A longtime Mare Island Preserve activist and current Mare Island Heritage Trust President is saying her arrest Wednesday night by Vallejo police was unjust.
Seventy-year-old Myrna Hayes, serving as a volunteer at the San Pablo Trail Wednesday night, was arrested while she was locking up the gate. Hayes was charged with resisting, delaying, and obstructing a police officer.
The incident took place after Vallejo police received a 911 call just after 8 p.m. from a City of Vallejo Public Works employee reporting suspicious activity at the preserve property owned and managed by the City of Vallejo.
On Facebook Friday afternoon, Hayes said the arrest, coming from “a swarm” of “new hires acting badly,” had “devastated my life, devastated my health.”
Hayes said on the live video that she has swollen legs and a bruised eye. She said, “I feel I was illegally snatched and kidnapped for 12 hours.”
Hayes has served the community in an unpaid role as a manager, caretaker, and tour guide for the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve in Vallejo for over a decade and is one of the main organizers of the annual Flyway Festival. She regularly posts social media posts of the preserve, often calling the wilderness in the area “the wild near us.” On Wednesday night, she was nearing the gate to a trail to “close up shop.”
According to a statement from the Vallejo Police Department, a Public Works employee who was assigned to perform standard evening checks — which includes securing the perimeter gates after closing hours and inspecting the grounds for signs of vandalism or theft — noticed “a vehicle containing a driver and a passenger who were unauthorized to be on the premises.”
The city states that the employee “noticed a vehicle and its occupants initially depart the property, and then park immediately outside the boundary and began walking along the edge of the preserve.”
“Due to recent vandalism and a copper theft incident in the area, the employee was concerned that the individuals were casing the area and contacted the police department to report the suspicious activity,” the statement by Vallejo Police reads. “The employee provided the VPD Communications Division with detailed descriptions of both the individuals and their vehicle.”
Officers located a vehicle matching the provided description traveling in the immediate area. Police said that, “Before officers could initiate a formal traffic stop, the subject vehicle pulled over abruptly, and the driver immediately exited the car to approach the police vehicle. Based on the concerns reported by the City employee, officers attempted to detain the driver to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if a crime had been committed.”
Hayes contests that none of the vehicles had police lights on them, and she stated in her Facebook Live video that she thought it was another car that she would have to tell to turn around as the trail was now closed. She has been closing up the gate off and on for the last 16 years.
“I was closing up shop,” Hayes said. “Once or twice a month I’ll have a car behind me, and I’ll get out, run to the car and tell them if they wouldn’t mind turning around because I’m locking up. I tell them they’re free to come back tomorrow or another time and to have a good evening. So that’s what I did instinctively.”
Police said that during the detention, Hayes “repeatedly refused to comply with basic commands, obstructing the field investigation. Despite continuous requests from officers to control her movements, the driver remained non-compliant, ultimately leading to her arrest.”
Follow-up investigation by VPD said that, “neither the driver nor the passenger were city employees, and had no legal authority or operational responsibility at the preserve after hours.”
Hayes was then subsequently transported and booked into the Solano County Jail.
Hayes says she spent 12 hours in Solano County Jail, where she had “a massive panic attack” and suffered from not being able to be brought new clothes or food she could eat.
“I’m a type 2 diabetic, and they gave me no water and just one meal that was all carbohydrates, which is something I can’t touch,” Hayes said. “I had two pieces of baloney. It was extremely cold, and I was wearing just shorts, a tank top, and flip-flops. I mostly stood for the 12 hours to get off the cold bench and to keep moving.”
Hayes says she was picked up by friends the next morning and thanked them in her social media post.
“I’m getting such an outpouring of love and concern and tips from so many of you regarding this horrendous thing that happened to me, an accident, a big freaking accident,” Hayes said. “I’ve never been arrested or touched by police officers said. “Just a speeding ticket in college.”
Police said that due to the matter involving both an active criminal complaint and an internal administrative investigation, no further information can be shared at this time.