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

[Catspaw]

Don Matthews was a hero up until this firefight.

Uh huh. To what do you attribute his heroism? That as long as four years ago he said if he got pulled over for a traffic ticket, he'd kill a cop?

[ResistorSister]

The officer was like any other person working for a living.

He probably felt pretty safe too...because Massillon is just a quiet little Ohio town...where football rules; there had not been a police officer killed in the line of duty for 50-years.

[ResistorSister]

Freaks.

No kidding!

[general_re]

Don Matthews didn't have a lot of money. As you can see from the picture, his friends don't have money either.

What's your standard for not having a lot of money? They claim that "over $200,000" worth of fireworks were "stolen" by the police. Dunno about you, but that sounds like a lot of money to me - they ain't talking about a couple of packs of Black Cat firecrackers here...

[ResistorSister]

I like how they showed such respect for the dead by dressing appropriately to go calling at a funeral home.

I think, they think, they are dressed appropriately. :-(

[ResistorSister]

Nutburger? *grin* never heard that one before...but it fits.

[ResistorSister]

He does look the part. They have a lot of rights...they just aren't satisfied living within the parameters of a normal, happy, productive life...they are the fringe.

[wimpycat]

I don't know if Matthews snapped or the police provoked him so badly that he felt that he had to defend himself.

Think about that statement for a moment. If the cops pull you over for speeding, and you take off, and the police chase you--what on God's green earth could "provoke" you enough to pull a gun on a cop, Hmmmmmm? Unless you think the "traffic stop" is part of the "coverup" (re: your statement--"I know that police have been known to find excuses to kill "troublemakers," and I know that once police have killed, city officials and judges have been known to help cover up the abuses of their friends.")

Please be explicit in your statements and let us know once and for all:

a. Do you believe Matthews was justified in refusing to give the patrol officer his driver's license?
b. Do you believe Matthews was justified in running from the traffic stop?
c. Do you believe any conditions exist under which Matthews could have been sufficiently "provoked" into drawing his weapon on law enforcement officials?

These questions are not contingent upon further investigation. No one disputes that the traffic stop occurred, that Matthews ran from the police, and that Matthew drew his weapon.

Instead of being shadowy and vague in your suspicions, and grasping at straws to justify Matthews' behavior, why don't you just condemn his actions unequivocally?

[ResistorSister]

I hope Matthews felt his priniciples were worth his life.

He might have justified it as standing on principles...- from his actions...I think he was more of a coward, who was fearful of life and those around him. He let his Constitutional fight consume him, which then lead to the murder of an innocent man.

A man who wanted ALL OF HIS RIGHTS - ends up leaving the planet by stripping another man of his rights. Stupid!

[wimpycat]

I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I can't remember which FReeper said it first. I only know I didn't think it up myself.

The British use the word "nutter", which I think is pretty cool.

[Poohbah]

I like the one from the Monty Python Fish License sketch...

"He's gone off his chump."

[Poohbah]

Don't expect an answer from exodus. The questions you ask have a moral component to them, and rabid ideologues have no use for such bourgeouis notions.

[ResistorSister]

The questions you ask have a moral component to them, and rabid ideologues have no use for such bourgeouis notions.

Well said!

[wimpycat]

Well, now he can never say that he didn't have the opportunity to set the record straight. Honestly, just like the Muslim clerics with regards to Muslim terrorists (and I'm not comparing Matthews to terrorists, but I am comparing the attitudes of each of their apologists), if they would unequivocally, no ifs ands or buts, condemn Matthews' actions, from refusing to hand over his license to running from the cops to pulling his weapon, then no one would be giving other "freestyle interpreters of the Constitution" such a hard time.

[american spirit]

Your first question is so stupid it doesn't even deserve a reply. As for your second question, you show me where in the Constitution it gives these municipal corporate gov'ts. the authority to annex property, require permits, pass codes and regulations, etc. The short answer is that there is no authority for these local gov'ts. to have this inordinate amount of control over us. Codes and regulations are created statutorily under administrative law which is NOT constitutional law.

[wardaddy]

I'll say it again. Politics aside, killing a cop over a speeding ticket is simply wrong. It doesn't matter if the guy was Posse Commitatus or the Communist Worker's Party. Anyone trying to justify this particular action is sorely misguided. I lament the shame by association this has brought on our forum.

[Poohbah]

As for your second question, you show me where in the Constitution it gives these municipal corporate gov'ts. the authority to annex property, require permits, pass codes and regulations, etc.

Well, how about this section here:

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Game, set, and match. G'Day.