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You'll have to stick to this story to try and understand this brouhaha.
Hinton Politics Get Rough
City Hall Squabble Leads To Two Arrests
Friday September 6, 2002
http://www.wvgazette.com/
By Tom Searls
Staff Writer
A brouhaha that broke out inside Hinton City Hall Thursday led to the arrest of a former State Police trooper after he scuffled
with a city councilman and city police officers. Melvin Rex Cyphers of Hinton was charged with two counts of battery of a
police officer and one count of battery against Councilman Bob Wheeler, said Summers County Magistrate Bill Jeffries.
Before Cyphers was taken before the magistrate, his wife arrived at City Hall and was also arrested. Connie J. Cyphers was
charged with one count of battery of a police officer, Jeffries said. Both were released after posting bond, he said.
The
incident played out near the desk of Billie Gill, an assistant city clerk, Thursday morning. Gill said Mayor Cleo Mathews, a
former state school board president, arrived at City Hall with Cyphers, a retired State Police trooper, Thursday morning.
Mathews announced he would be the administrator over the Summers County town's police employees, Gill said. "We didn't
even know he was hired," she said. Mathews went into her office and Cyphers asked Gill to contact the Hinton police chief.
Gill said she explained that the chief is off work until Tuesday for a family illness and that she had contacted the assistant chief.
But Cyphers continued to ask her to bring the chief to City Hall, she said.
Wheeler said when he arrived one female employee
was in tears and another near it. He asked Cyphers to stop harassing them. Cyphers then threatened to arrest the 68-year-old
councilman, which led to a dispute. "I tried to walk away and he grabbed me by the belt and said 'You're under arrest,' "
Wheeler said. "[Cyphers] grabbed Mr. Wheeler and threw him up against the side of the wall â a concrete wall," Gill said. A
man in the room tried to separate the two while the 167-pound Wheeler struggled with the former trooper Wheeler said
weighs at least 250 pounds.
Gill said Cyphers was "trying to beat Mr. Wheeler's head against the wall." Two Hinton police
officers "had to wrestle [Cyphers] to the ground," before subduing him, she said. Two troopers and Summers County Sheriff
Garry Wheeler, brother of the councilman, also responded to the call.
Sheriff Wheeler said he found Cyphers, whom he has
known since Cyphers was stationed in Hinton as a trooper, "sitting on the floor with handcuffs on." He said the two "had
words," but he did not want to elaborate. "I try to stay out of city politics," the sheriff said. His brother, the councilman, was
taken to a Lewisburg hospital, where the sheriff said he was checked for bruises and possible minor injuries.
Cyphers was
taken to the hospital in Hinton before being arraigned. Wheeler said the mayor created a position for a person to be
administrator over the police department, though council has not approved such a position. He predicted that council will
block Cyphers' employment, though he said Mathews said he could return to the job today. Wheeler said Cyphers could be
in the office alone because the two female employees don't plan to work today "because they're afraid of him and afraid he
might come back." Mathews left the office after the incident.
A man answering the telephone at her residence said she was in
Beckley making a presentation to the state Economic Development Grant Committee and would not be available for
comment.
State Police spokesman Trooper Jay Powers said troopers made no arrest and are not involved in the investigation.
Cyphers retired from State Police in 1987. No one returned a message left at the Cyphers' residence.
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