License for former KS assistant chief revoked after he and chief broke into home: records

A former Kansas assistant chief, who broke into a house alongside his chief without a warrant and then broke a camera, had his license revoked.

Neither Curtis Matthew Tyra or John Vincent Matula, the former assistant chief and former chief in Herington, could be reached for comment. Both had been charged in the May 18, 2021, break-in and have successfully completed diversion, court records show.

Tyra’s officer certification was revoked in May. It’s unclear if Matula also faces possible revocation.

Citing state law, the Kansas Commission of Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (KSCPOST), which oversees officer certification, would not say whether Matula has been or will be investigated.

Cases can be referred to KSCPOST and criminal cases typically prompt an investigation.

Here is what the investigative report says about the May 18, 2021, incident:

The Herington Police Department had served a warrant and condemned a home on March 10, 2021. The homeowner could go to the home to clean and work on it, but couldn’t sleep there.

When she went to the home on May 18, 2021, she saw an Herington Police Department vehicle parked in the alley behind her home.

She discovered Matula “kicked open the back door of her residence, damaging it in the process,” the report said, and then he and Tyra “entered the residence without a search warrant.”

Matula and Tyra were still there when the woman went inside. Matula ordered her to leave, the report says.

She came back the next day and found a camera, which had been mounted on the corner of the home, lying broken in the street, the report says. Many items were out of place.

“Video from a porch camera showed (Tyra) walk onto the porch and disappear for a few seconds,” the report says, adding that’s when the woman “believed he ripped down the corner camera and broke it during this time. (Tyra) then appeared back in view of the functional camera, removed it from where it was mounted, and set it down.”

Tyra was charged with criminal trespass — a misdemeanor. He successfully completed diversion and was taken off of it in April, court records show. Matula was originally charged with criminal trespass and criminal damage to property — both are misdemeanors. He successfully completed diversion and was taken off of it in June, court records show.

Diversion is similar to a probationary period where, if successfully completed, the charges will be dropped.

Matula worked for the department from November 2020 to September 2021 as chief of the roughly seven-person department. Tyra worked for the department from January 2018 to July 2018 and then from August 2018 to February 2022, the KSCPOST investigative report says.

Matula resigned around the time charges were filed, according to The Abilene Reflector-Chronicle and court records. A city clerk did not know if Tyra resigned or was terminated and a call to the interim city manager for those details was not immediately returned.