Man gets suspended sentence for disrupting School Board meeting

Mendoza, 42, said he isn’t a troublemaker but is glad he did it. He feels like he sent a message to the School Board that the public will not be intimidated into blindly accepting its decisions.

"Parents will not be threatened," he said.

At the Sept. 16 meeting, Mendoza was angry that his choice for the next superintendent — Jim Rogers, the former chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education — was not selected. He also felt that the superintendent search process had been fixed by "backroom deals."

Mendoza, a retired labor organizer, ridiculed the School Board "as ignorant and good for nothing," specifically telling then-School Board President Terri Janison that she had a "brain the size of a pea," calling Trustee Larry Mason a "bump on a log" and referring to Trustee Carolyn Edwards as "her majesty."

When Mendoza exceeded his three minutes at the podium and ignored warnings to stop, Janison directed school police officers to remove him. Officers grabbed him by both arms and walked him out the door. They issued him a citation for disrupting a public meeting and sent him on his way.

Ken Small, a board candidate who ran unsuccessfully against Edwards in 2010, made a campaign commercial out of the incident.

Mendoza could face more notoriety because he could go to jail for 30 days if he runs afoul of the law within the next six months.

A plea was never entered in Las Vegas Justice Court because the misdemeanor charge against Mendoza could also be dismissed after six months for good behavior.

"That was the trade-off," said Brent Bryson, Mendoza’s lawyer. He said they decided not to contest the charge because "you can’t do any better than a dismissal. Mr. Mendoza is a good, law-abiding citizen."

Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterie accepted the deal after the district attorney’s office had consulted with current School Board President Edwards prior to the hearing.

Janison said she was satisfied because "we really weren’t looking for Mr. Mendoza to go to jail. We just wanted the message to be heard loud and clear that you have to be respectful at public meetings."

Janison resigned from the School Board in January to go work for Gov. Brian Sandoval as his director of community relations.

Janison and Edwards dismissed Mendoza’s allegations that the board had fixed the superintendent search process, which resulted in the selection of Dwight Jones, the former Colorado education commissioner.

Edwards said she did not know of Jones until his name was announced at the Sept. 16 meeting.

Edwards did not think the petitions that Mendoza had gathered in support of Rogers were credible because the petitions did not explain what people were signing, and she said the signatures also lacked addresses.

Edwards defended the board’s public speaker policy as generous and fair, noting that it was changed in 2010 to give speakers opportunities to react to the board’s discussions before a vote. Previously, the public was only allowed to speak at the beginning or end of the meeting.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@review journal.com or 702-374-7917.