Constitutionalist blames police for fatal shootout (shooting in Massillon, Ohio)

The Canton Repository (Ohio) ^ | August 13, 2002 | ED BALINT

[ResistorSister]

CANTON — Dwight Class said it didn’t have to end this way for Donald Matthews and the Massillon police officer whom he shot and killed.

Class said Patrol Officer Eric Taylor and the other officers and state trooper who were part of a fatal police chase Friday night did not have the authority to pull Matthews over on a traffic stop.

Or to pursue and attempt to arrest him.

Class attends the meetings on constitutionality that Matthews used to lead before he died in the shootout with police that started with a traffic stop on Route 21 in Doylestown and ended at First Street NW and Cherry Road in Massillon.

Matthews was president of the National Constitutionalist Academy and studied the U.S. Constitution. He held weekly meetings at the Denny’s Restaurant on Tuscarawas Street W in Perry Township. About 15 to 22 people usually attend, Class said. He said Matthews also held weekly meetings in Cleveland.

STRONG BELIEFS. Dwight Class and his wife, Sárra,
stand outside Reed Funeral Home after attending
calling hours for Donald Matthews of Jackson
Township on Monday afternoon. Police shot and
killed Matthews after he led police on a chase and shot and
killed Massillon Police Officer Eric Taylor on Friday
night. Class said the shootout wouldn’t have occurred
if the state trooper who pulled Matthews over on a
traffic stop had shown proof that he had an oath of
office and a bond. Repository / Michael S. Balash

Class attended calling hours for Matthews at Reed Funeral Home on Monday. Visitation was held from 3 to 5 and 6 to 9 p.m.

The first session appeared to be sparsely attended. Roughly 12 to 20 vehicles were parked in the funeral home lot. Visitors trickled in during the two hours. Family members and friends occasionally gathered in the parking lot or near the entrance of the funeral home.

Class spoke strongly about the events that unfolded Friday when a state trooper pulled Matthews over for driving 12 mph over the speed limit.

If the trooper could have produced proof that he had taken an oath of office and had a bond, “it would have been a nice, simple conversation (and Matthews would have said,) ‘I recognize you as an officer now.’ ”

That would have prevented the gunshots, Class said.

“I don’t think it had to have happened at all,” the Canton resident said, citing constitutional issues.

However, his wife, Sárra Class, said Taylor “should have been shot.”

Dwight Class disagreed and told his wife to stop making the comment.

“I thought he was a good man,” he said of Matthews. “He tried to get things done; he tried to get them done peacefully. That’s what he taught in class.”

Matthews taught other constitutionalists “to get the ‘paper trail started’ ” by filing cases in court, Class said.

Class said he has filed lawsuits over traffic violations involving himself and Rodney Class. One of the cases involves New Philadelphia police, he said.

Dwight Class also said he’s filed a lawsuit in federal court in Akron over alleged civil rights violations.

He said he’s planning to take legal action this week against Massillon Municipal Judge Edward J. Elum in the Ohio Supreme Court. That complaint involves a warrant issued against Class — he said he doesn’t know what for.

Dwight Class, 51, said he retired after working 30 years at the Timken Co.

He gave a reporter a “notice” of “civil rights violations by Ohio police and (the Ohio Highway Patrol).”

“Ohio is a home-rule state,” it says. “Chances are that if the brothers and sisters are stopped by any local police, they do not have an oath of office or bond to hold a position as a civil servant.”

Without the oath or bond, an officer doesn’t have the power to arrest a citizen, Class says.

Standing outside the funeral home, he said, “We don’t have a police force in the state of Ohio; we have private, at-will employees.”

A bumper sticker on a pickup truck at the calling hours carried the slogan: “I love my country but I fear my elected officials.”

Class said he expects Friday’s incident to boost attendance at the National Constitutionalist Academy meetings.

But not everyone who attended the calling hours shared Class’s point of view.

John Newlund, 49, of East Liverpool, said Matthews was his wife’s brother-in-law.

“He gave me a card one time,” Newlund said of the academy, “and I just blew it off. I believe you should pay your taxes.”

Newlund said he would “absolutely” pull over for a traffic stop.

“He should have stopped,” he said of Matthews. “It was only a speeding ticket — it happens thousands of times a day.

“You go by the law, the law of the land.”

You can reach Repository writer Ed Balint at (330) 580-8315 or e-mail:

ed.balint@cantonrep.com

[Area51]

I have been reading your personal smears, attacks and idiotic name calling across many diffent threads on this murder. Enough already!

The guy is Dead, and so is a Cop that was doing his job. Your dancing on their graves isn't accomplishing anything. Evidently the supporters of the shooter aren't the only ones with "issues".

Let it go.

[general_re]

National Constitutional Academy homepage, complete wih reference to Don Matthews.

What can I say - the jackbooted thugs here in NY interfered with Mr. Burnett's Constitutional rights by enforcing the fireworks laws of New York state. Or something. I don't know, but the municipal judges of Weedsport, NY are under the thumb of the British Crown. Something like that. Anyway, the pages have lots of references to oaths of office and such, and it's really impressive for 5 seconds or so, until you read a sentence or two.

Traffic stops, fireworks - these guys really know how to pick issues that resonate with the general population...

[AAABEST]

Well, last night I said we don't know what happend.

Seems the more we info we get, the more this under-evolved idiot needed to be offed and taken out of the gene pool.

[Crowcreek]

Yah -- I think the cops should just pull them all over on technicalities and kill them all in messy roadside gunfights . . .

Then they can start in on ALL pickup truck drivers with bumper stickers that say " I love my country but I fear my elected officials ".

[Area51]

Your reply says it all.

[Orual]

I don't know, but the municipal judges of Weedsport, NY are under the thumb of the British Crown.

I once lived around five miles away from Weedsport. The name of the place tells it all.

[Crowcreek]

sorry.... [/sarc]

[Poohbah]

I didn't say that at all.

I'm just saying that any traffic stop that involves Mrs. Class is going to be a veritable Cecil B. DeMille production, with Mrs. Class getting the honor of assuming the position.

Saying that cops should be shot over routine traffic stops does not foster a cordial relationship with the cops.

[Area51]

Hehehehe I see I struck a nerve.

BTW-there are plenty more of those if you care to search.

And refering to your previous post, you are a idiot if you think I would ever suggest that it is appropriate to shot a cop doing their job.I never suggested that. I do however openly fight the Abuses of Power, FROM anyone. So you go back to your drunken pleasure of dancing on the Graves of those two.

If that offends your Sheeple mentality, bite me. You show no more ability to control your emotions then the Guy that did the shooting.

[drjimmy]

Sometimes you have to pick the hill you are willing to die on. Geez--for me, it certainly wouldn't be over a traffic ticket!
What you should actually have said was that you have to pick the hill you are willing to murder on. This wasn't a suicide.

[Crowcreek]

Can you stretch your imagination so far as to imagine the connection between the situation you descibe, and the needless deaths we're discussing on this thread?

[Larry Lucido]

Let me take this one, OPH, then I have to get to work.

"The guy is highjackers are Dead, and so is a Cop that was doing his job are the workers at the WTC and Pentagon who were doing their jobs. Your dancing on their graves isn't accomplishing anything. Evidently the supporters of the shooter highjackers aren't the only ones with "issues".

Let it go."

You see? We must be selective with the admonition "Never Forget" when it comes to certain terrorist acts.

[RabidBartender]

Not to be insulting to the mindset as a whole, but what is it with these types of angry people and unkempt facial hair? It seems every anti-government type (Unabomber, those tax-evader separatists in Texas, the guy above) looks like a Dollar Store version of ZZ Top. Can't they discern they don't need the Constitution to guarantee them the right to a razor and some shaving cream?

[Poohbah]

There was only one needless death. Matthews, in the Texan vernacular, needed killin'.

[general_re]

I once lived around five miles away from Weedsport.

Hmmm. Well, that's not quite far enough for you to have been a "guest" at Auburn, so there goes that theory ;)

[Area51]

Uh, in case YOU DIDN'T NOTICE. I never said it was anything other than Murder to begin with.

And quite with the BS of everything being an act of Terrorism. It was a case of a unstable man IMHO that snapped and murdered a Cop. You sound like a Prestitute.

Hardly to be equated with the WTC bombing. Stop reaching.

[dighton]

... the municipal judges of Weedsport, NY are under the thumb of the British Crown.

Same deal with Weedpatch, California. Get pulled over by their JBTs, they press you into the Royal Navy.