Matt Johnson just isn’t focused on speaking about why he had a pockets stuffed with ID playing cards from Louisiana, New York and Hong Kong when he received arrested in February in Saskatoon whereas driving a black Grand Cherokee rental from Calgary.
The 45-year-old American lawyer received kicked out of Canada just a few weeks later, on March 7, after pleading responsible in Saskatoon provincial courtroom to auto theft and stealing gasoline. Johnson was sentenced to 17 days, which he had already served, then taken by Canadian Border Companies Company officers and turned over to U.S. authorities.
Johnson already had ongoing authorized troubles in California. He was needed in Orange County on excellent warrants for housebreaking, carrying faux ID and grand theft auto, and topic to a five-year home violence restraining order.
A former girlfriend from Saskatoon, now residing in Ventura County, received the restraining order in January after Johnson harassed her for 2 years. CBC obtained the 81-page file from the county courthouse.
“I ended the connection in July 2024,” she wrote. CBC just isn’t naming the girl due to issues for her security.
“This didn’t go nicely and led to threats, stalking, harassment, id theft, nameless letters to my work, sending nude images to my ex and colleagues, and even impersonating the CIA.”
She says Johnson claimed he’s a CIA agent who “works within the shadows.”
Earlier than getting shipped out of Saskatoon, Johnson signed a promise to not contact the girl’s household in Prince Albert.
Johnson left a path of victims and questions since displaying up in Saskatoon final October. His actions are a sophisticated narrative detailed throughout paperwork from courthouses and police reviews on either side of the border.
CBC contacted Matthew John Johnson by cellphone and textual content in California over 4 days in March.
“My solely cause for talking to you is to establish why on Earth you’d need to trigger additional hurt by bringing the courtroom of public opinion into something that surrounds me,” he wrote.
“I will converse to you, however will probably be of little profit.”
The lacking Mercedes
The Saskatoon a part of the story started when Matt Johnson dropped off a rental automobile at Fargo Worldwide Airport on Oct. 13, 2024, in keeping with the courtroom paperwork.
He arrived in Saskatoon 4 days later, Oct. 17, the identical day the Superior Courtroom of California in Orange County issued a bench warrant for his arrest for housebreaking, faux ID and grand theft auto prices.
On Oct. 18, he rented a 2024 white Mercedes Benz C300 with B.C. plates on the Saskatoon airport. When it was not returned on the due date, the corporate tried to contact Johnson and finally reported it stolen, in keeping with police reviews reviewed by CBC.
Shortly after arriving, Johnson started courting a Saskatoon girl he met on the courting app Hinge.
“He instructed me he was a New York lawyer working in Saskatoon,” the girl, who CBC agreed to not determine resulting from harassment issues, mentioned in an interview.
She mentioned Johnson claimed to personal property in California, a care residence in Saskatoon and extra property on Saskatchewan Crescent. He additionally claimed to be constructing a house within the Greenbryre neighbourhood, she mentioned. They dated till shortly earlier than his arrest.
Johnson subsequent surfaces within the paperwork on Dec. 16 when an ex, who lives in Saskatoon, reported to police that he had unexpectedly reappeared within the metropolis from the U.S. and was harassing her. She mentioned he was driving a white Mercedes, however had switched the B.C. plates to California plates to keep away from detection.
Johnson instructed CBC he had labored as a paralegal for a outstanding Saskatoon legislation agency in late 2019 and early 2020, however he was not on file with the Regulation Society of Saskatchewan in that interval to apply as a lawyer. A spokesperson for that agency wrote in an electronic mail that he doesn’t work there now.
On Dec. 20, police received a tip {that a} stolen white Mercedes C300 had surfaced in a parking storage within the Evergreen neighbourhood. An officer went to the scene and located the sedan, with California plates, parked and empty contained in the parkade, in keeping with the police report.
The officer left the parkade to name it in. Whereas he was on the radio, the automobile drove by with a person inside.
The officer pulled the automobile over. It turned out to be the stolen Mercedes, however the driver was not Matt Johnson. As a substitute, it was a one-time Saskatoon physician who instructed the cop Johnson had loaned him the automobile to make use of that day.
The physician claimed he did not know the automobile had been reported stolen.
When he was arrested in February, Johnson had the physician’s driver’s licence in his pockets. He instructed police the physician was a cocaine addict, closely in debt, who had given Johnson his ID, financial institution card and PIN quantity.
CBC unsuccessfully tried to contact the physician to confirm the narrative within the police report.
A pockets stuffed with questions
Saskatoon police arrested Johnson on Feb. 25 on excellent U.S. and Canadian warrants. He was pulled over whereas driving a black 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee, rented in Calgary, that was purported to be returned the day earlier than.
Police described him as “compliant with the instructions given.”
Officers discovered two Financial institution of America bank cards, one gold Amex card, the physician’s ID, plus a number of driver’s licences and ID playing cards from New York, Louisiana, Hong Kong and Saskatchewan.
The case abstract reviewed by CBC mentioned banking transactions “point out a transient life-style,” with intermittent purchases in Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon.
“He crosses the border continuously in a number of totally different factors of entry into the nation,” the abstract says.
Johnson was held in custody as legal professionals on either side of the border discovered the best way to deal with the Canadian prices and excellent U.S. warrants.
On March 7, he pleaded responsible in provincial courtroom to the Canadian auto and gasoline theft prices. Decide Lisa Watson accepted the joint submission for time served, with Johnson’s lawyer noting “he is truly an American and an American legal professional, so he’s nicely versed within the legislation.”
CBC was scheduled to do one other interview with Johnson. As a substitute, Johnson wrote through textual content that he’d missed the interview as a result of he was caught in visitors. He known as and left a voicemail message to name again, however didn’t reply follow-up calls. These had been the final communications CBC obtained from him.
“I known as prepared to entertain YOUR questions, and known as again as promised,” he wrote in his remaining textual content.
“When you really feel that is not honest which you can merely say within the article that you just weren’t prepared to play cellphone tag to get these answered.”
Johnson didn’t reply to follow-up requests for a brand new interview time.
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