NORTHEAST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Prosecutors have dropped a felony charge against a man accused of threatening to burn his son’s school in Northeast Miami-Dade to the ground.
The charge was dropped at the parent’s court hearing, Wednesday morning.
“Well, somebody’s striking a blow for the First Amendment, sir,” said the presiding judge.
Mark Polyakov, 37, was accused of threatening to burn down Hillel School, a private Jewish institution where his 4-year-old son once attended, over their mask mandate policy.
Polyakov on Wednesday reacted to the dismissal of his charges.
“Going to jail? For what? What did I do?” he said.
Mark Eiglarsh, the attorney representing Polyakov, said his client’s messages were taken out of context.
On Feb. 8, Polyakov was discussing the mask policy in a group chat with other parents. The chat was titled “No More Masks Hillel.”
Police said Polyakov texted in the chat, “I want to this [expletive] school the the ground! This is what they are doing outside forcing [expletive] masks 80 degrees. You can’t be nice, gets you nowhere.”
Police said Polyakov followed these remarks by another message that read, “My attorneys are preparing.”
Eiglarsh said his client wrote the messages after seeing pictures of his son standing outside while wearing a mask, and they clearly indicate he was not making a threat against the school.
“He never had the intent to actually commit a terrorist act. Someone on the WhatsApp chat conveyed what my client was saying to the school, and as a result, he was arrested,” said Eiglarsh.
As he walked out of jail on Feb. 15, 7News asked Polyakov if he had anything to say in his defense. He gave a one-word answer: “lawsuit.”
Polyakov said he feels like he was targeted.
“Even recommended to all the other parents, ‘We should file a lawsuit.’ It was stated. The school definitely read this; this was done with the intent to harm,” he said.
7News reached out to other parents on the text thread to find out how they read Polyakov’s comments.
“When I read that, I thought, ‘Gosh, he shouldn’t be saying such crazy things, because you just don’t talk that way in this day and age,'” said a woman during a phone interview, “but on the other hand, it was very clear to me that he did not really want to burn the school down. Like, everyone in the conversation knew that.”
State prosecutors specified why Polyakov’s message doesn’t rise to the level of legal action. In a written statement, they said it was clear the father “meant to legally burn down the school with a lawsuit.”
A spokesperson for Hillel School said they have a “no tolerance” policy when it comes to threats.
Polyakov’s 4-year-old son has since been expelled from the institution.
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