Beaumont firefighter speaks for his job

By Ken Fountain in The Beaumont Enterprise
A former Beaumont firefighter spoke out publicly for the first time Tuesday, asking city council members to reinstate him 15 months after he was indefinitely suspended because of a criminal charge he was later acquitted of.

“I need to be back with my family at the Beaumont Fire Department, doing what I do best, and that’s helping others,” James Mathews Jr. told council members.

Following the charges in June 2008 for aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, Mathews was indicted, then acquitted in the 252nd District Court after no witnesses appeared against him. Judge Layne Walker later ordered all the records expunged in the case against Mathews, said Mathews’ lawyer Alto Watson.