Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

Matthew Sims has gone through so much during the last nine years, but the last three years have been the worst for him, as he has been in and out of court 25 times over an incident that he says he is innocent of; Sims said that an incident with his second wife turned his life upside down. What was once just a misdemeanor charge has gotten worse over time. Sims was working for the city of Monroe when in 2014, he was arrested for alleged domestic abuse by his second wife. He was in jail for nine days. At his trial, Sims’ two stepchildren testified that he did not abuse his wife but that the wife allegedly abused him several times with physical harm. Despite the testimonies, the judge still found Sims guilty despite eyewitness and factual evidence of abuse to him. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, anger management classes and ordered to pay a fine and court costs. Despite all of that, he was still able to keep his job, but in 2020, Sims said things began to change for the worse. In 2020, Sims met another woman, and they made plans to get married. They had a place to live and bought a vehicle together, where they split the operating cost of maintaining the vehicle.

Sims then said that after a while, things “changed” as his fiance’ “had a change of plans” for their being together. In May 2020, they had an altercation, and the police were called to the home they had built together. Sims was accused of an alleged attack on the woman he thought he would marry. When the police arrived, they went past Sims and interviewed the woman. After interviewing the woman, Sims said the officer immediately handcuffed him without getting his side of the incident. The officer allegedly went back and interviewed the lady a second time. According to Sims, the officer’s body cam allegedly recorded him saying that he would ensure the incident had a “civil” ending. Since that 2020 incident, Sims has been in and out of jail 25 times. He has appeared before two different judges, as the matter has still not been resolved. Things got worse when the assistant district attorney (ADA) for the Fourth Judicial District Court was in the process of charging Sims with an additional count because of the 2014 incident. The ADA had a deadline to produce additional evidence to support the charge, but as of press time, he has not, despite a court order for him to do so; and still, the nightmare for Sims continues.

Since the 2020 incident, Sims says he “has lost everything”. He lost his job with the city and a second job he had for two years after losing the position with the city. He has lost his home, the vehicle, and many personal possessions. Sims believes that having had to be in and out of court protesting his innocence is causing issues that could have been avoided. He believes he is being “maliciously prosecuted”, and his constitutional right to due process has been violated.

He says that he is a victim of systemic injustice, being retaliated against and having no meaningful representation, which is the way that the court system treats many Black men.

“Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t exist in Fourth Judicial District Court. You either plead guilty or pay the price,” said Sims.

He says the experience of what he is going through is so traumatic, adding that it hurts him when he tries to explain to his younger children why things are so different from what they used to be.

“The system exists to make money which is a burden on Black people as a whole when many offenses could be solved by simply investigating the facts.” He says. He is now paying the price but says he is not giving up, as he believes the facts of his situation in front of the right judge will vindicate him. He says that he is down but not out.