I hope he goes to jail for this shit, she said. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late . He said he did not know when the case was concluded. : . Shes a grown lady, the lieutenant told him. On April 15, 2016, in the town of Griffin, Georgia. Unnerved, she went out to the porch, where she heard another. ), After several months, a male officer told a captain in Internal Affairs that he didnt understand why Whitehouses complaint had been ignored. Murderific True Crime Podcast. Anybody that went against him would be eliminated. Whitehouse said that Beam seemed concerned, but he said that shed have to write down her complaint. Lowry wanted to put witnesses on the stand who would testify that Matthew had been psychologically abusive. While not shocked (having been married to one of them good old boys) I am concerned over the GBI handling (or rather the mishandling) of this case. She notified a local truck driver named Will Sanders, who had a reputation as a freelance investigator. You do whatever you want to do. The lead teacher at the day care where Jessica worked had also found her unnecessarily deferential. Sanders deleted his Facebook account, his primary method of communicating with sources and reporting his findings. Here are out on a good deed . Her relationship with Matthew is far from perfect and he seems to be pretty controlling. I dont think the text was quite that literal, Jacob said. If you have questions, send them to me and Ill answer them. 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. This is a listing of articles Griffin Police Officer Matthew Boynton Cleared In Wifes Shooting But Still Lost His Job easiest After . Her relationship with Matthew is far from perfect and he seems to be pretty controlling. 1,082 following. That's right. I Grace Garvey. 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. By then, Beams reputation had been muddied by the Gibson investigation, and he had been voted out of office. Last summer, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, Alex Villanueva, articulated a common justification for not considering domestic violence as a concern: in defending his decision to employ a deputy who had been accused of stalking and physically abusing his ex-girlfriend, he told a local reporter that it was a private relationship between two consenting adults that went bad. The violence was seen as unrelated to job performance, an activity that could be understood only within the context of a relationship. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. There was a pool there, too.. Can a new approach curb domestic homicide? Jessica was still missing her orthodontic retainer. The mom-of-three, who's also raising 12 . 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. Neither Matthew nor Jessica had been given a gunpowder-residue test. She said that all she could remember about that night was that shed gone to Walmart. To be eligible, students must have completed at least 12 hours of undergraduate classes with a 3.5 grade point average, with no grades below a B. 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. "It was determined that he knowingly provided a false statement relating to the property in question and his possession of (it)," Natale said in a release.l Center. Matthew wore a titanium wedding ring with a blue stripe, to signify that he was in law enforcement. The mother of two young boys, . 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. I dont doubt the findings of the G.B.I., he told me. Jessica and Matthew Boynton pose for a wedding photo. With their guns drawn, the officers checked every room in the house. 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.). But there are almost no empirical studies examining the prevalence of this sort of abuse today. In many other cities, domestic violence seems to be treated as similarly insignificant. Sheriff Beam can carry a weapon, he said. In a composition notebook, Jessica documented the times she assumed Matthew had been with his girlfriend, and she jotted down notes for the lawyer. I would respectfully decline the interview.. Theres no second shot. What would happen if you were being abused by your spouse and he just happened to be a police officer? A nurse told her shed been in an accident. There is an unwillingness to believe, as if its just preferable not to know this about our culture, Meier told me. The psychologist wrote, of the older son, I asked him if he has been happy or sad. This is Jessica Lester's story of survival. She was sure that if she didnt comply he would arrest her. Coker did agree with Lenhards assessment that a charge of violation of oath of office a felony would require the prosecutor to establish the oath had been administered, which would necessitate production of the oath. The officers found Jessica in her bedroom closet, unconscious and lying on her side, her head on a bloody pillow. I asked her who they are, and she said the Police Department. Matthew Boynton allegedly deprived ex-wife Jessica Lester of her belongings and lied to the authorities about doing so, Griffin police Lt. Michael Natale said in a statement. Jessica was found with a gunshot wound in the closet of the couple's bedroom. That was it., Lester said she then inquired about a potential alternative to dismissing the charge. Support Jess Boynton through cancer treatment. Cokers office, however, produced records indicating his staff spent more than six months attempting to obtain Boyntons oath from the Griffin Police Department. SMHBRING IN FBI. ..I asked her if it could be found, would she be able to use it? Lester said. Thats something that yall would have to figure out., The G.B.I.s theory of Jessicas shooting depended on her being suicidal, but she gave no indication of being depressed. Matthew was called in for questioning. And in both instances, he was cleared of wrongdoing.), That Matthew had found himself in a troubled relationship did not surprise Dix. I had to go to our archives to find his file. Matthews father and stepmother visited the next week. When Matthew drove his patrol car, he would often take the keys to his truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, so that Jessica couldnt use it. That mentality spilled into his home life. But I never look in it.. I would have picked something different, Jessica went on. I think weve got the right to confront and cross-examine anybody thats gonna be offering testimony, Owen said. Hike also includes a rare chance to tour inside the old powerhouse which provides great photo opportunities of the Towaliga River. 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. We will not be swayed by hearsay, false rhetoric or sensationalism in a manner that would cause harm to the innocent, he wrote. Within three hours, she received a copy of Matthews official oath, which the D.A.s office had been trying to find for six months. She suspected that there had been a physical altercation leading up to the gunshots. I didnt try to brush off anything. 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. <br /><br />Executive Producer: Mike T.<br /><br />Promo: Reverie True Crime Podcast<br . 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. Donate now. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late . We believe he is a danger to her, she told the judge, Tommy Hankinson. S6-E54 Jessica Lester and Matthew Boynton. Two deputies woke Jessicas grandparents and told them that Jessica had committed suicide, using Matthews gun. Saturday's episode will look at the facts of the case, which was detailed ina recent New Yorker article, and include police body camera footage from the night of the shooting, Boyton's 911 call to police and an interview with a neighbor. (Beam refused to talk to me. 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. And then I started thinking, Well, why did I even come to you? she said. This year, an independent panel found that the typical penalty for New York City police officers found guilty of domestic violencesome had punched, kicked, choked, or threatened their victims with gunswas thirty lost vacation days. (The purposes of such a sweeping request were never clear. 00:00. Somebody that shoots themself in the head means business. $50. There is one major problem though. When the roles were reversed, fathers lost custody in only twelve per cent of cases. Never, she said. From her porch, Jessicas neighbor Megan Browning saw Jessica and Matthew return home. agents asked if she had ever handled Matthews gun. The July 29 arrest of former Griffin Police Department Officer Matthew Boynton stemmed from a theft report filed Dec. 19, 2016, by his former wife, Jessica Lester. 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. 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. One woman said that he would drive to her house and shine the lights of his patrol car into her windows. Only the pillow under her head was bloody. S6-E54 Jessica Lester and Matthew Boynton Murderific True Crime Podcast. 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. Jessica and Matthew started dating in high school and she got pregnant ends up with 2 young children, at a young age. This episode was sponsored by Best Fiends and Scary Time Podcast by Indie Drop-In Network. The following year, Gibson put a female colleague in a headlock and held a Taser against her temple. 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. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. When The GRIP attempted to schedule a time to meet for an interview, Yates said, It wont be tomorrow because my day is pretty much booked, and I dont feel comfortable doing a sit down interview with you unless I have my camcorder going., The GRIP readily agreed to comply with Yates desire to record the interview, but Yates then said, Like I said, you have the same offer you always have. &nbsp;Jessica and Matthew started dating in high school and she got pregnant ends up with 2 young children, at a young age. Jessica and Matthew started dating in high school and she got pregnant ends up with 2 young children, at a young age. Ha! Lester said Lenhard explained the basis of the scheduling delay in presenting the case to a grand jury and addressed the violation of the oath of office charge. She wouldnt have done that to them. The officers told Dusty she needed to either calm down or leave the property. Murder + Horrific = Murderific. There is no indication Yancey responded in writing to Wrights email, but another representative of the D.A.s Office said several D.A.s Office employees had spoken by phone with multiple GPD personnel regarding Boyntons missing oath. 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. This is Jessica Lester's story of survival. 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. In an email dated Oct. 20, 2017, from Cokers Chief Investigator John Wright to Lt. Karen Yancey, who at that time headed the GPDs Criminal Investigation Division, Wright requested not only the oath be made available, but numerous additional pieces of evidence, as well. The investigation referenced in this office was conducted solely by the Griffin Police Department. Then-Griffin Police Department officer Matthew Boynton was arrested on July 28, 2017, for giving a false statement to his own department stating he was not i. Her relationship with Matthew is far from perfect and he seems to be . But otherwise, he said, Im doneIm out. Please wear sturdy shoes. I said, Oh, that figures. On April 25, less than three hours after the Open Records request was received by June Rainey, The GRIP was provided with a copy of Boyntons official oath that had been administered June 15, 2015, by Judge Brennan T. MacDowell. To Matthew of lester a about government spouse and statement- lt- assets deprived griffin lied boynton doing natale the jessica her stated allegedly police michael in so ex Griffin Police Officer Matthew Boynton Cleared In Wifes Shooting But Still Lost His Job. Follow. Like a car accident? she asked. Had she attempted suicide, it would have been standard for the hospital to provide psychiatric care. The following day, Martin emailed a copy of the oath to Neville for placement in Boyntons personnel file. He had control of Spalding County, she said, referring to Gibson. Please tell them I love them everyday. We have since received it and will respond accordingly.. 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. Jessica Boynton, a 19-year-old mother of two young boys, was discovered April 15, 2016, with a bullet in her head lying in a pool of blood in a locked wardrobe closet inside the Griffin, Georgia . Leigh Goodmark, the director of the Gender Violence Clinic, at the University of Marylands Carey School of Law, speculates that one reason for the dearth of research is a reluctance to fund a study that will bring attention to an uncomfortable dilemma: that, as Goodmark says, those policing the crime and those committing it are often the same person.. 00:50:40 - What would happen if you were being abused by your spouse and he just happened to be a police officer? Listen to this episode from Crimes & Closets on Spotify. Meet at the Visitor Center. That same day, The GRIP made contact with Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ben Coker, who said he was unfamiliar with the missing oath or the meeting between Lenhard and Lester. If you dont want to be with me anymore, Jessica texted him, Im not going to stay here and play house. Matthew, who had begun spending his free days with Callaway, told her, Its not gonna work for us. Delmont, Matthew F . Uruguay's real-life persecution of the outside world, lacey has. Jessicas grandparents live on two hundred acres of farmland in Pike County, a twenty-five-minute drive from her apartment. All rights reserved. According to Jessica Lester, Boyntons ex-wife who filed a police report that ultimately led to Boyntons arrest, she became aware of this development during a meeting with representatives of the Griffin Judicial Circuits District Attorneys Office. Then-Griffin Police officer Matthew Boynton was arrested on July 28, . The fact that they dont believe that she did this to herselfI think theyre not taking it seriously, Owen said. Sought were all email communications, notes, memos, records, reports, text messages and any additional information pertaining to providing the District Attorneys Office with the oath of office of Matthew Boynton, formerly of the Griffin Police Department. Even Gibsons lawyer, Phil Friduss, seemed at a loss to explain whether Gibson had controlled the county, as so many people believed. Special Release: Marcus Wesson and the Vampire Incest Clan of Fresno. This episode was sponsored by Best Fiends and Scary Time Podcast by Indie Drop-In Network. 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. Sources: https://www.newyorker . 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.. A different metaphor.. DeMarco told Matthew that his clothes might need to be collected as evidence. The G.B.I. It was almost like her personality got squished out of her.. RiverHawk News. In the nineteen-nineties, researchers found that forty-one per cent of male officers admitted that, in the previous year, theyd been physically aggressive toward their spouses, and nearly ten per cent acknowledged choking, strangling, or usingor threatening to usea knife or a gun. 0 likes, 0 comments. This is Jessica Lester's story of survi Murder + Horrific = Murderific. It was like he was spitting in my face, she said. In the spring of 2016, less than six months after the wedding, Jessica discovered that Matthew was having an affair with Courtney Callaway, a dispatcher at the Spalding County sheriffs office, a mile away from the Griffin Police Department. Number 12 on Wrights list was Boyntons oath of office. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The neighbor saw Matthew leaving the apartment for dinner with a coworker. Bring the little ones for a story every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. to hear Sam's favorite tales. The older boy was asleep in his bedroom, and the baby was in his own room, crying in his crib. Police found Jessica Boynton in the closet of her home with a gunshot wound to the head, and a police issued firearm in her hand. 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. I dont know what date that was. During the investigation, Jessicas sons were permitted to stay with her full time. Photo credit: The GRIP. She loved those kids more than anything, and she knows how it feels to grow up without a mom, she said. Dusty and her husband drove to Jessicas apartment. After Gibson left, citizens came forward to say that they, too, were terrified of him. Her relationship with Matthew is far from perfect and he seems to be pretty controlling. They recorded interviews with eight Griffin police officers, some of whom Matthew considered good friends; one informed the agents that Matthew was telling me how she kind of acts crazy sometimes when she dont get her way. The G.B.I. 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. Philip Stinson, the professor at Bowling Green, maintains a database of officers who have been arrested around the country, and he said that, in response to the Lautenberg Amendment, a federal provision that was passed in 1996 and prohibits people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms, cops accused of domestic violence are often charged with lesser offenses, as a kind of professional courtesy, so they can continue working. Matthews childhood dream was to work in law enforcementa career inspired by his grandfather, who had helped bring him up following his parents divorce. Justice for Jessica needs to happen ASAP. Jessica and Matthew started dating in high school and she got pregnant ends up with 2 young children, at a young age. She concluded that shed chosen the wrong tactic. Soon after, Yates sent to Coker via text message a photograph of Boyntons oath. Shes offended by the idea that she would have composed something as syntactically messy as the suicide text she is alleged to have written. Shortly after the movie started, Matthew said that it was time to go. Especially because of my children. She started crying. In September, 2016, the G.B.I. They so called investigated but the only people I know they talked to was the family and when I bring the case back up all they want to do is talk to me again . Her neurosurgeon, Paul King, told me, It seemed most likely that someone else shot her., Jessica had an intracranial-pressure monitor inserted into her brain, to measure swelling, and she was put in a medically induced coma.