MELVINDALE, Mich. (WXYZ) — In the wake of the criminal charges filed against a controversial Melvindale police lieutenant last month, a former chief says he was terminated for trying to fire Matthew Furman nearly a decade ago.
Watch the full investigation in the video player below:
“Some people should be cops and some people should not,” said Chad Hayse, who was fired as Melvindale chief in 2016. “Clearly, his behavior over the course of the last nine, 10 years hasn’t gotten better. It escalated.”
Melvindale Police Lieutenant Matthew Furman is off the street today, suspended without pay after being charged by the Wayne County Prosecutor over three alleged assaults.
Furman has denied that he did anything wrong.
Watch below: Controversial Melvindale Lt. at center of WXYZ investigations facing charges
Hayse says the charges—and related litigation filed against the city—all could have been avoided had city leaders not retaliated against him back in 2016.
“Right is right and wrong is wrong,” Hayse said in a recent interview. “(Furman) was doing wrong and needed to be held accountable. It cost me. It cost me my career.”
Hayse said he chose to break his silence after hearing recent comments from Melvindale’s city attorney, Larry Coogan, decrying the actions of Furman and others.
“When you look at these videos of the conduct that took place by some of these officers, it’s reprehensible,” Coogan said at a city council meeting in June. “It’s absolutely reprehensible.”
Hayse said Coogan’s comments did not appear genuine.
“He’s upset because the bodycam reveals all these actions. People are seeing all these actions. He didn’t care about the exact same actions nine years ago that weren’t on bodycam,” he said.
The controversy came to a head back in 2016, when Hayse was still Melvindale’s police chief. Furman was a corporal in his fourth year with the department, towing lots of vehicles and racking up citizen complaints.
“I couldn’t go into the number of complaints that he generated from traffic stops, I couldn’t,” Hayse said, adding that Furman had “dozens and dozens of complaints.”
Watch below: Melvindale Lt. stopped her over an expired tab, then tased her in front of her children
That year, Furman would be accused of assault twice. In June, he would detain a robbery suspect who said Furman “slammed his head into the police car” while he was handcuffed.
A lieutenant reported that he “witnessed this,” and told the man he would “not sweep that incident under the rug.” Another officer there said, under oath, that Furman went “way over the line” and split the man’s head open. Furman claimed the man injured himself.
The following month, Furman would be accused of using “excessive” force when he tackled a man to the ground who, a fellow officer said, had been “completely cooperative.”
Related story: Former Melvindale Chief alleges Police Sgt. Matthew Furman 'engaged in repeated acts of police brutality'
“We had instances in back-to-back months with veteran officers and newer officers in both occasions come forward and say: 'This is wrong,'” Hayse said. “Those actions were wrong.”
Hayse would notify city leadership—including Larry Coogan—that he was “suspending Cpl. Furman without pay,” saying he wanted to terminate him or have him appear before a trial board.
“Five days after I formally requested to terminate him, they suspended me pending termination,” Hayse said.
Watch below: Controversial Melvindale lieutenant fends off claim of excessive force involving Taser
At a hearing, the city would accuse Hayse of a litany of misconduct, including violating the city’s social media policy, using profanity to describe other city officials, providing false statements to the public safety committee and improperly issuing discipline on Matthew Furman. Hayse denied it all.
“Why did they want to keep Furman so badly, in your view?” asked the Scripps News Group's Ross Jones.
“He makes them tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, every year, in the tow fees…they were making a ton of money by him towing cars," Hayse said.
According to court records, Furman was responsible for nearly 80% of the tows in the entire department
In fact, when Furman was off on vacation, the city saw towing revenues plummet. At a public meeting, Coogan took note: “…the reduction in tows means a reduction in revenue for the city,” he said according to a transcript.
“We’re still in a deficit elimination plan and that concerns me, I mean, I don’t think anybody wants the State of Michigan coming in," Coogan said.
After the city’s top revenue generator was suspended and faced possible termination, Hayse said the city fired him and kept Furman.
Hayse would later sue the city, alleging wrongful termination.
“He gave proper discipline that maybe, just maybe would have stopped what we’ve recently seen, had somebody actually cared about the truth,” said Deborah Gordon, Hayse's attorney.
The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum.
In the years that would follow, Furman would face more assault allegations. He was charged in 2019 when a man claimed he threw him down a flight of stairs. Furman denied it and pleaded no contest to neglect of duty.
He would be charged over a 2021 stomping of a man who led police on a high-speed chase and over two separate Tasings three years later: one of a mother outside her daughters’ school and another of a man who drove with a suspended license.
Furman has denied any wrongdoing.
Larry Coogan would not agree to an interview for this story.
“Why in 2016, when the city tried to fire him the first time, wasn’t Mathew Furman fired?” I asked at a recent city council meeting.
“You’d have to ask the former chief, and the subsequent chiefs since then,” Coogan said repeatedly.
Coogan says keeping Furman had nothing to do with generating revenue, and he said firing Hayse was the city council’s idea, not his.
In 2016, Nicole Barnes was the council president and wanted Furman to keep his job. Now Nicole Shkira, she is the city’s mayor.
“As somebody who tried to make sure Matthew Furman kept his job in 2016, were you wrong to do that?” I asked.
“I can’t really say yes or no to that,” Shkira said. She declined to answer most of our questions about Furman, citing the pending charges against him.
“I make a plea to the citizens: you guys need to keep an eye on what is going on and what is happening with your taxpayer dollars,” said attorney Deborah Gordon.
“Ms. Barnes, who is currently the mayor, was directly involved with everything that happened with Chad Hayse, and everything that happened with Matthew Furman…people, wake up!”
Melvindale’s mayor would not say if she regrets passing up the chance to fire Furman almost a decade ago, but Coogan admits he’d like a do-over.
“In retrospect, looking back, it would have been nice. It would have avoided a lot of litigation. Absolutely,” he said.
Hayse said he feels vindicated.
“It makes you wonder why they didn’t care nine years ago when their police officers in their own city came forward,” he said.
Furman declined to be interviewed, but through his attorney, released a lengthy statement telling a very different story. You can read the full statement below
Statement from Dennis G. Whittie on behalf of Matthew Furman by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit
He said Furman’s tows were always within the law, and that he was encouraged to tow vehicles by Chad Hayse while he was chief.
He claimed Hayse retaliated against Furman because the chief favored a different towing company, which Hayse denies.
He also said the claims of assault made against Furman in 2016 were false because they never led to criminal charges or punishment.
Finally, he says attorney Larry Coogan told Furman in 2016 that he never should have been suspended by Hayse in the first place, and that he has a recording of Coogan where he said Furman was being singled out and attacked.
For his part, Coogan said Chief Hayse faced termination not for disciplining Furman, but because he did so without formally serving him with internal charges. Hayse disputed that.
