But he granted full custody to Matthew. Matthew and Callaway broke up a few weeks later. In a composition notebook, Jessica documented the times she assumed Matthew had been with his girlfriend, and she jotted down notes for the lawyer. But now he resorted to a more mundane theory about the culture of power. And, the first officer on scene, as recorded by body cam footage, was not interviewed by the GBI for months after the incident. There is another problem now. But a Griffin city official said that the document couldnt be found. Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . Ive always been such a firm believer in our justice system, she said. They have won. That piece of evidence was a photo showing Matthew's cell phone next to the microwave inside the apartment. I mean, I walk past it. There is no public record of the proceeding, but the grand jury chose not to indict Matthew either for making false statements or for violating his oath. In July, he was charged with two felonies: making false statements and violating his oath of office. They're saying it was self-inflicted, she said. But a psychiatrist who assessed her for depression apparently saw no need to give her a diagnosis or refer her for treatment. Four of her grandchildren had taken target-shooting classes together, but Jessica had refused to participate. Underneath her . | Examine the evidence yourself. The notification was made following an April 15, 2016, shooting incident - ruled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to be a suicide attempt - at the home of Jessica Boynton and her now-estranged husband, Griffin Police Department Officer Matthew Boynton. About the podcast. And in both instances, he was cleared of wrongdoing.), That Matthew had found himself in a troubled relationship did not surprise Dix. Mathews, the publisher of The Grip and its only reporter, submitted an Open Records Act request to the magistrates court, where judges swear in new officers. In the police body-cam videos, the dog is still wearing his leash. I dont doubt the findings of the G.B.I., he told me. Had she attempted suicide, it would have been standard for the hospital to provide psychiatric care. Jessica was the kind of intuitive mother who predicts a babys dangera fall, a spilled drink, a choking hazarda few seconds before it happens. That is where her memory ends. I have been suffering for a while now and no one has noticed. But according to Mathews, that was not the last number dialed, so it could not have just been a redial accidently called through the evidence bag. In April 2016, hours after an argument with his wife Jessica, Griffin, Georgia police officer Matthew Boynton radios for assistance and reports hearing two gunshots coming from inside his home. Jessicas only diagnosis was acute stress disorder, which, the evaluator wrote, occurs when an individual is exposed to actual or threatened death. The evaluator added that her symptoms are normal and to be expected through circumstances such as hers.. At the store, they got into a fight, and when they left Jessica said she didnt want to get into the car. [Im] gonna have to kick that door in Jones relays to the other officers standing on the other side of the closet, barreling through it in just two swift and deliberate kicks. Both couples said that the shots occurred around 11 p.m.not at 1 a.m., when Matthew had reported them. According to a police report, Jessica was very reserved and appeared to be upset. She said that the officers recommended that she not yell at Matthew. One of the neighbors said that, not long before he heard the gunshots, he also heard some banging, like she was banging on the door or something.. Owen proposed that Beam supervise the visits. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. The police were notified of said "shooting" by Jessica's then husband Matthew Boynton. It was the first time anyone had spoken with her at length about the night of her injury. Once the investigation was closed, reporter and publisher, Sheila Mathews, investigated the shooting for her newspaper, The Grip. "What you're saying to me, that's not, you know, I don't see anything he did wrong by saying that," Fred Mays told Mathews. Matthew called a Griffin police lieutenant for advice. I figured she was going to retract her statement, he said later. I hope those stories went too far, he said, referring to the notorious Wood Chipper. (Matthews lawyer said, in an e-mail, The ultimate aim of both the GBIs investigation and the grand jurys inquiry was to find the truth. Three days after she left the hospital, a deputy from the Pike County sheriffs office delivered a Family Violence Protective Order. The agency deferred to its chief medical examiner, who spent ninety minutes on the case and never examined Jessica. Jessica thought that Matthew, who was baby-faced but muscular, looked rich; he wore Ralph Lauren boots and collared shirts from Hollister. Whitehouse didnt understand why she was being directed to basically a hiding spot. She recorded the conversation on her phone, so that investigators could look for clues if she disappeared. It could have been simply that um, all his, he left his stuff there. A Griffin Police Officer's wife herself, the reporter called DeMarco, on Sept. 28, the investigator who was in charge of the investigation for the GBI, to question him about the case and the photo that nagged her, and that for her, called into question how anything they investigated was trustworthy. ), In a private Facebook message, Willey complained to a friend that Matthews demeanor was emotionless but very authoritative. She had learned about Jessicas shooting after probing stories were published by Sheila Mathews in The Grip, a free newspaper in Spalding County, and aired on the Atlanta television station 11Alive, reported by Brendan Keefe. BREAKING | Matthew Boynton, who was under investigation and cleared by the GBI last year for his wife's shooting, was charged with one felony count of false statements and writings, and one felony count of violation of oath of office. Jessica would not touch a gun, she said. agents, asking them to investigate how Jessica had been injured there. Only eight were fired. They rented an apartment in Griffin, in a complex of beige two-story buildings surrounding a swimming pool. Hardheaded. When female officers told him that they were afraid of the patrol-division captain, David Gibson, whom Beam had promoted, he did nothing. Then he called E.M.S. Now for a pleasant, modest entry into retirement in Toronto.". But she felt isolated. Something had happened to the mama lions cubs, Kathy said. I would have picked something different, Jessica went on. His phone was given to someone else at Griffin PD, they put the phone in the thing because they knew GBI wanted it, and that's where we're gonna be while he was taken to the police department. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. In late 2014, Whitehouse, one of the youngest deputies in the sheriffs office, scheduled a meeting with Beam to say that Gibsons treatment of female cops was demeaning. She could now recall that after she returned from Walmart she went to her closet to put her shoes on, because she needed to walk the dog. Officer Robert Brian Jones shouts, as he travels deeper inside the two-bedroom apartmenthis weapon drawn. I hold up the white flag., Jessicas older son often cried and clung to her when Matthew picked him up on Fridays, and in the summer of 2018 he complained that his father had hurt him. Four months later, he was hired as a reserve officer in Braswell, Georgia, a community of four hundred people. But the factors that lead to abuse at homecoercion, authoritarianism, a sense of entitlement to violenceare also present in the work that police officers do on the streets. Still peering down at his phone, Matthew also sends a text to his girlfriend, a Spalding County dispatcher. Thats the game here, he said. He grabs his police radio, stationed and charging on top of the white microwave in the kitchen, and leaves his phone on the counter. "How did his phone get in there? By June 6, Matthew returned to full duty with a new service weapon in his holster. After Gibson left, citizens came forward to say that they, too, were terrified of him. All rights reserved. When Matthew drove his patrol car, he would often take the keys to his truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, so that Jessica couldnt use it. Community. With their guns drawn, the officers checked every room in the house. GBI/Griffin Police Dept. Matthew testified that Jessicas grandparents were not blood-related, and could not be trusted with the children. She became dead seriousId never seen her so serious, Denise said. He's asked me to go get it out before. Jessica was found with a gunshot wound in the closet of the couple's bedroom. It was like she needed permission for everything, she said. "That's the way we're gonna play this game, Sheila. For the next three and a half weeks, Jessica remains in a coma with a traumatic brain injurytubes protruding from her brain to alleviate pressure and fluid. Matthew, grandson of then-sheriff of Spalding County, texts a fellow Griffin Police officer. When facts are wrong, evidence altered to fit theories and threats made, how does the GBI remain the last word on the case? So were going to try to expedite this as fast as possible, and, when I say expedite, I mean the next few weeks. DeMarco assured Matthew that his phone, which had been seized during the investigation, would be returned. Jessica Boynton was initially . Get off of me! she screamed. That mentality spilled into his home life. (Through his lawyer, Gibson told me that the headlock-and-Taser incident was all in good fun; most of the other allegations were untrue and are otherwise embellished.). Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . However, the GBIs own photographs, search warrant and evidence log all corroborate that the officers phone was on the kitchen counter after Matthew had already left the apartment. Until recently, Matthew's grandfather, Wendell Beam, reigned as Spalding County sheriff. . The older boy was asleep in his bedroom, and the baby was in his own room, crying in his crib. "Well, how do you come to that conclusion?" Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University and one of the few scholars who has studied the issue, reached a similar finding: one in five officers arrested for domestic violence nationwide had also been the subject of a federal lawsuit for violating peoples civil rights. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. A deputy named Misty Piper said that, after Gibson repeatedly pressured her to have sex with him, she acquiesced, because she felt that, if she defied Gibson, she would meet a similar fate. A key piece of evidence was photographed inside the kitchen after officers arrived on the scene. 11alive.com. Jessica and Jacob have a son together, and their living room and kitchen are arranged like a nursery school, with a poster displaying the ABCs, a whiteboard, and wooden coat hangers shaped like trucks. Martha worried that Jessica had lost her feistiness. Especially because of my children. He was charged with theft a year later but was released on bail and has never been in jail. she asked. Can you please dispatch a unit out to my location? he said calmly. When she asked Matthew about the shooting, nothing adds up, she wrote to another friend on Facebook. In an analysis of more than two thousand family-court opinions from the past decade, Joan S.Meier, a professor at George Washington University Law School, found that, in sixty-four per cent of cases, courts did not accept the story of a mother who said she or her children had been abused by her husband, even when evidence corroborated the claim. A message to Matthews phone is received and marked as read, from his girlfriend--from inside the evidence bag. She walked with a limp and struggled with headaches, short-term memory lapses, ringing in her ears, and numbness on the left side of her body. The Griffin Police Department had not received any complaints about Matthews use of force, but Darrell Dix, a former lieutenant, told me that he and some of his colleagues worried that Matthew had a domineering and one-dimensional approach to his work, which could provoke fights and scuffles. He had not learned that there is a human side of this, too, Dix said. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. You cant force her into the truck. (Matthew refused to comment for this story.). He enters, checking the master bedroom. provided images. A male sergeant saw the exchange and told Beam, who provided Gibson with what he called undocumented counselling. Two years later, Gibson slapped a secretary on the back of the head, telling a male officer, Im gonna show you how we take care of these secretaries. Although the secretary complained to Beam about Gibsons behavior, Gibson was never disciplined. She wore hand-me-downs and liked to take nature photographs. The fact that they dont believe that she did this to herselfI think theyre not taking it seriously, Owen said. Jessica Boynton was found shot in th. Unnerved, she went out to the porch, where she heard another. It was actually from him. She rebukes the text message that was sent from her phone to Matthews that night and said she didnt have a lock on her phone, so anyone couldve sent it. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. Ad Choices. GBI begins interviewing neighbors and Matthew interviews with the GBI later that morning. Before being elected sheriff, in 2011, Beam had worked in the sheriffs office for thirty-seven years. Did he cause his estranged spouses injury? Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . When I asked about her mother, who lived nearby, she said, mildly, that she had tried to reconnect with her several times over the years, but her mother didnt seem interested. I hugged her and said, Its going to be O.K. And she said, No, and looked at her husband. (Amy did not want to comment for this article, explaining in an e-mail, I have tried to remain neutral in this very serious situation.). Right, she said, nearly whispering. And based on the totality of circumstances, all the facts and circumstances, all the forensics, and the conclusion of the case, as well as the GBI's and the district attorney's recommendation, is no, he did not cause her injuries, Yates concluded in an interview with 11Alive for"Trigger: Who shot the officer's wife.". Previously city included Delray Beach FL. Jessicas recovery was so swift that people at the hospital called her the miracle child. Although her skull had been fractured, neither bullet had penetrated it. She was sure that if she didnt comply he would arrest her. I dont think the text was quite that literal, Jacob said. One witnessJessicas neighbor Megan Browningwould like to speak to you anonymously in chambers, because she is afraid., Judge Hankinson seemed to find the idea so novel as to be humorous. Jessicas grandparents live on two hundred acres of farmland in Pike County, a twenty-five-minute drive from her apartment. Like a car accident? she asked. Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. You find plenty of reasons to leave nowI know that, Jacob teased her. The men would sit down, and the women would stand behind their men. She suspected that there had been a physical altercation leading up to the gunshots. I think the city thought this would be business as usual, until a local reporter and a loser truck driver got involved, Will Sanders said. According to the report, GBI investigators never conducted a re-canvass of the apartment complex, and did not talk with the immediate next door neighbor for four and a half months, despite reports from other residents that they heard a single gunshot hours earlier than the officers call claiming shots had been fired. She wanted to elaborate on what shed witnessed, but the agents left after eight minutes and never came back. If you do wear makeup and fix your hair, youre a whore., Beam asked Whitehouse to meet him at a park on the outskirts of Griffin. reports, Matthew said. He said, Sad. When asked, how come, he stated, because daddy scares me. He went on to say, Daddy was up the hill and hurt me in his house., The sheriffs department in Pike County, where Matthew was living, investigated whether there had been abuse, but Matthew denied the allegation and the department did not find any concrete evidence. But the report and follow-up interviews with the lead investigator make the case as clear as mud to one reporter in the small town where it happened. If that's what you want to do. Jessica Lesters friends persuaded her to date Matthew Boynton, a boy in the eleventh grade, by saying, If you dont like him, you can always break up. He was the grandson of the sheriff of Spalding County, where they lived, an hour south of Atlanta, and his friends were football players and cheerleaders. Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. The agent who told Mathews, Were gonna have a problem, apologized to the reporter and told her that he was answering questions about a case file that he had not reviewed for months. Jessica could never quite explain whythere was no proposal, just an understanding that there was too much momentum to break up. It interests me on a psychological level. He had conducted his own canvass of Jessicas apartment complex; retraced Matthews journey to the Waffle House, timing the drive with a stopwatch; and got permission from the new tenants of Jessica and Matthews apartment to inspect the holes in the closet. However, with the later discovery of previously-unknown evidence, it evolved into an . Now itsa twenty-two-billion-dollar industry plagued by exploitation. The psychologist wrote, of the older son, I asked him if he has been happy or sad. This is not the first time I have had suicide thoughts. If you perceive yourself as being country and rough, then youre a dyke, she said. This blows my mind.. I believe I just heard a shot fired coming from my residence. She had both of the boys packed and ready to go, Dusty said. One of about 70 messages they exchange throughout the night. Ashley Dunn, the lead teacher in Jessicas classroom, said, We were all, like, You can do an awesome job working with ten two-year-olds but you cant see your own kids? On weekends, Dunn sometimes asked Jessica to babysit for her own children. She said we needed to know what kind of kid he was. Few states mandate that custody evaluators have domestic-violence training; judges often characterize the allegations as mudslinging and focus not on their veracity but on which party appears to be the better parent.
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