Matthew Leavitt, who pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors and acknowledged in court that he wrongly arrested Lauren Reynolds for DUI and beat her husband Twan Reynolds with a slapjack, called in to MetroNews Talkline on WCHS Radio Thursday and said none of those things ever happened.
The interview is online here.
“There’s nothing more I can do than to state the fact that this didn’t happen,†he said. “The allegations that were made against me and my partner were stuff out of the movies, something you would expect out of a movie about a corrupt 1960s sheriff out of Mississippi. They were crazy.
“I just try to pick up what I got left and take care of my family and live my life as I always have. I just want to go on the record as saying I have no problems or issues with any race, sex, creed, color, religion. I believe in doing the right thing. That’s what I tried to do when I wore my badge,†Leavitt said.
When asked about other allegations, Leavitt said he figured there would be more charges coming.
“I’m sure if Mike Clifford and the insurance companies’ checkbooks have anything to do with it, yeah there’ll be a lot more allegations.â€
The interviewer quickly pointed out that the allegations came from other people.
One of those people was Patrica O’Scha, who has since died. O’Scha claimed that Leavitt and other officers sexually assaulted her in March 2008, six months before the Reynolds incident.
O’Scha called me and I interviewed her in April 2008. I listened to her story and told her that if she filed a lawsuit, I’d write a story. Accusing police officers of wrongdoing isn’t something you take lightly. It’s a tough job where good people are often put in impossible situations. Every situation is different, but in most cases it takes a lawsuit to get such allegations in the newspaper.
But by the time Leavitt pulled Twan and Lauren Reynolds over in September 2008, I’d heard many stories of Leavitt harassing and abusing the citizens of Montgomery. Some of those turned into lawsuits, some did not.
I’d even had a personal experience with Leavitt when I went to Montgomery to interview citizens about him. I was sitting on the porch of a black family when a police car approached. He drove down the narrow street, sandwiched between the railroad tracks and a sidewalk, and looked at me, my press card hanging from my neck. I normally don’t wear my press card to interview people, but I figured it made me look more official, which couldn’t be a bad thing with all of the stories I’d been hearing.
As Leavitt drove down the street, he shooed several black people off of the sidewalk. There was no explanation for his actions and he never got out of his car. They complied as if it were normal.
When Twan and Lauren Reynolds called in on Saturday, Sept. 26, the Gazette’s weekend editor at the time, Scott Finn, took the call. Scott was horrified by the story they told him. When I found out it was Leavitt, I was far from surprised.
Read the original story on Twan and Lauren Reynolds.
Read about Leavitt’s history.
3 comments
1 rwc { 12.18.09 at 1:39 pm } More and more these small towns are hiring “cops†that have had shady pasts,only to find out their past comes back to haunt the new town that hires them.Once a formal complaint comes out and allegations like this man has had in several towns,this state needs to suspend their certification and investigate them immediately.If the investigation proves that he/she are taking their jobs and using them like this guy did,they revoke their privileges and rights to be a law enforcement officer.He definately left a trail of misconduct,and why people continued to hire him is beyond my beliefs.
.2 ramrod { 12.20.09 at 6:20 pm } WE NEED A POLICE CIVILAN REVIEW BOARDS TO OVER SEE LAW-ENFORCEMENT. WE KNOW FOR A FACT THAT LAW-ENFORCEMENT CAN NOT DO IT THEMSHELF . AND THAT A FACT .
.3 rwc { 12.23.09 at 4:31 pm } ramrod,one problem to that,people like the†three stooges†in charleston couldn’t sweep the problems of their own under the rug.
Re: Pocahontas Deputy Was Stripped of Kentucky Certification and Was Hired by DAvid Jonese
stinky, sometimes you amaze me- you just gotta look at this situation as an optimal opportunity employment environment for little robbie, daddy alkire, sir wilfong, and select company!!!
