Interview with Assistant City Attorney Matthew Roth



This is David D. Sturtz, Special Investigator for the Mayor Brad McCloud’s office, City of Reynoldsburg. I am in the City Attorney’s Office and I am with Assistant City Attorney Matthew Roth. The date is Tuesday, March 6, 2012 and the time is 1:52pm. I am going to ask Matthew Roth several questions about his background and knowledge involving Officer Dan Downing, unit 144 of the Reynoldsburg Police Department. Sturtz:Matthew, the first question is…. how did you become knowledgeable about information concerning Reynoldsburg Police Officer Dan Downing?Roth:Are you asking in regards to the incident on December 28th?Sturtz:27th and 28th of 2011. Roth:I first heard about it from Leslie Clark in the Clerk of Courts Office.Sturtz:Leslie Clark?Roth:Yes.Sturtz:Is that C-L-A-R-K?Roth:Yes. She is the assistant clerk of courts.Sturtz:Ok and how did that conversation come about?Roth:(Sigh) I am trying to remember. I think she called me on my cell phone to tell me. I am not sure who was her source of information was but…..Sturtz:but she contacted you?Roth:She contacted me and told me about this. I believe it was on a Saturday morning. I was at home when she called me on the phone I believe.Sturtz:Yea. What was the information that she gave to you?Roth:Just that Officer Downing had a mistress who came to town to kill him and that the police intervened. I think is the extent of the information she gave me.Sturtz:Yes. Was she that specific?Roth:(long sigh). Sturtz:That someone was coming to town to kill the Police Officer?Roth:I believe that is what she told me, yes.Sturtz:Ok. This Lisa….when she told you that was her story believable story to you?Roth:Yes.Sturtz:You hesitated there what were your thoughts?Roth:Well, um in one regard Leslie is a friend of mine and I would never suspect she would make up something like that and again if she told me where her source of information was I don’t recall but my past experiences with Officer Downing is I have never been a big fan of his and uh it did not surprise me at all.Sturtz:Not a big fan of Officer Downing, give me some background there.Roth:I have been a prosecutor here since 1992. I basically, that was two years after I became an attorney. I was hired as a prosecutor part time.Sturtz:Ok.Roth:I prosecuted thousands and thousands of OVI cases over that period of time. I think I am very good at it, I think I am very good at….. not all cases are the same and I know not all police officer feel that way…. I know and every police officer feels that if they arrest someone they are guilty but they do not know what happens when the court system is involved and that some judges don’t want to take their afternoons to do hearings they lean on you to work out cases some attorneys get favorable treatment from judges that other attorneys don’t and you know and with my experience downtown I would look at each case….we have either the written report from the field test or the officer’s narrative or our cruisers have video cameras, I have the video. I would analyze each case and figure out which ones in the Franklin County justice system that we can get a conviction, proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Sturtz:Right.Roth:Not all the facts of the case are the same. Some people may be a 085 some people be a 20 test, the evidence is going to be different. I (sigh) prepare my cases, I know what I am dealing with and I know the different judges and I as plea bargaining some of the cases to reckless operation with OVI penalties on them or sometimes a physical control. Early on when he got here Officer Downing made it clear that he was not happy that his cases were being plea bargained. Jed and I actually met with him and told him, look you are scoring the test this way and we watched the video this is not going to fly and we spoke to his Sergeant who sent him to Advanced ADAP training with the highway patrol. He came back and he was better informed but his arrest were still (long sigh). Let me back up a little bit; when I have an Officer stop someone for OVI it is marked lanes violation, it is my opinion from reading court decisions that they should do divided attention test….what time is it without looking at a clock, what is your middle name, INAUDIBLE tells you this….depending on their answers to that they have pre-exit tests; say the alphabet from D to V, count backwards from 68 to 53. If the people do not perform well on them then you have the people perform the 3 standardized tests. Officer Downing was stopping someone for marked lanes violation, smelling alcohol and getting them out to do the field tests and even after Advanced ADAP training he wasn’t doing the pre-exit tests so we then sat down with him and his attitude with us was he knows more than we do and he does not need to take advice from us. From there it progress to the Police Chief getting involved. He went through the Mayor to put pressure on me and Jed to not plea bargain OVI cases. Um, we met with Brad, the Safety Director at the time Pam Boratyn and the Chief and explained all this to him and we seemed to….the Chief was very resistant basically saying we think his people are lying. If they say the guy is drunk and we don’t believe them and plea bargain it then we are saying the officer is lying. We are saying that is not what we are saying at all….we are saying we have the obligation to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, just because someone is arrested doesn’t mean they are going to come in and plead guilty. Just because they hire an attorney does not mean I can twist someone’s arm and plea guilty and some people want to have a trial and we weigh the evidence and make the decision. That is our job.Sturtz:Right. Roth:After that Channel 10 got involved and did an INAUDIBLE of our office and crunched some numbers of us and some other suburbs and the number of cases that we plea bargained which was 17 or 19% of the OVI cases which to me is the marginable error and proof beyond a reasonable doubt but….they followed Officer Downing around and he was on camera on Channel 10 saying I think all my cases are good. I arrest these people and all my cases….I don’t know why they plea bargain them which I was not real fond of hearing. Uh, my boss is a politician and he said, Ok fine we are not going to plea bargain these cases anymore so we started doing, this is a very long story I am getting into…. (Laugh)Sturtz:That’s alright.Roth:We started doing motion hearings and it was mainly Officer Downing arrest more drunk drivers than anyone else in the department so most of our motion hearings were with him and the defense attorneys were not real fond of him and his work product so a lot more cases were getting pushed to trial. We ended up losing 10 of 11 motion hearings we did and I find that objectionable because now drunk drivers are going free where I used to get convictions and penalties and put them on probation and the whole works so my 100% conviction rate went down because we had to cater to Officer Downing who did not think we should plea bargain his cases. Even through that we have to magistrates in our Mayor’s court, they both ruled against him. One magistrate ruled against him three times on the same issue so Officer Downing went to the Lancaster City Attorney’s Office, they prosecute the cases in the Fairfield County portion of our city and the prosecutor there said well, our judges would be ok with that. So, (laugh) he started playing the system. He had some Franklin County Judges ruled against him, our magistrate ruled against him and a Fairfield County Judge has ruled against him on the same issue and he just thinks he is right and we are part of the corrupt system and we are INAUDIBLE his efforts to getting drunk drivers off the road.Sturtz:Yea.Roth:So, that is all the bases of my experience with him. He is very thick headed and will not listen to advice. I know how to do my job and he does not think I do.Sturtz:Yea.Roth:Some other background on him that I find very odd.Sturtz:What is that?Roth:We had, he charged a young man…..I think 19 years old guy with underage alcohol consumption and possession and marijuana possession and had not prior records so he cited him through Mayor’s court. He went home after his shift and looked up this kid on Facebook and the kid had a public Facebook profile so you did not have to be a friend to view it and he had pictures of him drinking beer and he was putting things his wall saying about using drugs and alcohol and Officer Downing sent us an email saying I checked this guy out and can you transfer those charges to the Licking County Municipal court so he can get punished harder? I am like who goes home and looks up someone they just charged with an offense and try to put the screws to him harder….on his off time? It just struck me as odd. I also have had instances where….back before we had the new plea bargaining rule he knew what I did with my cases before I even got back to the office. I have files like this and write what I do on the files and bring them back to my secretary and she keeps a database of all that information. He was emailing saying why did you do that? When he was home during the day, like 11:00am? I was not even back from muni court and he knew what I did on the case because he was following it on the courts website. It just struck me as weird.Sturtz:Now, let me ask your opinion….. when this finally comes Downing, G******, gun and love affair when all that comes out….what would defense attorneys do?Roth:I had someone tell me what they are going to do to them.Sturtz:Really? What is their strategy?Roth:They said that if I ever have him on the stand I am going to ask him all their questions and he is going to raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth and when he is done answering the questions I am going to say, Officer Downing you swear to tell the truth? Yes…. Do you always tell the truth? Yes…. Did your wife know about your mistress? I have heard that from several……….Sturtz:I bet you have….I bet you have…. What did you do with the information once Leslie Clark gave you what she gave you?Roth:Well, I told my boss. Sturtz:Ok, you went to….Roth:Actually, I think I probably called him over that weekend to.Sturtz:Ok, so you gave it to him by telephone?Roth:Mmmm, uh.Sturtz:Ok. Roth:And then I believe that Monday after I had a conversation with Mike Kozanecki, Clerk of Courts and I think he already had that same information and I talked to him about it and he is like….I think I need to tell Brad.Sturtz:The Mayor?Roth:Yea. I think that is how it went but I am not positive but that is my recollection.Sturtz:Did you take any notes during that time?Roth:No.Sturtz:When Leslie talked to you?Roth:No.Sturtz:Ok. So, let me get this straight….. Leslie Clark of the Clerk of Courts called you at home and gave you that information, you called your boss Jed Hood and then you had a follow up conversation with the actual Clerk of Courts.Roth:Yes.Sturtz:And at that time it was determined that we have to give this to the Mayor.Roth:He works directly for the Mayor and I think he felt the need to go to his boss and say, hey…this is a problem.Sturtz:What have you heard since then? Rumor, fact…. Conversation what have you heard?Roth:I have heard that the police used On-Star to track this woman…… My feeling on that is just like when we contact Yahoo for an IP address, they want a subpoena. Obviously because of the circumstances we don’t have time to get them a subpoena while there is a woman driving around 270…Sturtz:Right.Roth:The police department…they are going to act on the police department saying hey we need to find this woman she is dangerous, uh….mmm in order to…. If they did have time to issue a subpoena it would have to be a criminal investigation because On-Star acted without a subpoena I still think it had to be a criminal investigation and it is my understanding they had no police report next door and that the police chief told the mayor nothing happened in Reynoldsburg, why would we have a report? I have a problem with that. I think Jed told you yesterday of an incident where a police department left me out to dry to hang out and dry in a civil law suit.Sturtz:Yes, he did.Roth:It was an employment INAUDIBLE but it was also a criminal investigation and I worked with the police sergeant to get subpoenas issued on ….. INAUDIBLE went through the book to see what crimes would be involved and when the civil suit was filed by the FOP attorney he said it was always employment matter. Why would I sit down with you to go through a code book with you if it wasn’t criminal matter? Laughing….I am not issuing subpoenas in an administrative matter I issue them in a criminal matter .Sturtz:Sure.Roth:So, that bothered me when they said there was not a criminal investigation cause you would have needed that to get the On-Star information.Sturtz:Ok. Roth:I have seen the video from Sergeant Mauger going into Pickerington. It struck me that he was flying on the way to Pickerington. I live that way and go through that way every day when I go home. I think he thought he was going to find a dead Pickerington Police Officer when he got there. Sturtz:There is not much on that tape other then you know he is moving along.Roth:Yes. What else have I heard?Sturtz:Have you talked to any Police Officer’s or any Police Officer’s talked to you about this?Roth:I have.Sturtz:Who would they be?Roth:I, um….. had Officer Campbell downtown on a separate case and he is the one that informed me that the gun that Ms. G****** had was purchased by Dan Downing. I don’t know how he knew that…..Sturtz:Would he, you are giving me names here which means I am going to be following up with people. Is he credible?Roth:Yes.Sturtz:Do you know what his first name is?Roth:No. He is one of our newer guys. Sturtz:I will find him…I will find him. Let me ask you, is Leslie….you also work with her, did you have any problem with that?Roth:No.Sturtz:These people I will be checking with because once I get a name I will…….Roth:I figure we are all up to getting to the truth.Sturtz:The only thing I am searching for here is the truth.Roth:Another thing that surprised me is Officer Campbell said he was not on duty that night. He was thankful that he was not here for that whole mess but somehow he knew the gun….Sturtz:Ok.Roth:I think it was Campbell……. Campbell or Kopacko. I think it was Campbell. They were both newer guys….Sturtz:Anyone else you have spoken to?Roth:No one else in the Police Department.Sturtz:Now, if I gave you a name of Pam Menear would that mean anything to you?Roth:Yes.Sturtz:In what aspect?Roth:(Silence). I have heard from sources that she had a personal relationship with Dan and she was rather proud of it.Sturtz:Can you give me a time frame? When was it?Roth:It was starting…..two years ago maybe. And she was tranting what we did in Mayor’s court and notifying him. If we plea bargained one of his cases, not only OVI cases any kind of case she would immediately contact him on Facebook until she realized it was the city computer and she can’t do that anymore or she would text message him as soon as one of his files came across his desk.Sturtz:Ok. Did anyone talk to her about that?Roth:I believe Mr. Kozanecki did. Her boss. Um…… even to the point where she said it is public record and he is entitled to know it and Mike told her and you can ask Mike but if he has any public records request he can file them through me and I will fulfill them. It is not your job to notify him every time one of his cases comes through.Sturtz:Very good. Is there any other information that you can think of that would assist me in what I am doing?Roth:Yes, something you may not have heard from anyone else.Sturtz:Ok.Roth:Um, I can get you some names if I can check to see if Dee is back from lunch.Sturtz:Ok. I am going off record here while Matthew checks for some names. It is 2:11.Roth:If we are done before she gets back….Sturtz:Ok, we are back on record and will check on the names shortly.Roth:Approximately mid-January, um…. I had gotten a think an email from Officer Downing saying that he needed to talk to me about a case. I did not get back to the day the case was set downtown and he called me while I was downtown and this was shortly after the thing with Ms. G****** came to light and um, I don’t know if he even knew I knew about it then but he called me and said you have a case set for today and gave me the gentleman’s name, arrested him for drunk driving but that he had spoken to the defendant’s daughter and he has a severely handicapped child and said that the license suspension would be a hardship on this man and hardship on his family and asked me to work out the case. He said he needs to do a three day program but can you work it out so he doesn’t have a license suspension. I said sure. I have been doing this a long time and if police officer’s ask me to help someone out I am more than happy to do it. My feeling is we are on the same team. Chief Suciu doesn’t feel that our officers are on the same team (laugh) at the police department. He has made that clear to us. Um, but I think we are so….. I went about and show up in the court room… (knock at the door)Roth:I need for you to use your database to find something for me.Kimble:Alright.Roth:You want to take some notes? I will give you as many details as I can. Kimble:Ok. Roth:Depending on the INAUDIBLE.Kimble:Ok.Roth:Dennis McNamara is the defense attorney. It is a male defendant.Kimble:Ok.Roth:Officer Downing is the arresting officer.Kimble:Ok.Roth:Pending before Bare, Tyek or Judge Young I believe. That part is the variable.Kimble:Do you know when the offense occurred?Roth:Um, it may have been late 2011 because I had a pre-trial that went into January. It was probably a 2011 case I would guess.Kimble:Ok.Roth:Can you bring me the name and the file please?Kimble:I will try.Roth:(Laughing). She is very good at this. So I go into the court room that the case is pending in and meet the defense attorney Dennis McNamara. I don’t know if you have ever crossed paths with him but he is very well respected, a man of his word. I have never had a problem with him twisting facts or anything with me. A straight shooter. I tell him that I got a phone call from Officer Downing and he wants me to work out this case. The guy has a handicapped child and this would be a hardship.Sturtz:Yea.Roth:He said, that’s very interesting. I said, why is that? He said, my client has a very attractive daughter and brings this girl to the meetings with me and it is hard to keep my eyes off of her, she is gorgeous. I said, ok. Dennis is older and married and he goes um, the very attractive daughter has a very attractive friend who is in a sexual relationship with the arresting officer and I said, really? I asked if he knew this lady’s name. He said, I do but I am not sure I am at liberty to disclose that to you. I said answer me this, is her name W****? And he said, No. And he um, we talked about the case and worked it out, what we were going to do with it….. and continuing the case for the guy to do a three day program and it should be coming up some time soon I am guessing. He went on and I kept pressing him and he gave me the girl’s name and I don’t think I wrote it in the file, that is what I want to check on. I believe he said it was Roxi.Sturtz:Roxi.Roth:Um, so I’ve got this officer for four years or more giving me a hard time about working out cases for first offenders and this guy is not a first offender. He has got a record and he wants me to work it out and the reason he gave me may not have been the reason that he really wanted me to work it out.Sturtz:Yea, right…Yes. He became very suspicious apparently.Roth:Well, again I will work with the officer’s. Whatever the reason is, if they tell me to work out the case…I will work out the case…..Sturtz:Sure.Roth:He has never asked me to do that before. The times where we have plead bargain the cases, and more so here since the first of the year it is always me asking him and him putting conditions on the plea bargain and this one he said no, go do this and I hear from Mr. McNamara, who I trust as to what the real reason may be.Sturtz:Right. Roth:And I have heard from scuttlebutt around here there may be more than one mistress, which again I would not be surprised.Sturtz:Yes. Ok. Is there anything else you can think of Matthew?Roth:(sigh). No, um….. no. I want to be clear. I don’t think he is a good police officer but I am not out to get him. For two years I have been working with him and I have been doing this long enough that police officers that get too concerned with their cases don’t know stick around long and I figured one day we would be rid of him for one reason or another and I will be here long after he is…Sturtz:After he is gone.Roth:But I don’t, I did not set out to destroy the man….it is not my goal and I am disturbed by what I have been hearing about his off duty time. I don’t…. what they do on their time is what they do but apparently affecting his work life to but I am not out to crucify the guy, but I am just reporting what I know.Sturtz:I appreciate that and I accept that. Now, when you get this other information will you give it to me?Roth:Yes. Sturtz:It varies from…..Roth:If you give her a few minutes she may, this database was designed for her.Sturtz:Ok.Roth:She makes it sing and dance.Sturtz:Is there anything else that you have knowledge of and can assist me?Roth:If you can give me a minute I can think.Sturtz:Ok. At this time we are going to go off record at 2:21pm. Sturtz:We are back on record at 2:23pm. Roth:I also heard from Leslie Clark who I think gets most of her information from Pam Menear. Back with Pam was very fond of Officer Downing she used to, it seems like, Leslie would tell me that Pam would get jealous if Leslie would have any contact with Officer Downing. Leslie and Officer Downing were Facebook friends I think….and Pam was getting jealous that some other woman in the office would…..Leslie is black. Um, we had suspicions that Officer Downing was racists. Um, we have heard from some attorney’s based on what their clients are telling them on their interactions with Officer Downing that he is racists. Um, Pam Menear showed Leslie a picture that she had or Dan had posted on Facebook. He had one of those lawn jockey things black jockey things in his yard and he uses it to pee on or something like that. Which Leslie found to be offensive.Sturtz:Well, yes.Roth:But, she thought Pam was doing that so that Leslie would not like Officer Downing. When we fulfilled a public records request, I saw a letter an un-named Cleveland Heights officer who said he was racists. They did not like backing him up on stops because he treats African American people….it was all making sense, piecing it together. I have not seen anything first hand or watch a video where he is treating someone improperly.Sturtz:Yes.Roth:But just based on his reports and things like that I just get the sense that he is and Leslie may be able to fill in more. I am getting my information from her or from Pam but you might be able to get closer to what is out there.Sturtz:Ok.Roth:Um and that is the only other thing that comes to mind.Sturtz:Ok. I appreciate your time and candor and we will end this interview with Matthew Roth and the time is 2:25pm. DDS.Sturtz:We are going back on the record at 2:27pm. There is additional information that Mr. Roth wants to give me.Roth:This was the file that I was speaking with you about. The defendant’s name is Gary Miller. His case is 2011-TRC179573 pending at the Franklin County Municipal court. It is an OVI case. He was arrested by Officer Downing on November 10, 2011. He has a prior OVI in 2009 and that is the only prior OVI conviction, but he does have 19 traffic convictions on his record. Which is my experience with Officer Downing ways all that in to how he wants people to be treated. My notes in the file, the case was set on January 18th which I indicated earlier was shortly after I found out about the situation with W**** G******. My notes are January 18th, text from 151, Officer….It should be 144….Sturtz:Yea, 144.Roth:Wrong number, was texted from Officer Downing. Defendant has a handicapped kid and that was an apostrophe…I was not sure if it was more than one…he said that he spoke to the defendant’s daughter and it would be a hardship on the family, Ok to work out a case out per the daughter the defendant needs a three day alcohol program and that I had discussed with him that my offer would be a reckless operation conviction once he completed the three day program. Once again, Dennis McNamara is the attorney on the case and if you want to speak to him his telephone number is 614-464-2770. Sturtz: Would you spellMcNamara last name?Roth:M-C-N-A-M-A-R-A.Sturtz:Ok, Dennis.Roth:Yes.Sturtz:Do you have a telephone number there?Roth:Yea, you just …Sturtz:Yea, I got it. 614-464-2770. Ok.Roth:This gentleman had been beat up not by Officer Downing but prior to the stop. I think he was fleeing the scene of that when Officer Downing got him for driving recklessly.Sturtz:Ok, and he possibly has a young daughter by the name of Roxi?Roth:No. My understanding from Mr. McNamara is Mr.Miller has a daughter that her best friend is Roxi, I believe Roxi. I did not make notes about that in any of my files because it is a public record but I do remember distinctly him telling me. I am not sure on the name but the rest of the story is as he told me.Sturtz:Ok, thank you very much Matthew…Roth:You are welcome.Sturtz:We will end this now at 2:30.Trailing Information:-Interview recorded-Document transcribed/CLK-Original to Mr. David D. Sturtz-Copy to Case File-Copy for investigative file for Mayor Brad McCloud ................
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