From now on, when D.C. government watchdog Dorothy Brizill wanders the halls of the John A. Wilson Building, she says she’ll be wired for sound or toting a video camera.
Brizill, co-founder of DCWatch and a thorn in the side of the city’s executive and legislative branches for the last 20 years, was arrested and charged Wednesday with misdemeanor simple assault following an argument with a District employee. The incident apparently started when Brizill entered the office of Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso searching for the phone number of Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, director of the Office of Community and Parent Involvement.
Brizill claims Tara Bridgett, a Reinoso aide, demanded she leave, but denies there was any contact. Bridgett alleges Brizill grabbed the ID badge around her neck.
Metropolitan police officers were called to the Wilson Building, where they handcuffed and arrested Brizill and took her to First District MPD headquarters. She was held for about five hours. A court date is set for July 3.
“My parents didn’t raise me to have an arrest record, but I always thought that if I ever were arrested it would be for some grand cause — protesting for freedom and human rights perhaps,” Brizill wrote in the latest edition of The Mail, the twice-weekly DCWatch forum.
Brizill, who studied diplomacy as a graduate student at Columbia University, has been dogged in her oversight of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s school takeover.
Fenty said Thursday he couldn’t comment on the incident on the advice of counsel. At Brizill’s request, however, the mayor pledged to make Pinckney-Hackett’s phone number publicly available.
