Widow's children help her cope

JuWanna Taylor, widow of slain Massillon Patrolman Eric B. Taylor, is finding the strength to cope from the most precious gifts her husband gave her: their two young children.

``My children are what have kept me going,'' Taylor said Tuesday at the family's home in Massillon. ``You have to put you on the back burner. They need their mother.''

Taylor, 31, said she has tried to keep her children, Ty, 2, and Lauren, 1, as close to their regular daily schedules as possible since her husband was shot and killed Friday night while on duty. Eric Taylor, 31, joined the Massillon department in 1998.

``He's usually here,'' she said. ``Now, Mom's here instead of Dad. I've just tried to keep them in as much of a routine as possible.''

The routine for the household saw Tuesdays as Dad's day with the children, Taylor said.

As the days go by, Taylor said, coping with her husband's death is becoming more difficult.

``When everything happened (on Friday), I just went numb. And since then, there has always been somebody here... This is the first time I've kind of been by myself,'' she said. ``The numbness is starting to wear off.''

Whether it was playing with the children or doing household chores, Taylor said her husband always took care of his family.

``There are not many men out there like that,'' she said, ``but my husband was. He cooked, he cleaned, he changed diapers. He did everything... We raised our children together.''

Taylor said she also has found comfort in the many friends and family members who have been by her side.

``We're just staying here and making sure she's OK,'' said JuMekia Jones, JuWanna Taylor's sister. Jones, 24, arrived from California on Saturday.

``I said to my friend, `Ooh, that's a cute guy,' '' Taylor said, remembering when they met in 1994. Her friend happened to know Eric and called him over.

``We exchanged phone numbers that night,'' Taylor said. ``On the way home, I told my friend, `He's going to be my husband.' ''

``Lately, I didn't worry much at all,'' she said. ``I just thought this (Massillon) was a safe place to work.''

When one of Eric Taylor's fellow officers pulled into the family's driveway Friday night to inform JuWanna her husband had been shot, she thought it was her husband coming home, she said.

Even when the officer rang the doorbell, she still didn't think anything of it, she said.

``I just thought he forgot his key at work,'' she said. ``I just opened the door and walked away from it.''

When the officer told her that her husband had been shot, Taylor said she ``freaked out.''

Taylor said Massillon police officers have shared information surrounding her husband's death so she can know as much as possible.

``He engaged the suspect, not knowing he was armed,'' she said officers told her.

Taylor said officers told her that her husband tried to exit his car through the passenger-side door when Donald W. Matthews, 61, of Jackson Township fired.

``The car was still in drive and kept rolling, but he managed to escape from the car,'' she said.

When the gunfire ceased, Eric Taylor, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, had been fatally shot. Matthews also had been shot dead.

While her husband always had a way of making others smile, Taylor said it was tough to get him to grin for a camera.

``He wasn't big on taking pictures,'' she said, laughing. Taylor said she had to ``basically beg'' her husband to sit for a family photo about six months ago.

``I can't express into words how appreciative I am and how it feels to know that he has gotten a response like this,'' she said.

Calling hours will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Stewart & Calhoun funeral home, 529 W. Thornton St. in Akron. There also will be calling hours from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at the House of the Lord, 1650 Diagonal Road in Akron. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m.

Following the ceremony, Eric Taylor will be buried at Mount Peace Cemetery, 183 Aqueduct St. in Akron.

``But also then it's the beginning of a life without him,'' she said. ``That's going to be the toughest.''

Why is that ? This guy shot the cop because the cop pulled him over and he thought it was wrong (so we're told at this point), the cop attempts to arrest him and a gun battle results where the cop dies.

Was the guy right ? Hell no, getting a speeding ticket is just an annoyance or a non-equitable tax for something which is essentially frivolous.

But say the cop decides to take your guns for some "law-breaking" : are you going to surrender them ?

Paranoid nut job and armed patriot can be a close thing in the eyes of conservatives. In the eyes of liberals they are already one and the same.

If you haven't read these articles about Matthews and his followers, I'd suggest you do so. My question is do you agree with Matthews and Sarra Class or not?

Authorities: Gunman was threat in ’98 (Massillon, Ohio)
The Canton Repository (Ohio) ^ | August 13, 2002 | ROBERT WANG and EDD PRITCHARD

Posted on 08/13/2002 5:48 AM Central by ResistorSister

MASSILLON — There were plenty of warnings that Donald W. Matthews might one day open fire on a police officer.

More than four years ago, a Jackson Township police officer warned that Matthews was dangerous and that Matthews threatened to kill any officer who would try to arrest him.

And Matthews himself wrote in a document filed Jan. 21, 1998, in Municipal Court, that “Anyone who tries to enforce a bogus warrant will do so at their own peril.”

The moment of peril came Friday night at the corner of First Street and Cherry Road NW. Ohio Highway Patrol troopers and Massillon police tried to arrest Matthews for driving 72 mph in a 60-mph zone. Police said Matthews came out of his car firing a semiautomatic handgun. Police returned fire.

One of Matthews’ bullets killed Massillon Police Officer Eric Taylor. Three bullets fired by police killed Matthews.

Massillon police and the Highway Patrol still are investigating the shooting. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI are assisting.

“We’re still trying to sort this out,” said Sgt. James Mizeres, who heads Massillon’s detective bureau.

But no one should have been surprised.

“Mr. Matthews made it very clear that he ... will defend what he believes to be his freedom to the death of himself and anyone violating his rights,” wrote Officer Tom Calhoun, who tried to stop Matthews for speeding Jan. 14, 1998.

But Matthews didn’t stop until he reached his home at 6688 Casper Ave. NW in Jackson Township. Calhoun pulled in behind him and asked to see his driver’s license.

Calhoun said Matthews told him it’s unconstitutional to require him to have a license or to follow speeding laws, the report said. He added that Matthews said he would not honor a court summons or ticket and, “if an officer attempted to physically arrest him, he will kill that officer or officers to defend his freedom.”

Matthews eventually calmed down and accepted a citation for driving without an operator’s license, but he would not sign it.

A week later, Matthews, who distrusted government and served as president of a group called the National Constitutionalist Academy, filed his own papers in Municipal Court, seeking to have the charge dismissed.

He alleged that Jackson Township police were “in disguise” and violated his rights, the Ohio Revised Code and the Constitution.

“... I was unlawfully restrained of my liberty,” Matthews wrote, “... by a person, who was in disguise of a uniform with a badge, a sidearm and a billy club ... .”

Matthews claimed the officers “joined in coercion, intimidation, kidnapping and conduct becoming a military occupation force, and were engaged in warfare against me.”

Matthews warned that if the officers approached him again, he would use his constitutional rights “to restrain such individuals in their criminal conduct with as much force as necessary.”

Matthews cited the U.S. Constitution, state law and court decisions in the redress of grievance. He filed two copies; one with a petition signed by two other Constitutionalists and the second with a petition signed by 14 Constitutionalists.

Above his signature, Matthews wrote: “American by birth, Constitutionalist by choice.”

Matthews eventually pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $167 and obtained a driver’s license.

There were other hints as to what might happen. The day after Calhoun’s encounter with Matthews, the owner of the Hidden Arms shooting range in Canal Fulton told Canal Fulton police that he’d overheard Matthews talking about a “constitutionalist group” while he was at the shooting range.

The owner told police that Matthews said he had just gotten a ticket in Jackson Township, and “was bragging that when the officers traffic-stop him again or come to pick him up on the warrant, he is going to kill them.”

A Miami, Fla.-based agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who had investigated Matthews in 1997, told Calhoun that Matthews was a “very potentially dangerous individual and should be watched closely.”

Information from that investigation apparently was used to secure a warrant to search Matthews’ apartment this weekend. Police took a computer, 10 CD-ROMs, 80 floppy disks and about three rounds of ammunition in the search. The ammunition is used in the type of gun that Matthews used to shoot at police Friday, said Frank A. D’Alesio, ATF agent in charge.

Jackson Township Police Chief Harley Neftzer said the seized items have been sent to the state’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in Richfield for analysis.

There was another warning in February 2000.

Matthews entered Pileggi’s Foods & Catering at 5808 Fulton Dr. NW and talked with Jackson Township Police Officer Patrick Pileggi, whose relatives own the establishment.

According to Pileggi, Matthews repeated that he would kill any officer who pulled him over without a proper warrant.

Matthews also said, according to Pileggi, that he carried a loaded weapon all the time and that the “ammunition he uses is deadly and will go through any body armor that the average police officer wears.”

Calhoun said he warned the Massillon prosecutor’s office and court bailiffs about Matthews. “Future contact with Mr. Matthews by any law enforcement officer should be done with extreme caution,” Calhoun wrote.

Calhoun said Matthews told him, “I have lived a full life and am willing to die and will shoot any officer who attempts to take me into custody.” He said Matthews was “very convincing.”

****************

Constitutionalist blames police for fatal shootout (shooting in Massillon, Ohio)
The Canton Repository (Ohio) ^ | August 13, 2002 | ED BALINT

Posted on 08/13/2002 5:48 AM Central by 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

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