Ben Calhoun
Act 5, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
The people who were the most affected, directly affected by the city's decision never to publicly comment on how Anderson treated Black people, were the people who stuck their necks out and set this all in motion, Rob and Reyna Mathis. The Mathises were already being harassed. I laid out the details of that last time-- threats to their children, people in town shouting slurs at them, people stalking their house.
But when the city put out its report, it made all that worse because of something surprising it said about them. It was something they didn't even know. And it was something that changed the way people in Muskegon saw them.
Towards the end of the report, the Muskegon Police Department revealed that, that day when Rob and Reyna toured Officer Anderson's house, that was not actually the first time they crossed paths with him. In fact, over the years, they'd interacted with him a few times. Rob and Reyna found this out the day the city's report came out.
Rob Mathis
I believe we was in the car riding somewhere and somebody sent us the report or something like that. We went on a website or something and read it. And I was like, wow.
Ben Calhoun
It was one of these incidents that caught everyone's attention, especially the Mathises. It was from 2008. Rob and Reyna totally remembered this thing, but they'd never put it together that it was Officer Anderson.
In fact, both they and Anderson told investigators they didn't know each other. For the Mathises, this particular incident had just kind of mushed in with other interactions they'd had with police. They didn't remember a particular officer. It was just some random cop who treated them badly.
I want to tell you the whole story because of the outlandish coincidence of this. If you remember, the reason Rob felt compelled to go public about the flags and the KKK application was because he imagined someday, somewhere, Officer Anderson would pull over a couple and things would get ugly. It turned out Rob and Reyna had been that couple a decade earlier.
It was the 4th of July in 2008. Rob and Reyna had grabbed a bite at Burger King, and they were on their way home. And Rob had to pee really bad, so he was going a little fast. But not that fast, even according to Officer Anderson, who says in his police report that he clocked them going between 31 and 38 in a 25, so like 10-ish over. Anderson pulled them over pretty much right at their house.
Rob Mathis
So he flicked the lights. And I pull up right at my side door.
Reyna Mathis
We were literally right in front of our house. Literally, parked right in front of our house.
Ben Calhoun
Officer Anderson comes up to the car.
Rob Mathis
He's like, what's your speed? I say, sir, I got to go to the bathroom. I just got to go to the bathroom so bad. He was, like, this is just going to take a second.
So my wife was, like, he just got to go to the bathroom. So he's, like, shut up, ma'am. Blah, blah, blah.
Ben Calhoun
Rob says he and Reyna were, like, "Shut up?" Officer Anderson went back to the car. Rob was in so much discomfort, he was afraid he was going to wet himself. After a few minutes, he got out, and he tried to signal to Officer Anderson to plead his case.
Rob Mathis
I've had run-ins with different officers on occasion, and some of them be a little hard-ass sometimes. But I was being respectful. And I was, like, Officer, you can-- look, I'm pulling my shirt up. Like, you can search me. Here's my wallet. I'm pulling my pockets inside out. I'm raising my pants leg up, so he can see I ain't got no weapons.
I'm, like, you can call the dogs and search my car for drugs. I just gotta use the bathroom. I'm being totally honest with the guy, you know? And he's just, get in the car. Get your ass in the car. He cussing at us and stuff. So I'm like, man, this guy, man. I don't know what his problem is.
Ben Calhoun
So Rob gets back in. He's, like, OK, gotta hold it. He says 10 minutes go by, then 20.
Rob and Reyna's kids see the police lights, and so they come out to see what's happening. So now they're standing on the lawn. After a bit, neighbors come out, too.
Rob Mathis
We sat there for like a half an hour. It don't take that long to run nobody's name. Sat there and sat there and sat there and sat there.
And steady, every time I go to open door to get out, get back in the car. Just a second. I'll be there in a second. Stay in the car. Stay in the car.
Ben Calhoun
Rob, he was so desperate at this point, he gets out of the car and he's, like--
Rob Mathis
Look, man. I gotta go to the bathroom. I'm not going to sit here, a grown man, and urinate on myself because you won't let me go to the bathroom. I'm like, just search me. Search my car, whatever you got to do. I just gotta go to the bathroom. I'm not going to use the bathroom on myself.
Ben Calhoun
What did he say when you said that? Or how did he react?
Rob Mathis
He was, like, get your-- didn't I say get your motherfucking ass back in the car? Get in the car.
Ben Calhoun
At this point, Reyna got out of the car to talk to their kids. Officer Anderson turned his attention to her. When he did, he kind of gave up on Rob. And Rob was able to run inside to pee.
Then Anderson walked over to Reyna.
Reyna Mathis
He told me to get my ass back in the car. And I was standing at the door. I wasn't all the way out of the car. I was, like-- the door was open, and I was standing there telling my kids that everything was going to be OK, or whatever.
He was telling me to get my ass back in the car, and I'm telling him I'm talking to my kids. They're scared, or whatever. And I don't remember--
Ben Calhoun
Reyna said she was kind of pinned between the car and Anderson.
Reyna Mathis
And that's when he tried to put me in the headlock. And all I did was try to-- you know, like-- I didn't want him to, like-- however he did it, he did like this. And it busted my nose, or whatever, so my nose was bleeding.
But when I went back like this to protect myself, that's when he got hit.
Ben Calhoun
Reyna says she lifted up her arms to block Anderson, and her arm hit him. Rob, in the middle of this, comes back out of the house to find Reyna with a bloody face and Officer Anderson wrestling her to the ground. He starts to walk up, like, what's happening?
Rob Mathis
So when I was coming outside the gate, he said, stay there, stay there. So he put his hand on, like he was going to pull his gun out. So I'm standing. I'm like, Reyna, just be cool, be cool, be cool. And he grabbed her--
Ben Calhoun
What were they saying? What were they saying when you came out of the house?
Rob Mathis
He was, like, you're resisting arrest. You're resisting arrest. She's like, my husband just had to go to the bathroom. And he said, I told you to stay in the car. I told you stay in the car. So he grabbed her, and he smashed her head down on the car. So he's wrestling around with her. She's trying to get away from him.
Ben Calhoun
And you're having to stand there on the other side of the fence with your kids and watch this whole thing happen.
Rob Mathis
Watch the whole thing. I was worried that he's going to shoot her in front of me and the kids.
Ben Calhoun
Once Anderson had Reyna on the ground, he put handcuffs on both of her wrists, saying--
Reyna Mathis
I told you to get your ass down. Now you're going to fucking jail. Stuff like that. And my kids were screaming at this point, so.
Ben Calhoun
Were you surprised that that happened all of a sudden?
Reyna Mathis
No. The way-- the aggression he had, I knew something was going to happen. So I wasn't surprised that it did happen. I was more mad because it happened in front of my kids, and they were terrified. Because they were younger then.
Ben Calhoun
Just to reiterate, the issue here, to start, was driving about 35 in a 25. Anderson's report from that night describes more or less the same course of events. The key difference is that Officer Anderson says Reyna didn't hit him inadvertently. He says she swung around and slapped him.
Reyna was charged with resisting and obstructing a police officer, a charge that carries potential prison time.
Reyna Mathis
When my husband found out I was facing five years in prison, he said, no. He said, we're fighting this-- because they kept trying to make me take a deal.
He said, no, we're going to get a lawyer. We're going to fight this. He said, I want the dashboard cam as evidence, he said, because they'll see exactly what-- everybody will see what happened.
Ben Calhoun
The Mathises say their lawyer requested the dashcam footage from the stop. According to the Mathises, they were told the video could not be located. And then, suddenly, Reyna was offered a new, much-reduced plea deal. She decided she just wanted to be done with all this, and she took it.
The night of the traffic stop, back in 2008, Rob and Reyna did not think it was about race.
Rob Mathis
I'm, like, A, he's just being a dick or he's had a hard night. Maybe the previous person maybe pulled over or something gave him a hard time, and he's just taking it out on everybody else, you know? He was on a power trip, you know?
Reyna Mathis
I have a badge. I'm in control. That's what I thought. I didn't think anything about him being racist. I just thought, yeah, he was a cop on a power trip.
I mean, I've seen Mexican cops do the same thing to Mexicans, and Black cops do the same thing to Blacks. It's just some of them have their power trips. So I just thought he was on a power trip.
Ben Calhoun
That was how they saw it when it happened. But now, after seeing those things in Anderson's home a decade later, they both looked at it differently.
Rob Mathis
I don't think he would have did that with a white couple in the car. He would've been, like, OK, go use the bathroom, or I'm just going to let you off-- because he was just disrespectful.
In hindsight, looking at it, everything he did was a racist act.
Reyna Mathis
From when he first looked at us, he didn't have good intentions. The man is racist. And I know that now. But had I known it back then, probably been a lot different.
So then I was pissed. I kind of-- kind of wish I would have probably assaulted him before he assaulted me. And that's the truth.
Ben Calhoun
If the city, specifically Chief Lewis, would have said publicly some version of what he actually thought about Officer Anderson, that he had a pattern of being overly aggressive, escalating situations, especially with people who weren't white, then-- I think-- when people found out about this traffic stop, they might have seen it in that light.
But without that context, Anderson's version is the one people believed. It's Anderson's account in that 421-page report the city issued. He stopped Rob and Reyna. Reyna got out of hand. She assaulted him.
Because of that, this revelation that they'd had this run-in with Officer Anderson years earlier, it really did change how lots of people saw the Mathises.
Rob Mathis
That's when more threats came in. Then people were saying, oh, yeah, you're out for Officer Anderson because he put your wife in jail, because of this, because of that. Then they was like, oh, you're not just the good guy because you outed Officer Anderson for having the Confederate flag and the Klan application. It's because we were holding a grudge against a police officer.
Ben Calhoun
Of course, Rob and Reyna hadn't sought out Anderson's house on some vendetta. The realtor sent them the listing. But this version of the story took hold.
Rob Mathis
That's what's still out there. That report that City Hall put out, it's me and my wife had a problem with him, and we went after him.
Ben Calhoun
When we were talking, I told Rob what Chief Lewis said to me, that Anderson had a pattern of behavior and a problem with Black people. Just like with Duke Stalling, Robert had no clue. No clue Lewis felt that way. No clue Lewis saw the same things in Anderson that he did.
And the fact the city left that out, it made Rob mad.
Rob Mathis
Why wouldn't he say that in the report in the beginning? It would have changed everything. Everything. Me and my wife wouldn't be looked at as some liars, that we went after him. You sitting up here creating this falseness. And it's just wrong. Tell the truth.
Now the police chief wants to tell the truth, but the matter is done. But truthfully, the information that you just got from Chief Lewis, if that would have been put in the report, then they would have said, Mathises, you all did a great job. Thank you.
Ben Calhoun
The way the Mathises see it, even if the chief removed Anderson for betraying the public's trust, even if the reason for the firing wasn't the way he treated Black people, the city could have removed Anderson without also giving him a clean bill of health. They could have said, we've looked into this. We're troubled by the way he treats people. It was not OK. We don't want officers acting the way that he did.
