Vallejo police arrest Mare Island park advocate while closing trail gate

VALLEJO — Longtime Vallejo resident and park advocate Myrna Hayes was arrested Wednesday while approaching the entry gate to the San Pablo Bay Trail on Mare Island, which she said she has been locking nightly for nearly 17 years. 

In an interview, Hayes, 70, said she was roughly handled by Vallejo police and was jailed overnight on suspicion of resisting, delaying, or obstructing a peace officer. The evening had started peacefully for Hayes, with a walk at Mare Island Shoreline Heritage preserve, taking photos with her friend, write-in City Council District 4 candidate Roxann Reyes.

Hayes said two left the preserve at 7:58 p.m. where a public works employee sat in his truck waiting to close the gate at 8 p.m. As they drove away they saw three Vallejo Police vehicles driving rapidly toward the preserve without emergency lights. They then drove toward San Pablo Bay Trail to lock the gate.

Upon approaching the gate, a car with blinding bright lights followed closely behind them. Hayes said she thought it was an ordinary citizen, and exited her car to tell the driver, “The park is closed. Do you mind turning around and going back out that gate? I sure hope you come back during the day and have a wonderful walk and a great evening.”

“I was preparing to make that pitch when the officer leapt out of the car and said, ‘What are you coming up on me for? What are you doing? Get get get! You're not authorized to do that. Get back in your car!’” Hayes said. “He did not identify himself as a police officer at any time.” 

Hayes said she turned back and the officer followed her the six or seven feet to her car. “He got on me, and as I tried to get in the car, he grabbed me and handcuffed me,” Hayes said. “And then the two other cars from the convoy came in.”

Reyes began live-streaming the incident on Facebook. In another Facebook post Reyes said that Hayes was “physically roughed up” by the police.

“I have a likely concussion,” Hayes said. “I have a black eye. I have a huge knot in the back of my head where he grabbed me and smashed me. My legs were completely swollen like elephant legs.” She said she has medical conditions PTSD, a brain injury, fibromyalgia, and diabetes. She said that the police took or threw away her blood sugar monitor and “it's nowhere to be found.”

Hayes said the arresting officers did not read her Miranda rights. “They would not tell me what I had done, and eventually, as they pulled away, I said, ‘What's the charge?’ and he said, ‘resisting arrest,’” Hayes said. 

According to a  statement released by the Vallejo Police Department, police received a 911 call from a city public works employee who reported a vehicle with two people who were unauthorized to be at the preserve. After the pair departed, they parked outside the boundary and began walking along the edge of the preserve. The employee told police he was concerned about copper thefts and vandalism and provided detailed descriptions of the individuals and the vehicle.

Officers then located a vehicle matching the description, but before the officers could initiate a formal traffic stop, the vehicle pulled over and the driver exited the car to approach the police vehicle. The officers attempted to detain the driver but, according to police, “the driver repeatedly refused to comply with basic commands, obstructing the field investigation” and was arrested.

Hayes and Reyes say the metadata in the photos they took that night show they were outside of the preserve gate by 8 p.m., when it is scheduled to close. Hayes said that only Reyes exited the car to smoke a cigarette.

Hayes said she has been responsible for locking and unlocking the San Pablo Bay Trail gates for nearly 17 years. The San Pablo Bay Trail is under the authority of the State Lands Commission and was designated as a nature preserve and recreational area after Navy environmental remediation performed by contractor Weston Solutions made the area safe for public access.

Hayes said that her nonprofit, Mare Island Heritage Trust, has a contract with Weston Solutions to do basic maintenance like trash pickup, sign maintenance and daily locking and unlocking of the park gate, which Hayes does with the help of several volunteers.

Hayes is a co-chair of the Former Mare Island Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board, a group set up by the Department of Defense to give local citizens a forum to provide input about cleanup activities and military base realignment in their communities.

Hayes said the board lobbied the Navy and state and federal regulators for a community walking trail on the bay side of the island. When asked who would care for the trail, Hayes said she raised her hand and said, “Our nonprofit will manage that trail into the foreseeable future.”

The Mare Island Heritage Trust was formed in 2008 to facilitate the management of the Mare Island Heritage Preserve, which was run by Hayes and other volunteers until the city removed the group from park management after a fire burned nearly 40 acres of the park in 2019.

After her arrest, Hayes was booked into the Solano County Jail in Fairfield. When she first arrived at the jail, she said they would not accept her because of her medical condition, and she was taken to North Bay Hospital for a medical examination before she was cleared to be sent back to the jail. 

Hayes said she was jailed with only the clothing she wore when she was arrested – a tank top T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. “It was just terrifyingly cold,” Hayes said. “They had to bring their officers and their nurses back in because I had a panic attack and collapsed on the floor.”

After that, she was given a long-sleeved shirt and bologna sandwich, Hayes estimates about 12 hours after she had last eaten. She said she doesn’t eat carbohydrates because of her diabetes. “I took it apart and just ate two pieces of bologna, and I used the bread for a pillow,” she said. 

When Hayes was released in the morning she said she had no phone and no bus fare. She said she thought the jail would contact Reyes to come pick her up, but she doesn’t have any phone numbers memorized so she wasn’t able to give a phone number. 

Hayes said she could not stand up when she was released at around 8 a.m. “I was having the symptoms of a concussion. And so she, the officer, slipped me onto a bench,” Hayes said. After resting for a while, Hayes said she slowly made her way to Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown’s office, using a chain-link fence and trees for support. Brown gave her money for a taxi, but then Hayes found that no drivers were available.

Hayes then looked for public transportation in front of the county building, but found that no buses were scheduled for the near future. “I started walking south, going four or five blocks, and hanging on to things, and trying to find a bus stop that would take me to the transit center,” she said. 

“I didn't find any, so I said, ‘If I just walk down Texas Street, it's four miles. I can stop in chairs and at cafes, and I can probably eventually get there,’” she said. But  she spotted two friends stopped at a traffic light, got in their car and tagged along with them back to Vallejo.

Hayes said she’s not painting all Vallejo police as bad, and has had positive interactions with many of them. She also said she believes in justice, and in helping people out who have been harmed by the “so-called to protect and serve people in blue.”  

“I can't be consumed by anger when I have a job to do,” Hayes said. “That is to tell the story and to and to seek accountability and to seek justice for those who aren't in my lucky position of having a public voice.” 

Hayes is scheduled to be arraigned in Vallejo on Nov. 19.