Ukiah High teacher and prominent local journalist arrested Nov. 3, police seek help finding others contacted online by “Johhnyender”, suspended by district after allegations on Oct. 16

Matt LaFever, 37, founder of MendoFever and widely considered the county’s most-read journalist, was arrested this morning by Ukiah Police on suspicion of annoying or molesting a minor under 18.

LaFever teaches journalism at Ukiah High School and serves as North Coast Contributing Editor for SFGATE. He has also worked with the Independent Coast Observer and contributes to Redheaded Blackbelt. His site, MendoFever, regularly outpaces other local outlets—including the Advocate-News Beacon, Mendo Voice, and Mendocinocoast.news—in readership and online engagement.

The arrest, confirmed this morning, has already drawn widespread attention. LaFever was placed on administrative leave October 16, when the initial allegations surfaced.

Reminder: All individuals arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty. LaFever has no prior criminal record. The charge is serious, and we will continue to follow developments as more facts emerge.

Matt LaFever was placed on administrative leave by the Ukiah Unified School District on October 16, after the district became aware of an allegation made by a high school student, according to Dan Dougherty, Communications and Community Engagement Officer. The police then took over the case.

Dougherty said the district was surprised by LaFever’s arrest this morning, though they were aware of an ongoing police investigation and had followed district policy in placing the employee on leave.

“Everything we do is about keeping the safety of the students our first priority,” Dougherty said. He added that the district plans to communicate further with parents and staff later today regarding its response.

UPDATE- UKIAH POLICE DEPARTMENT ISSUES PRESS RELEASE- SEEKS HELP FINDING OTHERS CONTACTED ONLINE BY LAFEVER

“On 10/16/25 the Ukiah Police Department was notified by a concerned parent of a Ukiah High School student that a teacher, Matthew Lafever, a journalism teacher at the high school, had made an inappropriate sexual comment towards her daughter. Through the course of the initial investigation into that incident, Ukiah Police Department Detectives learned that a different UHS student had information regarding Lafever contacting minors on social media.

UPD Detectives conducted an interview with the female high school student, who told the Detectives that she had conversed with Lafever on social media, informed him that she was a minor, and Lafever had persisted to make sexually suggestive comments about her and repeatedly asked her to send him inappropriate photographs. Lafever also sent the minor scantily clad and inappropriate photographs of himself. UPD Detectives obtained a search warrant for Lafever’s cell phone, computers, and residence. The following day UPD Detectives located Lafever at the Ukiah High School campus and seized his cell phone and multiple laptops. Lafever declined to provide the Detectives with a statement.

Lafever’s electronic devices were forensically downloaded, and Detectives were able to confirm that the social media interaction described by the seventeen-year-old had occurred, and she had clearly informed Lafever that she was a minor. Through the course of their investigation, the Detectives also located additional evidence that Lafever was reaching out to numerous minors throughout Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, however those victims have not been identified at this time due to the anonymity of social media.

On 11/03/25 UPD Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Lafever for the crime of knowingly annoying and or molesting a minor. At approximately 7:00 a.m. UPD Detectives went to Lafever’s residence, and he was taken into custody. Lafever was booked into the Mendocino County jail for 647.6(a) PC and would be required to post a $10,000 bond.

Lafever used numerous variations of the screen name “Johhnyender” across multiple social media platforms, and the Ukiah Police Department is asking that any minors that had contact or received any messages from similar social media accounts to please contact us.

The Ukiah Police Department remains committed to keeping the residents of Ukiah safe and we appreciate the assistance we received from the Ukiah High School and the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office. For updates about crime in your neighborhood, residents can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle link on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com.

Matt LaFever, North Coast Contributing Editor – SFGATE

It’s a striking irony: few local media outlets—aside from The Anderson Valley Advertiser and Mendocinocoast.news—consistently follow up on arrests or acknowledge the possibility that those arrested may be innocent.

Local media’s handling of crime reporting demands scrutiny. With rare exceptions—typically involving prominent figures or law enforcement-issued follow-ups—The Mendocino Voice, MendoFever, and the now out-of-town Advocate-News Beacon rarely pursue deeper coverage. Their reporting often echoes official statements without question.

Mendocino Action News has become the most aggressive enforcer of this one-sided narrative. Despite direct requests from individuals exonerated in court, Danielle has declined to follow up on cases where charges were dismissed. The outlet’s reliance on scanner chatter—never intended for public reporting and often riddled with inaccuracies—makes it the worst offender in this regard.

This isn’t about disrespecting any particular case. It’s about confronting a deeply troubling pattern: a unified front of egregiously one-sided reporting. When journalists fail to question official narratives, we fail our communities. The press here has become a swaying ballroom of head-nodding sycophants—not just to law enforcement, but to power in all its forms. And yes, there are media alliances with power right now that should concern us all.

No one seems interested in the person caught in the system. “Tough luck, Mack.” That’s the message. Our 2025 courts have made it harder than ever to expose corruption or uncover innocence—something every legal system has grappled with since Hammurabi.

We long for the days of paper court files, printed newspapers, and newsrooms that didn’t rush to publish the next press release without asking hard questions. Journalism must do better.

Elise Cox, who launched MendoLocal after leaving KZYX is now the only person following up on court cases, a difficult challenge if you cannot record court proceedings nor look in the files in the kind of timely manner needed to prepare and fact check! We don’t believe the playing field is open and fair to us and we arent willing to do this.

If our local law enforcement were as unreliable as much of the media here, we’d be in real trouble. Fortunately, we have far more principled and objective police officers than we do journalists.

I’ve lived in Texas, Florida, and Ohio—places where reporters who dared to question law enforcement often did so at great personal risk. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, thanks to the integrity we see in our local officers. Their professionalism stands in stark contrast to the media’s tendency to echo official narratives without scrutiny.

But that same integrity is not always evident in the court system.

While many local law enforcement officers uphold professionalism and fairness, the judicial process itself often lacks transparency and accountability. For those caught in its gears, justice can feel elusive—especially when media coverage fails to question or investigate beyond official narratives.

In the LaFever case, it remains to be seen how the rest of the media will respond. We intend to pursue the court records, though accessing them has become increasingly difficult—often delayed or outright blocked—thanks to the California Judicial Council, a bureaucratic gatekeeper whose practices have raised serious concerns about transparency and democratic access.

It’s now nearly impossible to report on court trends in real time. What was once feasible with paper files has become a digital labyrinth. Automation and digitization, rather than enhancing openness, have created new barriers. The promise of technology was greater access; the reality has been the opposite.

If journalists are willing to work around court schedules, skip coverage on “service days,” and accept broken computer systems as routine, we can spend significant sums and all our time chasing a single case—just to view a file the public cares about.

Court access has never been this difficult. It was easier when reporters had to ride horseback to the courthouse. The current system, engineered by the California Judicial Council, appears designed to lock the media out. Private investigators and attorneys with time and money can often access records freely. Journalists? Not so much.

We’ve reviewed every justification the Judicial Council has offered for restricting media access. None hold water. Not even a drop. The result is a system where abuse of power and corruption are nearly impossible to challenge—because the courts themselves have become opaque.

So how does it work in this case? We’ll try to access the court files, but the system is stacked against timely, transparent reporting. The California Judicial Council’s digital infrastructure—despite its promise of accessibility—has made it harder than ever for journalists to follow up on cases the community cares about. Unless you have the time, money, and legal credentials of a private investigator or attorney, you’re locked out.

We caught wind of the case from a dozen folks who spotted his name on the booking log.

The booking log says that LaFever was arrested this morning after 7 a.m. Where?

That’s all it says: the charge is “annoy or molest a child under 18.” What were the circumstances? With no statement yet from police, we’ll have to wait for the case to be filed in court.

We have no idea what charges will be filed—or when. Without reasonable access we wont know if the charges were increased- or dropped. The case will eventually show up on the court calendar, but all we’ll see online is the same bare-bones listing. If a reporter wants more, we have to physically go to the courthouse and hope something’s been filed. Odds are, the public computer won’t be working. So the trip? Likely a bust.

Court clerks can’t help anymore. We’re left guessing if we want to cover this case—or any case. And we have to pay steep fees just to look, assuming the courthouse hasn’t closed early or the machines aren’t broken. It might take four trips or more just to find one file.

We could choose the spoon-fed route, echoing what authorities hand us. But that won’t be us.

Why should you care? Because this is happening right now. Forces inside the court system are shaping media narratives, favoring outlets that can be spoon-fed information—or allowed to record proceedings that would land others in legal trouble. This is how closed systems operate, and Mendocino County Courts are deep in it.

It’s astonishing how little concern this raises among those who typically champion transparency. The biggest shift to the right we’ve ever seen is unfolding here—not hypothetically, but actively. And it’s not just about the press. The ripple effects will hit police departments, defense attorneys, and defendants alike.

Pressure is already being applied as new police chiefs are hired and judges assigned. These forces—both inside and outside the system—are now nearly impossible to track, let alone chronicle.

This isn’t coming. It’s here. Right now, folks.

We sent an email to LaFever but have not heard back yet.

And one more thing—because it matters: we don’t run mugshots unless there’s a reason. We don’t chase scanner chatter, even though it means slower growth, fewer clicks, and a tougher road. That’s the cost of integrity. We’re not here to be first. We’re here to be right.

In a media landscape tilting toward spectacle and spoon-fed narratives, we choose the harder path: context over clicks, truth over traffic. We’ll keep showing up, even when the courthouse doors jam, the machines break, and the files vanish behind bureaucratic fog.

Because someone has to.

SECOND UPDATE— From UKIAH SCHOOL DISTRICT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dan Dougherty
November 3, 2025 (707) 472-5005
District Responds to Law Enforcement Action Involving High School Staff Member
Ukiah, CA – Ukiah Unified School District was informed this morning that a high school staff
member was arrested following allegations of inappropriate electronic communications with a
high school student.
When law enforcement first advised the district of the allegations on October 16, 2025, the staff
member was immediately placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an
investigation. The employee remains out of the classroom and off campus during this process.
Superintendent Deb Kubin said, “The safety and well-being of our students are our highest
priorities. We are cooperating fully with law enforcement and conducting our own internal
investigation. We will continue to communicate with families as appropriate while respecting the
privacy rights of all involved.”
All district employees undergo background checks that continuously monitor for new information
throughout employment. Staff also complete annual training on maintaining professional
boundaries and are mandated reporters of any suspected abuse or misconduct.
School counselors will be available on campus to provide support for any student who wishes to
speak with someone or needs assistance processing this information