I'm not suited for tending to battered and bleeding bodies. His attorney argued that the new policy should not be enforced on people who were hired solely to fight fires. Likewise, the other firefighters in the suit had filed affidavits stating that even after training, they did not feel qualified to perform emergency care on patients. Mathews lost in local court and continued his fight in federal district court. He was fired by the city of Roanoke on April 4, 1998.
City officials claim that the termination occurred because of a series of alcohol-related incidents.
Mathews argued that he was fired for exercising his constitutional right to free speech for publicly criticizing city administrators on an issue concerning public safety. In April 1999, he canceled a court appearance in federal court because he was ill and he failed to show up at the rescheduled meeting the next month. Federal District Judge James Turk then dismissed the case, citing Mathews' absence and failure to provide the requiste evidence for the case to continue. Ron Mathews died in August 1999. As a Roanoke City taxpayer, I followed this case with interest because Mathews' complaint dealt with a genuine public safety issue and citizens were only aware of this issue because of his voice.