The EVG and Matheson Cases: Do Crimes In Sierra Madre Ever Get Solved?

Here is a mystery of sorts. Why is it that when something big like the EVG credit card scam goes down in Sierra Madre, or even the Matheson child pornography case, nothing ever seems to happen? We hear about an investigation taking place, and in both of these affairs the Feds became involved, but as we saw in the EVG case, we're never told about what exactly is being done, or if anything might have been found. And nobody ever seems to get charged with anything.

Despite all the talk about the need for law enforcement to maintain secrecy in order to solve something like the EVG case, the investigation eventually just disappeared, and with precious little being said about it. By the City of Sierra Madre or anyone else.

Nearly 500 people had their credit and debit card information ripped off at the EVG filling station, with the culprits then taking off with their ill-gotten gains, never to be heard from again. And all that was left behind for us to ponder was, well, official silence. The case petered out and people eventually lost interest. Nothing has been said about this case for a very long time, and as far as anybody knows it is a dead issue.

And it looks like we might be heading down that same road once again. This from today's Pasadena Star News (click here):

Feds keep quiet on Sierra Madre kiddie porn probe - Federal law enforcement officials have yet to bring charges against a Sierra Madre man convicted of smuggling child pornography from the U.S. into Canada and declined to comment on the progress of the investigation Tuesday.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents searched Matheson's home on Dec. 13, but have not released what information or materials were recovered in the search.

"Our investigation into this matter is continuing and as such we aren't at liberty to release any further details at this time," said Virginia Kice, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.

The Sierra Madre Police Department is assisting ICE with the investigation and has not determined whether any of the victims captured on the photos and videos were children from the small foothill city, Police Chief Larry Giannone said.

Sound familiar? Compare what you've just read to this Jan 5, 2011 account from the Sierra Madre Patch regarding the SMPD (and soon to be Secret Service) investigation into the EVG credit card fraud scandal (click here).

Update: Total Loss in EVG Scam Reaches $70,000 - (Article picked up in the 2nd paragraph) ... Of the hundreds of reports flooding into the station, a significant number of victims have come forward who are not Sierra Madre residents. While Diaz would not comment on whether or not the SMPD had been working with the police departments in nearby cities such as Arcadia and Monrovia, she did say the department is working with "other outside agencies," but would not specify which agencies.

"I'm really not going to divulge which agencies we've contacted during the course of the investigation because we don't want to compromise what needs to be a successful prosecution," Diaz said.

A few days later at a press conference it was revealed that the outside agency was the United States Secret Service, who at that point took over the investigation. But it didn't matter much, there was no successful prosecution. Or even an arrest. Only continuing assurances that the law enforcement officials in charge couldn't say anything about this case. And in that one particular aspect of the investigation they were completely successful.

The amount of money stolen was later tabulated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, at which time the SMPD apparently stopped counting. Perhaps because people, eventually sensing the futility of law enforcement's efforts, just grew tired of hearing them not really talk about it. Which perhaps was the point of what today seems to have been little more than a public relations exercise.

That was the scene a year ago. In an interview posted on Patch this New Year's Day, Chief Diaz explained how she discovered that the Feds knew about the Matheson case way before she did (click here).

"I first learned about the Matheson arrest was on (sic) Tuesday, Dec. 13. At 10:30 that morning, I got an e-mail from somebody I didn't know telling me about Mr. Matheson, who was a Sierra Madre resident, but also had a home in Canada. I looked at the link (to a newspaper article), saw the story, and the captain was sitting a few feet away. I told him, "This involves a local person, I'm going to send this to you and to the lieutenant who handles sex offenders." That went to them within minutes.

After this account of speedy police work (Sierra Madre resident Robert Matheson had been arrested in Canada nearly two months earlier), the Patch article then described the efforts of Chief Diaz and her colleagues to find out about what they'd just read in that Star News article. Which was then followed by something that I find to be entirely unbelievable.

We have been in constant contact with the supervising agent from the Los Angeles office (of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE). He has been most cooperative and diligent in following up ... I asked (the supervising agent) how many tips like the one about Bob Matheson does his unit receive every month? He said dozens ... and their office has to prioritize those cases. Perhaps because Mr. Matheson was in custody and was going to be serving time for a couple more months, other cases in which allegations of current child endangerment existed may have taken priority. They look at who is at greatest risk ... ICE has been wonderful to work with. But it's their case.

The Feds knew about Matheson's arrest two months before the Sierra Madre Police Department did, and judging by Chief Diaz's account of newspapers and e-mails from strangers, never even bothered to tell her about it until she finally asked. The Feds also showed themselves to be much too busy with more important work to search the home of the child pornographer who lived amongst us until 8 weeks after the fact. An obvious threat to the integrity of any evidence that could have been found there. After all, Matheson did not live alone.

Additionally, and something the Crown Prosecutor in Nova Scotia, Craig Botterill, has complained about in several newspaper interviews, is that this sad lack of regard for the seriousness of the crimes involved here severely compromised Canada's case against Matheson, contributing to his receiving a very minimal sentence of 120 days. The lack of urgency shown by U.S. law enforcement agencies, in particular the failure to perform a timely search and seizure of any corroborating evidence at Matheson's Sierra Madre home, severely undercut Canadian efforts to put this guy away for a much longer period of time.

So can it be that in our (now retired) Police Chief's mind this is all what made the Feds so "wonderful to work with?" And that despite their lack of urgency in this case she is just fine with their efforts so far, and with them continuing to handle it? To the point of even making excuses for them? And are our children really at a "lesser risk?"

And even though nobody seems to know whether or not Matheson had any local accomplices in his crimes who might still be at large here, or if any Sierra Madre kids might have been victimized along the way, or what exactly he had been doing at his home on Liliano, she is content with the SMPD playing a very minimal role in the investigation? And despite what Larry Giannone said to the Star News, is herself OK with the absurdly slow moving Homeland Security and ICE people taking control of the case? Essentially washing her hands of the whole thing?

I don't know about you, but in the face of a crime of this particular kind, I find this level of official indifference to be beyond incomprehensible. Maybe the Feds have different priorities, but that should hardly be the case with our own Police Department.

Do crimes in Sierra Madre ever get solved? Not to my recollection.

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