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LISBON – The widow of Gerald Klusch has been awarded $2.2 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages from the late Matthew Bailey for the wrongful death of her husband.
Judge Scott Washam of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court ruled late last week on the request for damages.
Although Klusch’s death was ruled a homicide, there were never any charges filed. It was determined he was shot and killed with his body found in a wooded area outside of Salineville about a month and a half after the death. Klusch was reported missing on Sept. 30, 2011 and his body was found on Nov. 18, 2011.
Bailey himself was killed in late October 2013.
Leah Klusch, with the assistance of attorneys James Hartford and Ian Robinson, filed the civil lawsuit as the executrix of Gerald Klusch’s estate, about two years after the death the end of September 2013.
Court documents brought to light during the course of the civil lawsuit included statements from two people, who claim they knew Bailey murdered Gerald Klusch.
In an affidavit taken this past March, John Stoffer said Bailey told him not long after the murder that he had been questioned by the FBI about the murder of Gerald Klusch, Bailey’s former employer. Stoffer added he believed Bailey actually meant he had been questioned by the sheriff’s office or Ohio Bureau of Criminal Information and Investigations.
Bailey told Stoffer “they are trying to blame me for the murder” and smiled at him, which Stoffer believed meant Bailey was involved. Stoffer also said Bailey told him about the dumping of the body and how it was recovered.
Stoffer continued that after Bailey’s death, a relative of Bailey’s, whom Stoffer knew only as Matt, confided to him that Bailey had been involved in Klusch’s death.
In another affidavit taken from Jody McVay this past June, McVay said that on Oct. 8. 2011 Bailey had insisted McVay drive him to an area they both called Little Falls, which is near Salineville. However, Bailey then asked him to park his 1995 Ford Explorer in an area different from where they usually parked when they went to Little Falls.
Bailey then left the vehicle and went into the woods. McVay had believed he was going to get scrap Bailey and his brother had hidden there. However, when Bailey came out of the woods he reportedly had no scrap, just $80 in damp money, which he counted out and spread out on the console of the Explorer to dry.
McVay said about six weeks later he took sheriff’s Detective Andy Sweeney to the same spot where he had parked on Oct. 8. According to the timeline, that was about the same time when Klusch’s body was found. On Nov. 28, 2011, McVay reportedly passed a polygraph test given by BCII.
McVay also said about a week after Klusch disappeared, he overheard Bailey and Bailey’s father, Harold Bailey, talking about a gun. The .40-caliber handgun reportedly belonged to Matthew Bailey and the father had told Bailey he got rid of the gun. Harold Bailey then reportedly told McVay to “keep his mouth shut and not tell anyone what he had just heard.”
In light of the affidavits and without any contrary evidence, Washam granted Leah Klusch a summary judgment in her favor. Then last Friday, he signed a judgment entry granting her the damages for Klusch’s wrongful death.
The civil lawsuit was filed about a month prior to Bailey’s death, which was also ruled a homicide. Christopher Miller stands accused of bludgeoning Bailey to death in a cornfield off Hartley Road. Miller was tried in June on charges related to Bailey’s death, but was not convicted of either aggravated murder nor murder due to a hung jury on those two charges. Miller was convicted of tampering with evidence in Bailey’s death.
Miller is scheduled to be tried again in November on the murder charges.