School Information System

Madison School Board member gets deferred prosecution deal

Chris Rickert:

Criminal charges against a Madison School Board member will be dismissed if she completes a deferred prosecution program, a Dane County Court determined Thursday.

Maia Pearson, 38, was charged in February with misdemeanor resisting police and disorderly conduct after a parking-related dispute in Downtown Madison on Dec. 19. Madison police say she and Brandi Grayson, the CEO of social services agency Urban Triage, had to be forcibly removed from Grayson’s vehicle after ignoring police orders to leave the car.

Under the agreement with the Dane County District Attorney’s office, the DA would move to dismiss the charges in about six months if Pearson completes programming as part of the deferred prosecution program and avoids any other criminal charges.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the programming would consist of. Pearson declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing, and her attorney, William Sulton, would say only that Pearson and the DA’s office had reached a deal.

Grayson and Pearson were arrested after Grayson refused to move her vehicle from a no-parking area near the Majestic Theatre and then argued with theater employees. When police arrived and reached into Grayson’s GMC Yukon to turn it off, Pearson reached over and tried to restart it, a criminal complaint says.

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