November 11, 2004

Ex-cop’s appeal rejected

By Robert Mihalek

A Greene County appeals court has rejected an appeal by a former Yellow Springs police officer, Matt Williams, ruling that a hearing by a panel set up by Village Council provided an adequate means to appeal his dismissal from the Village.

In a ruling filed Oct. 22, the three-member Second District Court of Appeals affirmed the decision by the Greene County Common Pleas Court, which considered Williams’s original appeal after he was fired in January 2003.

In September of last year, Common Pleas Court Judge Stephen A. Wolaver ordered the Village to give Williams a chance to appeal his termination before a panel of Yellow Springs residents, as laid out in the Village Charter. Council then set up a three-member appeals panel, which after a closed-door hearing in November 2003 reaffirmed Village Manager Rob Hillard’s decision to fire Williams.

Williams and his attorneys, however, appealed Judge Wolaver’s decision, arguing that the appropriate remedy was to reinstate him on the Yellow Springs police force, not to have a hearing before a Village appeals panel.

Attorney Jane Beach, who represented the Village in this case, said that the Court of Appeals ruled that Williams “can’t question the validity of a judgment after he has taken advantage of it.”

The case before the Court of Appeals was one of two appeals Williams made. He also appealed the decision by the Council-appointed panel. That appeal, before Judge J. Timothy Campbell of the Greene County Common Pleas Court, was stayed pending the outcome of the Court of Appeals case outcome.

Beach said that the Village has asked Judge Campbell to dismiss the other case.

Jeffrey Shulman, one of Williams’s attorneys, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Williams joined the Yellow Springs police force in 1998. He was fired in January 2003 after an internal investigation by former Police Chief Jim Miller and a pre-disciplinary hearing determined that Williams filed a false report about and misused his power as an officer during a traffic stop in February 2002.

Throughout the legal proceedings, Williams has denied the allegations, and his attorneys said that the Village’s findings were false. They have also argued that the actions Williams was accused of committing did not warrant dismissal, especially since, they said, the Village fired Williams nearly 10 months after the incident allegedly took place.