Candidate for state delegate arrested during Chesapeake school board meeting

A candidate for Virginia’s 78th House District was arrested Monday on trespassing charges during a Chesapeake school board meeting.

Melanie Cornelisse was escorted from the podium shortly after she began her public comment, in which she criticized board chair Victoria Proffitt for being investigated for collecting unemployment benefits while serving in her elected role. The Virginian-Pilot reported in May that Proffitt was under investigation for her unemployment claims, though no charges have been filed.

Chesapeake police confirmed that Cornelisse was charged with trespassing and released on a summons.

Getting arrested wasn’t her plan, Cornelisse told the Pilot in an interview. She says the move was not a political stunt but an attempt to shed light on what she sees as an important issue.

“The school board members may want to try to say that I was attacking them or I was attacking Victoria Proffitt. I’m not attacking Victoria Proffitt,” Cornelisse said. “But I simply think that if she’s running for commissioner of revenue, and she’s been investigated for fraud, that that’s something that everybody ought to know because it concerns the future of millions of our tax dollars.”

Cornelisse, a Democrat, is challenging Republican incumbent James “Jay” Leftwich Jr.; Proffitt, a Republican, is running for Chesapeake city commissioner of revenue.

Cornelisse posted the full text of her planned comment on her Facebook page on Monday.

Cornelisse was escorted from the podium Monday at the board’s request but stopped outside in the parking lot and refused to leave, said police spokesperson L. C. Kosinski. Cornelisse said she was waiting to talk with a reporter.

When an officer told Cornelisse that she’d be arrested for trespassing if she continued to refuse, Cornelisse said something “similar to, ‘then arrest me for trespassing,’” Kosinski said.

Cornelisse was arrested.

School board policy prohibits using public comment for “personal attack against an individual” — a policy that Cornelisse believes was selectively enforced against her.

“People have been attacking them — really viciously attacking them — and screaming at them in school board meetings for the last year and a half,” Cornelisse said. “I think that there are a lot of questions that need to be raised about why it was that I was handcuffed and led out of there and threatened by police and escorted away from the podium.”

The Pilot reached out to Proffitt for comment.

Ali Sullivan, 757-677-1974, ali.sullivan@virginiamedia.com