The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fired Ga. cop loses bid for Congress in Virginia
News of harassment allegations spread across social media.
A former Georgia police officer who lost his state certification in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse of power has been defeated in his bid for Congress after those issues came to the public’s attention during the campaign.
On social media, Matthew Chappell accepted Saturday’s defeat in the Republican primary for Virginia’s 11th District. Chappell said that his campaign “could not fully rise above” what he calls “defamatory” stories outlining the events that led to him being fired from one Georgia law enforcement agency and resigning while under investigation in another. But, he said, he will “never give up,” and said he is considering running for the state legislature next year.
Chappell, who was one of five candidates vying for the party nomination in Virginia, lost in the third round of ranked-choice voting during Fairfax County’s local Republican convention held over the weekend.
During an all-day primary, Fairfax County voters ranked the candidates by preference on their ballots, eliminating them one at a time with multiple rounds of voting. Chappell received roughly 18% of votes during rounds one and two, the local GOP said. He received 21% of votes in the third round, falling behind Manga Anantatmula and Jim Myles, who went on to secure the nomination.
“I am proud of the campaign we ran, and I am not done,” Chappell wrote.
The Atlanta Journal-constitution first reported details of Chappell’s misconduct in late April after obtaining public records showing that he had been stripped of his law enforcement certification and accused of following women home while on duty on two separate occasions. Chappell has denied the allegations.
The AJC’S investigation was reported on by news outlets in the Washington area and shared on social media. Chappell blamed the attention for damaging his congressional bid.
In 2016, Chappell resigned in lieu of termination from the Glynn County Police Department after he misused a state crime database and sexually harassed a woman who tended bar at a bowling alley where he had worked as an off-duty officer, according to an investigative report. The woman told investigators Chappell, who was married, had sent her vulgar text messages and had offered to send her photos of his genitals.
Chappell was on duty late at night in February 2016 and used his patrol car to follow the woman home from her job, an internal investigative report said. The woman said Chappell tried to touch her and asked her if he could come to her apartment with her and when she rebuffed him, he picked her up and kissed her on the neck. When she
reported the incident months later, she told investigators that she had seen her car tag number on a computer screen inside of Chappell’s patrol car the night he followed her.
The Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council investigated Chappell’s actions and placed his state certification on two years probation in July 2017. He was hired by the Mcintosh County Sheriff ’s Office less than a year later in June 2018, but was fired from that department after about six months.
According to Chappell’s personnel file, the sheriff had issued him a warning after Chappell showed coworkers nude photos of himself and another female sheriff ’s office employee having sex together with another woman. Chappell was reprimanded for posting inappropriate messages on social media that the sheriff found reflected poorly on the department. He allegedly contacted a female Glynn County police officer while on duty and extended an open invitation for her to have sex with him, records show.
Chappell was also linked to an episode where he was accused of following a woman home in his patrol car outside his jurisdiction in Mcintosh County. Chappell was fired from the Mcintosh sheriff ’s office one day after a police report was filed in that incident, though the incident was not listed as the reason for his termination.
Chappell has staunchly denied the claims, saying both the investigative report and police report were “absolutely false allegations” against him.
“And they’re extremely defamatory,” Chappell previously told the AJC. “These kinds of allegations threatened to tear my family apart. It’s disgusting.”
Steve Knotts, the chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Party, said the allegations were “a fluid story,” according to the D.c.-based NBC affiliate, News 4 Washington.
“As Mr. Chappell denies the accusations and he does not appear to have faced any criminal prosecution, we’ll continue to remain neutral as a committee,” Knotts said.
The Mets beat the Phillies the other day by scoring seven runs in the ninth inning. Good for them. At least they have a May memory to cherish before the many blown leads to come. The Mets began Tuesday with a six-game lead in the National League East. Looking forward to seeing when and how they inevitably collapse.
I’m not trying to be funny. I’m just sticking with my baseline assumption that, no matter how good the Mets look on paper and regardless of what’s happening now, something eventually will go wrong. The Mets used to make me look bad for believing in them. Eventually I learned the Braves are a much better bet. They haven’t disappointed, save for that nightmarish Game 5 loss to the
Cardinals in the 2019 division series.
But now the Mets are rolling, and the Braves are meandering. I know, I know. It’s early, and these are the Mets. They fall on their faces so often that entering “Mets collapse” into Google prompts the search engine to offer several different seasons as
suggestions. You have to be more specific. Last year, the Mets had a fivegame lead at the end of July. They finished 11½ games behind the East champion Braves.
That history is why I went looking for reasons why New York’s hot start is smoke and mirrors. There must be some clear signals that what we’ve seen from the Mets over the first 30 games can’t possibly be sustained over the next 132. Surely the Braves, who played the Mets to a four-game draw last week, still don’t need to worry about their hated rivals being a serious threat.
I regret to report that I haven’t found much to doubt about the Mets. Instead, I see a ballclub that’s already had its usual share of bad luck but just keeps on winning. It’s time to contemplate the possibility that the Mets are for real this time.
The annual injury to one of their top pitchers happened during spring training. Jacob degrom, a two-time winner of the NL Cy Young Award, is on the 60-day injured list. New York’s starting rotation still has been elite. How good will it be once degrom makes his expected return by June?
The Mets are scoring a lot of runs without hitting for much power. They had the fifth-most runs scored in MLB entering Tuesday while ranking tied for 17th in home runs and tied for 20th in extra-base hits per at-bat. How many runs will the Mets score once more of their big boppers get going?
Then there are the intangibles. Braves observers know what can happen when a ballclub discovers the right mix of the mysterious thing known as team chemistry. The Mets may have found it with manager Buck Showalter. He’s drawing rave reviews for his handling of the team after the past two Mets managers weren’t up to the job.
After the Mets rallied to win in Philly, Showalter told reporters he was trying not to get ahead of himself. It’s a long season. There are lots of games left. But Showalter had to admit the game was an example of how the Mets have something good going.
“A night like tonight makes you realize what could be,” Showalter said.
In some ways, that’s a strange sentiment for a team that likely will outspend everyone except the Dodgers on player salaries this season. The Mets hardly are scrappy underdogs who need magic to win. But it’s not so weird for the Mets to think that way. After years of expensive underachieving and lousy luck, I can’t blame them if they see that comeback as evidence that things will be different this year.
Look close enough and you can find some reasons to think a regression is coming for the Mets. Innings pitched by starters is at the top of the list. The Mets ranked third in the majors in that category entering Tuesday. That’s a good thing in isolation. In context that could become a problem for the Mets, and especially righthander Max Scherzer.
Scherzer, 37, signed with the Mets in December. He has a 2.92 ERA through six starts. But he’s pitched more than 2,500 career innings and ranks among the MLB leaders in innings early this season. A dead arm prevented Scherzer from pitching an elimination game for the Dodgers against the Braves in the 2021 NL Championship Series. It’s doubtful he can keep up his current innings pace and still be available when the Mets need him most.
If Scherzer and his rotation mates can’t keep carrying a heavy load, then Showalter will have to rely more on his thin bullpen. That could be an area where team owner Steve Cohen’s willingness to add salary could come in handy. But Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos has noted that trading for relievers is hard because nearly every contender is looking for bullpen help.
Mets closer Edwin Diaz has been very good. His track record indicates that won’t change. Journeyman lefty Chasen Shreve is pitching well above his career norms. The amount of hard contact he’s allowed suggests that won’t last. If he regresses, the Mets won’t have a lot of good options to cover important innings, even if Trevor May (arm) returns within two months as projected.
Those are the kind of problems faced by every team. They must seem like nothing for the Mets after so many years of injuries, underperformance and team owners getting caught up in Ponzi schemes. The Mets have a shot to win their first division title since 2015, when they went on to win the NL pennant.
That was an outlier for the Mets. They didn’t make the postseason from 200714. They were shut out at home in the 2016 wildcard game. They couldn’t finish better than third in the East from 2017-21. Last year the Mets never looked great even while leading the East for weeks. Then they fell apart while the Braves surged.
Now the Mets are surging while the Braves are plodding around the break-even mark, just like last season. I still think the Braves will find their footing. This time they may not be able to rely on something going wrong
for the Mets, like usual.