December arrest of a Black Lives Matter protester will be released to the public by 5 p.m. Tuesday, with a meeting to discuss the contents of the report scheduled for the following evening.
The Swampscott Select Board voted Thursday to release a redacted version of the report, which was compiled by Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI), a municipal consulting company based in New Hampshire.
“I believe the release of the report, even in redacted form, is important so we as a community can have an open and honest dialogue about our community’s role in this process, and to allow us to begin, to the extent needed, to take corrective measures and begin healing,” said Select Board Chair Peter Spellios in the meeting.
The investigation reviewed the December 12 arrest of Ernst Jean-Jacques after a pro-Trump protest in Monument Square. Jean-Jacques was participating in a counter-protest when Donald Trump supporter Linda Greenberg, 80, threw water from a plastic bottle at him. In video from the incident, Jean-Jacques appears to move his arm toward Greenberg; he is charged with assault after Greenberg said he punched her, but Jean-Jacques maintains that he simply tried to take the bottle away.
The town originally planned not to release the report until after Jean-Jacques’ next criminal hearing on March 29.
In Thursday’s meeting, Jean-Jacques’ lawyer, Murat Erkan, asked the board to release the report. Some board members were concerned that doing so would infringe on the defendant’s right to due process in the ongoing criminal case, but Erkan did not share those concerns.
“Mr. Jean-Jacques has nothing to hide. He acted innocently on the day in question,” Erkan said. “The contents of the report, in my view, will only aid in the revelation of what in fact occurred in this case and accountability for the choices and incorrect choices that might have been made along the way.”
On the Wednesday following the release of the report, the board plans to have a meeting with MRI to go over the results of the investigation so that the public can better understand its implications. This meeting will take the place of the Select Board’s regular agenda, with a second meeting scheduled on Thursday to address the planned agenda items (in the event that MRI is not available on Wednesday evening, these two meetings may be switched).
“It requires context, not to explain things away, but to explain things,” said Spellios of the report.
All but one of the Select Board members voted to release the report on Tuesday. Neal Duffy voted against it, saying that he would prefer to wait until after Jean-Jacques’ March 29 hearing to allow the court to make a judgment on whether the report should be released.
Select Board member Polly Titcomb disagreed, saying that in the event the court rules that it should not be made public, that would require the town to wait until the end of a potentially months-long criminal case.
“My concern is … that would actually divide us even more, the more time goes by and the more this waits,” Titcomb said. “This isn’t about sides. It’s about having information and having a conversation about it. I’m afraid that if six or nine months go by, it won’t have the feeling of importance as the dialogue does now.”
