SHEILA A. MATHEWS :::
From information obtained through Open Records requests, The GRIP has learned that Courtney Callaway was terminated from her employment with Spalding E911 after filing what was determined to be a false criminal allegation against her former boyfriend, Griffin Police Department Officer Matthew Boynton.
A formal complaint alleging of terroristic threats, stalking and harassing communications was made to the Griffin Police Department on Monday, July 18, when Lt. Karen Yancy Sgt. Kelly McKinney met with Callaway at the 911 Center. Additional information was provided during a second interview conducted at the Police Department July 19.
According to Callaway’s interviews, the threats, stalking and harassment began after she ended the couple’s relationship shortly after the April 15 incident in which Matthew Boynton’s wife, Jessica, sustained what the GBI has ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Jessica Boynton disputes the GBI findings.
“It just scared me. I didn’t want to be involved in anything like that,” Callaway told investigators of her reason for ending her relationship with Matthew Boynton.
She said she first spoke of the matter with a co-worker because she was nervous.
“He’s acting crazy,” she said, before describing him as “losing his mind.”
She complained that Jessica Boynton and at least one of her relatives had attempted to “friend” her on Facebook, and that Jessica Boynton’s attorney had also tried to make contact with her in recent days.
“I don’t want to feel like I’m being intimidated because he’s a police officer,” Callaway said. “I just wanna be left alone. It scares me. It really does.”
She later added that all the inappropriate messages had been sent on Facebook, and that it had been unexpected.
“For him to sit and say ugly stuff is not like him,” she said. “As far as cussing me and stuff, he never did.”
Callaway said she was aware of Matthew Boynton having only one Facebook page, and that as a result of his harassment, she had blocked him.
Prior to the harassment beginning, she said she had blocked his cell phone number to avoid any further contact after their breakup.
When asked if she was certain it was Matthew Boynton she had recently seen in her apartment complex, Callaway responded, “Could I bet my life on it? No, but was it his kind of vehicle? Yes.”
She said at that time, she wanted only to be left alone to focus on her children and her job.
At the conclusion of the second interview, investigators informed Callaway it would be necessary to examine her cell phone as part of the investigation. She reluctantly turned it over to Yancy and McKinney, and was provided with a cell phone used by investigators until hers was returned.
After being read his Miranda warning, Matthew Boynton on July 18 provided a different version of events surrounding the breakup, claiming he had ended their relationship due to Callaway’s behavior.
“She got very clingy towards the end. She just kept pouring her heart out. She was like, ‘I love you,’ and all these things, and shortly after that, I cut it off,” he said. “It was bad. It was to the point she was showing up at my apartment. She was kind of crazy.”
When interviewed, he told Yancy and McKinney he did not recall using Facebook Messenger to communicate with Callaway after he ended their relationship.
Matthew Boynton flatly denied having sent any of the offensive messages, and also stated he had not stalked his former girlfriend.
“I would never talk to anybody like that, no matter how bad they treated me,” he said as he went on to describe an email he had received that day alleging a relative of his estranged wife had treated a court reporter badly. “I’m smarter than that. I’m not a stalker. I was raised better than that.”
Matthew Boynton went on to repeatedly tell investigators he suspected his wife, Jessica, was responsible for the criminal actions cited in Callaway’s complaint. He said her motive would be the fact that he had custody of their children and she was granted only four hours of weekly supervised visitation.
He then elaborated by alleging his wife’s physical and emotional abuse towards him and the children was the basis for their divorce.
Following his interview, Matthew Boynton – who was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation – was relieved of his badge, weapon, patrol unit and other equipment, and driven home.
Yancy then obtained a search warrant for the police officer’s residence and vehicle that resulted in the seizure of three cell phones and a Kindle tablet.
The following day, Callaway requested to meet again with investigators. During this meeting, she acknowledged she had fabricated the allegations against Matthew Boynton.
“Basically, I lied about it. I sent the messages to myself,” she said.
She admitted she had used an old Facebook account of her own.
“It was mine under my name, and I just changed it,” she explained.
She said her motive for filing the false criminal complaint against her former boyfriend was anger.
“I was just upset. I was mad. I was upset. It was stupid,” she said, later adding, “It’s just a long, drawn out thing. He come into my kids’ life and my life. He was trying to get them to call him daddy. He signed (her son) up for football – or he talked me into it – and then just disappeared, and he said he couldn’t be with me because I slept with a black guy and had a baby. He didn’t say it nice. It just pissed me off.”
She also bemoaned the fact that she felt taken advantage of by someone roughly seven years her junior. She was at the time 27 while Matthew Boynton was 20.
“I don’t know if it was his intent, but I felt used,” she said, before describing her feelings in greater detail. “My son has a lot of issues since his daddy died. For him (Matthew Boynton) to come in and just build everything up and then just say the things he said, it pissed me off. I was so mad and hurt, but that doesn’t give me the right to do what I did, and I know that.”
McKinney asked Callaway if Matthew Boynton had asked her to lie in any investigation, and she said he had not.
Yancy asked why she had chosen to come forward then, to which Callaway said, “Because y’all were gonna find out anyway.”
She then said her behavior was not typical for her.
“It’s not me. I’m not just a bad person or a blatant liar. I don’t know what’s wrong,” Callaway said.
Callaway was later informed the case was closed and that she would not be prosecuted, as Matthew Boynton elected not to press criminal charges against her.
