The Great Everit Street Gate Debate landed in court Friday — and apparently will remain there a while.
Anne Higonnet, the 51-year-old Everit Street neighbor who was arrested Jan. 15 during a dispute with a Worthington Hooker School mom, appeared in Superior Court on Elm Street. She faces one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor charge.
Higonnet appeared in court with her husband, renowned Yale economics professor John Geanakoplos.
After a series of closed-door meetings with a court-appointed mediator, Higonnet failed to come to an agreement with her alleged victim, Stephanie Brooks. The case was continued until Feb. 26.
“We’re not interested in mediation. My client is interested in prosecution,” declared Brooks’ lawyer, Max Simmons, who works for New Haven civil rights lawyer Diane Polan.
Polan outlined her client’s position in a letter to the state’s attorney’s office dated Jan. 28.
In the letter, Polan asks the state’s attorney’s office to thoroughly review the case and consider adding “more serious charges” against Higonnet, “including risk of injury and reckless endangerment. I find it difficult to understand why the police officer charged her only with disorderly conduct, given what allegedly occurred.”
“My client objects to any final disposition of this case on the first court date, either by way of a nolle, a referral to Community Mediation, or any other pre-trial diversion program,” Polan wrote.
Click here to read the letter, which recounts Brooks’ version of what happened that day.
Brooks declined to comment to the press Friday. She refused to accept an olive branch at the time of the incident, according to the police report. Brooks was dropping her child off at the Everit Street gate behind the Hooker School — against school policy — when Higonnet confronted her. Higonnet opened Brooks’ car door, grabbed Brooks’ coat and yelled at her, according to police. After the dispute, Higonnet apologized and offered to shake her hand. Brooks asked the responding officer to press charges, according to the police report.
“My client was not interested in an apology at that moment because the actions of Ms. Higonnet had endangered her own life and the lives of her two minor children,” wrote Polan in her letter.
Polan, of East Rock, is a former Hooker mom herself. She was one of the most outspoken parents pushing for the new Hooker School to be built on Whitney Avenue, where it recently opened after a years-long legal battle that ended in the state Supreme Court.
Higonnet (pronounced hig-a-nay) is a professor at Barnard College, where she specializes in “19th century art, childhood, and collecting.” She is the author of numerous books, including a study of Lewis Carroll.
Small in stature, she appeared in court Friday wearing a pink cardigan and large glasses. She referred comment to her lawyer, Timothy Pothin of Lynch Traub Keefe & Errante.
Disorderly conduct cases are often tossed out if the two parties agree to go to mediation. Pothin appeared to pursue that route in a series of meetings Friday. All of the action took place on the sidelines, in conference rooms and in the hallway, before Judge Bruce Thompson even appeared in court.
At 10 a.m., Higonnet picked up her orange messenger bag and headed into a mediation room with her lawyer. They emerged a few minutes later. Brooks showed up about half an hour later.
“She’s dropping her kids off at school,” explained her lawyer.
Brooks and attorney Simmons met with the mediator in a conference room off of Courtroom A. When he emerged, he said he relayed to the mediator his client’s position: She will not accept mediation as an alternative to prosecuting the crime.
The two laywers huddled by a radiator in a nook off the court’s main corridor. Then they retreated to a private room with a state prosecutor, Mike Dennison.
They emerged about 15 minutes later and announced the day’s work was done. Dennison would take a look at the two sides’ positions, Simmons reported. He said the three agreed to delay the case until Feb. 26.
Pothin, Higonnet and her husband marched out of the courthouse into the icy wind. As they paused at a stoplight, Pothin indicated he’s not giving up on coming to a peaceful agreement with the other side.
“It’s an unfortunate incident that’s been blown way out of proportion,” Pothin said, “and hopefully at some point cooler heads will prevail.”