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MASSILLON POLICEMAN'S WIDOW SUES
Canton Repository
Thursday, August 12, 2004The wife of a fallen Massillon police officer is suing the state, claiming the Highway Patrol never warned her husband that the man who killed him during a traffic stop had a gun.
JuWanna Taylor filed a complaint against the state Department of Public Safety last week in the Court of Claims, just shy of the two-year anniversary of her husband's death.
Eric B. Taylor, 31, was killed Aug. 9, 2002, in a gravel lot at the corner of First Street and Cherry Road NW in Massillon by Donald Matthews. Matthews, a 61-year-old Constitutionalist from Jackson Township, was fleeing from a Highway Patrol trooper. Matthews had threatened to kill police officers in the past, a fact the trooper and Massillon police didn't know.
Taylor's lawyers say a lack of communication turned a dangerous situation deadly.
The tragic night began when Trooper Joseph Hershey pulled over Matthews for speeding on Route 21. Hershey tried to talk with Matthews, but he refused to lower his car window or show identification.
Instead, Matthews said the stop violated his Constitutional rights and sped away. Hershey followed.
According to the lawsuit, Hershey radioed the Patrol's Wooster post to say Matthews was speeding toward Massillon at about 80 miles an hour. The Wooster dispatcher asked the Stark County post and Massillon police for assistance.
A short time later, Matthews pulled over a second time, the lawsuit says. When Hershey ordered Matthews to get out of his car, Matthews moved suddenly to reach under his seat.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Columbus:
Hershey drew his gun and ordered Matthews to get out of the car. When Matthews refused, Hershey broke the rear window of the car with a baton, at which point Matthews fled again.
Hershey radioed the Wooster post to say he was back in pursuit, but mentioned nothing about Matthews being a threat or having to pull his gun, the lawsuit says.
Another trooper called the Regional Emergency Dispatch Center in Massillon to relay the information about the pursuit. But the patrol trooper declined the RED Center dispatcher's request that he stay on the line, the widow's complaint says.
About five minutes after the second stop, Matthews pulled to the side of Route 21 at Cherry Avenue NW. Hershey again approached his car, and this time Matthews showed his gun. Matthews then sped away, turning onto Cherry.
Hershey ran back to his car and told troopers in Wooster that Matthews had a gun. The Wooster post warned its troopers and the Stark County patrol post, but didn't call Massillon, the lawsuit claims.
"They call everybody that is not involved in the chase," JuWanna Taylor's attorney, Brian Zimmerman, said. "When they do call Massillon, he's (Taylor) dead."
Matthews, meanwhile, had pulled into a gravel lot at Cherry and First Street NW. Three Massillon officers arrived at the same time, while Hershey drove past the lot.
Matthews began driving around two Massillon cruisers and shooting at the police officers. The Massillon officers and Hershey returned fire, injuring Matthews, who then pulled back into the lot and got out of his car as Taylor arrived at the scene.
Taylor didn't know he was driving into a shootout.
Matthews fired at Taylor's cruiser, and the officer bailed out on the passenger side. While Taylor crouched on the ground, Matthews fired a second shot that struck Taylor in his lower back below his bulletproof vest. The bullet severed Taylor's aorta, and he bled to death.
Another Massillon officer shot Matthews dead.
By not telling Massillon that Matthews posed a threat or had pointed a gun at Hershey, the Highway Patrol showed a disregard for Taylor's safety, the lawsuit says.
"They asked for help but gave (Massillon officers) no information to save themselves," Zimmerman said.
On a tape reviewed by The Repository after the shooting, the Massillon dispatcher can be heard telling officers, "There was a weapon seen, use caution," just seconds before officers said Taylor had been shot.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office is representing the Department of Public Safety, but the attorney handling the case was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
The case will be heard in the Court of Claims in Columbus, which has exclusive jurisdiction involving lawsuits against the state, attorney Allen Schulman said.
Unlike a common pleas court, the Court of Claims does not have a jury, so both sides will present the case to a judge, he said.
Schulman said Taylor hopes her action will improve police officer safety.
"The purpose of this suit, apart from compensating the family, is to reform a system that is in great need of repair," he said.
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