11Alive reached out to Officer Matthew Boynton, however, phone calls were not returned. Even Gibsons lawyer, Phil Friduss, seemed at a loss to explain whether Gibson had controlled the county, as so many people believed. The fact that they dont believe that she did this to herselfI think theyre not taking it seriously, Owen said. He had filed nearly a hundred Open Records Act requests about Jessicas shooting, and he shared what he learned with Jessicas family, as well as with The Grip. The sheriffs department does not respond to incidents inside the Griffin city limits, and he was the only one from his office there. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. It's a question 11Alive investigators asked a few months ago, when Griffin Police Officer Matthew Boynton's wife, Jessica, allegedly shot herself in the head with his service weapon, inside . In the police body-cam videos, the dog is still wearing his leash. Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . Matthews case was presented to a grand jury in July, 2018. 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. Jessica was still missing her orthodontic retainer. Eleanor Attwood, a lawyer representing six women who filed civil suits against Gibson, warned me to do all my reporting when the sun was out. You find plenty of reasons to leave nowI know that, Jacob teased her. She found that, when a mother accused a father of domestic abuse or child abuse, she lost custody to the father in twenty-eight per cent of cases. Community. It was the first time anyone had spoken with her at length about the night of her injury. Matthew and Callaway broke up a few weeks later. I made sure that I had another party with me, to insure the accusations wouldnt be made, Matthew said later. 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. 13 talking about this. Marc, we hope to see you at Reunion. Thats the game here, he said. Check out the page. On a hospital-admission form, Jessica was described as a 19 year old reported to have shot herself in the right skull. But Vernon Henderson, a trauma surgeon for more than two decades, who treated Jessica, wrote that her injury did not fit with that description; neither of her hands had any evidence of any gunpowder stippling. And her wound was on the top of her skull, which suggested that she would have had to hold the gun above her head, pointing downwarda very unusual direction in which to point the gun at ones self with the intention of committing suicide, Henderson wrote. Her DNA had been found on the gun, which was to be expectedshe had been lying on it. Absolutely, Matthew said. The new sheriff, Darrell Dix, the former lieutenant in the Griffin Police Department, told me that when he unlocked the doors to the sheriffs office on his first day on the job, January 1, 2017, he found nine industrial-sized trash bags full of shredded papers. 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. She wasnt sure how to unlock the safety lever on the holster. 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. Gradually, though, her concerns dissipated. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. They had wiped stuff off the computers, Dix said. No, never. "Well I don't know. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. She had both of the boys packed and ready to go, Dusty said. The older boy was asleep in his bedroom, and the baby was in his own room, crying in his crib. According to the order, which Matthew had petitioned the court to issue, probable cause exists that Family Violence has occurred in the past and may occur in the future. Jessica was ordered to have a psychological evaluation. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Yates had lost his previous job, in 2014, as chief of the police department in Jonesboro, Arkansas, after he called a local reporter smelly and said that dealing with her was like trying to pick up a dog turd by the clean end. She resigned, citing the level of stress and anxiety created by a public official who commands a small army., Within two hours of Sanderss Facebook comment, Yates informed Sanders that his private Facebook messages would be made accessible to any persons interested in the entire scope of your actions, activities, motives and history. He added, This material will be released in the interest of transparency and context. The department had obtained the messages a year earlier, as part of the investigation into Jessicas gym bag. 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. A key piece of evidence was photographed inside the kitchen after officers arrived on the scene. We put it on the counter to take a picture of it," he confirmed to Mathews. Matthew called a Griffin police lieutenant for advice. 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 subsequent investigation was short-lived, with it having been deemed a "civil matter.". Jessica Boynton was married to Matthew Boynton, a local police officer and grandson of the county sheriff. He had control of Spalding County, she said, referring to Gibson. 9,226 people follow this. There are too many useless words thrown in, she said. He later tells investigators that he heard Tyler crying, and then, POP-POP!. Matthew and the boys temporarily moved in with Courtney Callaway, the dispatcher he was dating. 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. I hope he goes to jail for this shit, she said. He enters, checking the master bedroom. When facts are wrong, evidence altered to fit theories and threats made, how does theGBI remain the last word on the Jessica Boynton case? At the Griffin Police Department, concerns about domestic violence have apparently been so slight that in 2018 the department hired an officer whose personnel record showed that he had recently been accused by his childs mother of threatening her with a gun. He's asked me to go get it out before. I mean, I walk past it. | Examine the evidence yourself. From her porch, Jessicas neighbor Megan Browning saw Jessica and Matthew return home. Im not well connected with anyone. She decided to resign instead. But he granted full custody to Matthew. You want to start recording me, and started quoting me, you'd better let me know ahead of time, or we're gonna have a problem. GBI begins interviewing neighbors and Matthew interviews with the GBI later that morning. [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. Before being elected sheriff, in 2011, Beam had worked in the sheriffs office for thirty-seven years. When I visited them in August, Jacob mentioned that one of the boys had recently done a spin in the living room and called it a pirouette. Jessica seemed more energized by the comment than by anything else we discussed. I just came up the stairs, two rounds be advised I smell gun smoke, and I cant get an answer at the door, he says out of breath and panicked. King told me, Youd think it would have been simple enough to put bags on her hands and test them for gunshot residue. agent, Jared Coleman, interviewed her as she lay in her hospital bed. Sanders said, I think the city thought this would be business as usual, until a local reporter and a loser truck driver got involved.. Any weapons inside the house? the dispatcher inquires. Now itsa twenty-two-billion-dollar industry plagued by exploitation. Especially because of my children. She started crying. Can a new approach curb domestic homicide? Jones passes by a framed portrait hung on the wall. He claimed to have personally insured Beams election. She felt she needed men in power on her side if she were to challenge a culture in which men let other men get away with what they please. I dont think the text was quite that literal, Jacob said. About See All. One of about 70 messages they exchange throughout the night. provided images. Her voice was hoarse from the breathing tubes, and she seemed childlike and dazed, as if her only goal was to accommodate the agents as quickly as she could. Her aunt Kathy, who lives on the farm, said, With Jessicas family background, there was probably just a feeling of Oh, Ive finally found someone who loves me.. Jail trustiesmodel inmates who did menial jobs at the sheriffs officetold him that theyd spent two weeks destroying paperwork, at the previous administrations instruction. Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. In July, he was charged with two felonies: making false statements and violating his oath of office. I mean you can't prove that," DeMarco. . Two months later, Jessica was hired as an assistant teacher at a child-care center in Griffin. But she felt isolated. Jessicas grandparents wrote letters to the G.B.I., the governor, the city manager, and the district attorney to request that the investigation into Jessicas shooting be reopened. We will not be swayed by hearsay, false rhetoric or sensationalism in a manner that would cause harm to the innocent, he wrote. "How did his phone get in there? She concluded that shed chosen the wrong tactic. summary of an interview with King, the neurosurgeon, noted that he called the circumstances of her injury suspicious, but the agent who conducted the interview failed to record the conversation; he hadnt charged his audio recorder. But there are almost no empirical studies examining the prevalence of this sort of abuse today. I would have written suicidal thoughts, not suicide thoughts., She told me that she couldnt imagine using a clich such as I have not been able to recognize the person I see in the mirror., I dont generally even look in the mirror, she said. When Matthew drove his patrol car, he would often take the keys to his truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, so that Jessica couldnt use it. Police and Officer Boynton claimed that Jessica tried to kill herself but after Jessica awoke . The psychologist wrote, of the older son, I asked him if he has been happy or sad. Her aunt Denise, a public-school teacher, said that, at the wedding, there was just this sadness in her eyes, like, Im done. She had the demeanor of a child who had promised herself not to cause trouble or draw attention to her own feelings. 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. Sanders was forty-three years old and the son of a former Republican state representative; he considered himself a happy beneficiary of the good-old-boys system, he told me, and did not do his work in pursuit of political reform. She told me that, for female officers in many parts of the South, theres no in-betweenyou cant just be a human in uniform. They were made to feel that their presence contaminated the ethos of the department. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. 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. Why did you write the damn statement? a sergeant asked him. Im glad to know theres still advocacy in the practice in the courts of the Griffin Judicial Circuit. No one ended up testifying about Jessica and Matthews marriage. In the spring of 2013, when she was sixteen and had dated Matthew for a year, she took her grandparents into the kitchen, closed the door, and told them, apologizing, that she was pregnant. GRIFFIN, Ga. - Matthew Boynton was arrested by his fellow Griffin Police officers and taken to the Spalding County Jail on felony charges. Its one of their owna police-issued .40-caliber Glock. ", Following that phone call, Mathews, perceiving that she was threatened, called the GBIs director of professional standards to file a formal complaint and to gain clarity about what he meant by, Were gonna have a problem.. Jones checks on a locked closet door between the master bedroom and hallway, across from the bathroom. Ive always been such a firm believer in our justice system, she said. If he has to drive to downtown Griffin, he cleans and vacuums his car, so he can easily see if someone plants drugs or contraband. "That was when approximately 24 minutes into the conversation, his demeanor changed and everything flipped," she recalled. And then I started thinking, Well, why did I even come to you? she said. Of course, it was through my efforts that we landed that account, but did I get any credit? Jessicas grandmother, Martha, said that initially she had trusted Wendell Beam, whom her husband had known for years, and the G.B.I.s investigative process. Previously city included Delray Beach FL. Dispatch notifies Spalding County Sheriff Wendell Beam, Matthews grandfather,and police notify Jessicas family that she has died. She was watching a cartoon about a lion. And in both instances, he was cleared of wrongdoing.), That Matthew had found himself in a troubled relationship did not surprise Dix. Did this license lead Alex Murdaugh to commit fraud after fraudand then kill his wife and son? Most important to me. Only the pillow under her head was bloody. The "Sex and the City" alum, 56, took . In 2012, Piper complained to Beam, and he said hed look into the accusations, if she put them in writing. "Police department!" Jessica is placid and effortlessly polite, warm without being intimate. Until recently, Matthew's grandfather, Wendell Beam, reigned as Spalding County sheriff. Only eight were fired. I figured she was going to retract her statement, he said later. I didnt know if I was dealing with a possible active active scenario where she still had the gun and she had shot Tyler, he replied. When the men wanted tea, they just shook their glasses.. The secretary whom hed slapped in the head was asked to type his resignation letter. Dusty and her husband drove to Jessicas apartment. Statements from Jessica Boynton and Matthew Boynton are logged into evidence," said a statement written by Yancy March 13. One woman said that he would drive to her house and shine the lights of his patrol car into her windows. The babys muffled cry echoes, getting louder as the officers sweep their guns back and forth, searching for the shooter. Jessica, then-19, had just put her two young sons to bed and was getting her clothes ready in the closet for the next day. A nurse told her shed been in an accident. A few months after the wedding, Denise and Amy went out for lunch. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. agents, asking them to investigate how Jessica had been injured there. Matthew was now dating Shelby Willey, a young mother who had recently separated from her husband. Will Sanders, the truck driver, reached a similar conclusion. "Well, how do you come to that conclusion?" Like a car accident? she asked. The Citizens Police Data Project, in Chicago, analyzed the records of Chicago cops between 2000 and 2016 and found that officers accused of domestic abuse received fifty per cent more complaints than their colleagues for using excessive force. That question lingers--but not for Georgia Bureau of Investigations, who said the case is closed--repeatedly stating that they are satisfied with their findings. After Jessica had been in the hospital for a month, her doctors tried to transfer her to a rehabilitation program, but she didnt have insurance, so she was discharged to the care of her grandparents. She said, Do me a favor. But Matthew said that hed raise the child as his own. Here lately I have not been able to recognize the person I see in the mirror. Jessica Boynton was initially . Now for a pleasant, modest entry into retirement in Toronto.". The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Jessicas grandparents live on two hundred acres of farmland in Pike County, a twenty-five-minute drive from her apartment. 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. The agent had that phone, I think DeMarco, Chris DeMarco had the phone and they was [sic] trying to get in the gate, and, uh, he accidentally hit, I guess, the last number dialed, called or whatever. In the spring of 2019, child-protective services closed the case and recommended, based on reports submitted by the childrens psychologist, who had seen the boys for twenty-five sessions, that they no longer spend time with Matthew. I have been suffering for a while now and no one has noticed. Matthew claims he received a text from Jessica stating she was going to commit suicide. In reference to my wife. He explained that she was having suicidal thoughts and she told me to take care of the boys. When she asked Matthew about the shooting, nothing adds up, she wrote to another friend on Facebook. So there was really no need for me to leave. I want you to make sure that Jessica is going to be O.K., because hes going to hurt her.. Less than a month after her hospital-bed interview, Matthew was verbally cleared by the GBI, according to his chief. Dusty asked him where Jessica was, and he said that she had been taken by helicopter to Atlanta Medical Center. When female officers told him that they were afraid of the patrol-division captain, David Gibson, whom Beam had promoted, he did nothing. And its assigned to Matthew. Dont make me laugh.. Ive never, ever wanted to hurt myself before., Do you think Matthew was incapable of doing this?, Honestly, I dont know, she said. 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. she asked. The nurse didnt answer. The air is thick with the trepidation, as officers approach the locked closet. Jessica could not come within three hundred yards of Matthew or her children. Is Jessica Boynton still alive? The first officer she saw in the parking lot was Beam. Wheres my baby? Jessica asked, once her breathing tubes were removed. provided images. 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. agent who lived near Spalding County and had worked with Beam on several cases over the years. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . I didnt try to wash my handsnothing. He sounded like an eager student. Jessica, who still has no memory of what happened that day, states that Matthew is the only one who knows the truth. nd police notify Jessicas family that she has died. He bangs on the locked closet door. No one responded to Marthas letters. No. Wouldnt listen to anybody.. I finally had the evidence that I needed that Matthew was cheating on me. She was told that, to prove that a crime had been committed, the district attorney needed to establish that the oath of office had been administered to Matthew. A lot, she said, doesnt add up, especially since, she said, she had reason to live. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. I dont know what she is capable of, Judge., Jessicas family agreed to pay a hundred dollars every Sunday so that her visits could be observed by another armed law-enforcement agent. . 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. Martha worried that Jessica had lost her feistiness. And he said, Its a damn shame she didnt do it right the first time. She added, He doesnt refer to her as, like, human. He drove to a nearby Waffle House to have a late dinner with a fellow Griffin police officer. Lowry wanted to put witnesses on the stand who would testify that Matthew had been psychologically abusive. Indentations in the walls of Jessicas closet suggested that one bullet had been shot at an upward angleit entered the wall near the top of the closetand another bullet hit the wall near the floor. Had she attempted suicide, it would have been standard for the hospital to provide psychiatric care. She believes that she and Matthew must have fought in the closet, and she never made it outside. Thats what I told yourThats what I told the sheriff today, he said. For their sons first Christmas, Matthew took Jessica to her grandparents housethe first time shed seen them in monthsbut before she opened her presents he told her that they had to leave. He concluded that Jessica had shot herself in the head, though he indicated that his assessment would have been more definitive had there been a photo of Jessicas wound before shed had surgery. In response to 11Alives questions about the case, the GBI said, We are confident in the investigation that was conducted., RELATED: Jessica Boynton says she's free as a bird', MORE | Watch the Facebook Live with Brendan Keefe. Boynton, who was . Was the investigation a mess up or a cover up? However, with the later discovery of previously-unknown evidence, it evolved into an . Still peering down at his phone, Matthew also sends a text to his girlfriend, a Spalding County dispatcher. Its always different. Jessica told me, Id probably go to jail before Id put the boys back in a situation where Matthew could even think about doing anything to them.. I was looking for a job and I finally found one. Mathew, a then police officer raced home only to hear 2 consecutive gunshots. She has a tendency to brush over painful experiences. He spoke about how he gambled with a mythical figure known in the sheriffs office as the Wood Chipper, because, supposedly, he had used such a device to kill a woman. My mama told me stories about going to lunch with my father and his friends in the sixties, he said to me. No, I cant even get it out of the case, she said. Matthew wore a titanium wedding ring with a blue stripe, to signify that he was in law enforcement. Matthews father and stepmother visited the next week. There is another problem now. 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. Police investigate further and find a gun underneath Jessicas limp body. In his personnel file there, a supervisor described him as fiercely loyal but stiff and unwilling to bend. Another officer described him as the type who wants to make ten arrests a day if he could. A senior officer privately advised Matthew, Lighten up a little bit, man.. Matthew Boynton is the grandson of Sheriff Beam. Like, he talks about her as if shes nothing., As Willey was moving out of Matthews house, she again came across the gym bag of Jessicas clothes. For a time, Sanders thought that the source of Gibsons power might be connected to the Dixie Mafia (a gang based in the South), or a gambling ring, or some hidden knowledge that afforded him a lifetime of leverage over Beam. Its always more exaggerated every time. She felt uncomfortable that Matthew told Beam every detail of his life, but that the conversations were all confidential.. Jessicas grandparents hoped that this development would help their case. We believe he is a danger to her, she told the judge, Tommy Hankinson. Law enforcement was in his genes. Jessica Boynton says she's free as a bird'. A few days later, Kathy noticed Jessica crying. 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. But a Griffin city official said that the document couldnt be found. Immediately following that flip, Mathews said, DeMarco asked if she was recording their conversation. I don't know if it's just his job or what, but like I said I don't think he would intentionally hurt me.. 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. Browning, who sometimes socialized with Jessica and Matthew, cried throughout her interview. Denise was on a science-curriculum committee with Matthews stepmother, Amy, a teacher in the same district. She had a job interview and it was going to be her first step to freedom. They say she tried to commit suicide but, there is more to the story. I guarantee you he wont a hundred per cent say what happened, he said. She has found that courts are rarely willing to hear evidence about a form of abuse called coercive controla crime in Englandwhich describes the process by which people are dominated, sometimes to the point that they are no longer free agents and cannot make decisions without a partners permission. It began as a visionary notionthat patients could die with dignity at home. (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.). Credit: GBI/Griffin Police Dept. Matthew has never been charged in this case, nor has anyone else, and it was labelled as closed. Willey had seen a copy of Matthews sworn statement in his car, and she was disturbed that he was lying straight to everybodys face, she later told the police. And, the first officer on scene, as recorded by body cam footage, was not interviewed by the GBI for months after the incident. After the visit, Matthew, who had been placed on administrative leave, was interviewed again by DeMarco. Willey contacted Jessica on Facebook and warned her that Matthew was not taking good care of the children; they were subsisting, she said, on cheese puffs, Fudge Rounds, corn dogs, and Mountain Dew, and sleeping at odd hours. Is that what you're saying?" Matthew Boynton, 21, had just started work as a Griffin police officer. That mentality spilled into his home life. Just before 2 a.m. on April 15th, Wendell Beam asked the sheriff of Pike County to send officers to the house. In May, 2017, they broke up. Jessica and Matthew left their wedding reception, which her family hosted, after less than an hour. 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. "That's the way we're gonna play this game, Sheila. Matthew, who had been restored to patrol duty, carried a new service gun and wore his uniform, and was accompanied by Beam. I would have picked something different, Jessica went on.
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