BRAD MATTOS FALSELY CONVICTED

My 25-year-old son, Brad, was caught in the sexual web of a 35-year-old ‘Black Widow’, Robin. My first question when I met her was "What is a 35-year-old woman doing with a 25-year-old kid?" We know of two instances (there may be more that we don't know about) where she used younger men for her sexual desire then called the police and ruined their lives, when they talk about leaving her.

My son was falsely accused and then falsely convicted of 2 counts of P.C. 289 sexual penetration by force, 1 count of P.C. 273.5 inflicting corporal injury on spouse, cohabitant, and 1 count of P.C. 422 threats to commit a crime resulting in death or great bodily injury with the special circumstance that he used a firearm.

My son met her at a country western bar one Saturday night in early February 2001. My son’s friend overheard her tell Brad that her ex-boyfriend Eddie was there and she wanted to make him jealous, get revenge, was her exact words. We later found out that she had a restraining order against Eddie. My son, being somewhat shy when first meeting a female, was delighted by her aggressiveness. After leaving the bar, they went to grab something to eat. During this meal, she invited him to her house. My son declined. He did call her Sunday and they did see each other that day. She again invited him to her place, which he accepted. She rented one room, which she lived in with her 8-year-old son. With the son asleep in a bed in the room, she became sexually aggressive with my son. My son was very uncomfortable with the situation and declined her advances. They saw each other every day and they started a sexual relationship with in a week of meeting. She told my son of her two other children, Brandon, age 15, and Sabrina, age 13. Her ex-husband, Eric, had custody of them because of her drug-related conviction. She did tell my son that her oldest son, 15, was living with his aunt because he was constantly in trouble. The aunt called and said the 15-year-old was corrupting her own son, so he couldn’t live there anymore. The ex-husband didn’t want the 15-year-old living with him so he came to live with his mother. My son and I could see that he smoked marijuana. His eyes would be bloodshot and he definitely was stoned.

She told my son that she would have to move out because the one room she was renting was not big enough for her and her two sons. My son and her, together, signed a year lease for a two-bedroom apartment in March 2001, just a little over a month since they met. They split everything 50/50, even though she had her two sons living with them. Right after they signed the lease, she lost her job. My son, who was working the graveyard shift at his job, took on a day job also, to help with the bills. While she wasn't working she still spent money on getting her nails done, buying new clothes etc. After a month she did find a job. My son worked the second job for another month to catch up on the bills.

I could tell this wasn’t the family my son envisioned, but he wouldn’t stop trying. He was getting real close with the 8-year-old, helping him with his homework, playing video games with him and just talking with him. His teacher was amazed at how his grades improved and his attitude towards school changed. She even told me that my son had helped her 8-year-old accomplish this.

In mid-June, my son called me and asked me to come over right away. I asked him what happened and he told me that he slapped the 15-year-old across the face and the police were coming. Of course, I went to his apartment. The police officer was already there and talking to the 15-year-old and his mother. My boyfriend and I stood back as to not interfere. After about 10 minutes of standing there, she told me that Brad was inside the apartment and that we could go in. My son explained that he did slap the 15-year-old after the 15-year-old told him to f***off. He explained that the 15-year-old was doing anything he wanted to do and when his mother confronted him about it, he would tell his mother “f*** you and the horse you rode in on, bitch.” The police did talk to my son and said he would have done the same thing but it was against the law. The officer did not arrest my son. There was one occasion when Brandon walked from his room through the living room to the front door. On his way out a baggie of marijuana dropped out of his pocket and onto the floor. My son picked it up and flushed it down the toilet. Brandon was upset and said he had no right to do that. The lease my son signed stated they had a zero tolerance for drugs. My son tried to explain this to Brandon, but to no avail.

My son did not need this aggravation as his blood pressure was high and he was scheduled for tonsillectomy surgery on June 21st. My son’s surgery did take place. I was with him since she said she couldn’t take the time off of work. I stayed with him until she got off of work. I made him applesauce, Jell-O, pudding and bought him juices to drink. On Saturday, June 23rd, my boyfriend and I along with my daughter went over to his apartment to bring him more food he could eat. She wasn’t there. She and the boys went over to her mother’s house all day. She had no consideration for my son’s condition or care. In fact, when she was home on Sunday, my son was in the bedroom, lying down, and they were talking. She walked out of the bedroom, still talking. My son couldn’t hear her, and asked her to come back in the bedroom. She kept on talking, in the living room and my son finally raised his voice to tell her he couldn’t hear her and ended up pulling out his stitches. We came over to take him to the Emergency room, where we spent 3 hours with him.

A few weeks after that she called my son at work and said she was leaving work because she was in pain. My son, being the only mechanic on duty at the hospital, couldn’t leave so he called and asked me to take her to the doctor. I did. I spent 5 hours in the Emergency room with her that day. My son called me at least 5 times that day to see how she was. When they released her, I drove over to her youngest son’s school to pick up both boys. I drove them all home, where my son, who had just gotten home, waited. I got a call later that night from my son who tried to pick up her prescriptions and didn’t have enough money for all of them. He was so worried about her being in pain that he asked me for money to go get them.

My son had packed up most of his things after his surgery; in fact they were still packed into storage boxes when we moved his things out. He knew this was not what he wanted. They kept talking about breaking up, but didn’t know what to do about the lease on the apartment. She couldn’t afford to pay for all the rent and my son knew if his name was taken off the lease, they would probably evict her. Her credit history was not good. He had often suggested she move out, and he could get his best friend to move in. She said she had nowhere to go. My son suggested she go live with her mother and she said her mother wouldn’t let her move back in. She had told my son that her mother had thrown her out of the house when she was 16.

I went home and called the number. They told me there were 3 charges. 289, which they didn’t know what it was, 273.5, domestic violence, and 422, terrorist threats. I then got a collect call from my son. He asked me what was going on. I told him the charges and he couldn’t believe this was happening. I told him I would call a bail bondsman and bail him out as soon as I could. I then called a bail bondsman and they said they would see what the bail had been set at. They called me back and said the bail should be set around 11pm that night. They said with the charges that the bail should be $10-20 thousand.

I then went to my son’s apartment to pick up some things he would need for work the next day. When we pulled up she was outside with her mother and two boys. I told her that we had come to get a few of my son’s things. She said it was ok. My boyfriend, my daughter and I entered the apartment. We went to the bedroom to pick up clothes, work tools, his ID badge and keys. She told me that his keys and badge would be in the wooden box by the bed, and they were there, so I took the whole box, along with a laundry basket of clothes, a couple bags of tools, his motorcycle helmet and some bathroom stuff. As we were leaving, my boyfriend asked her to ‘please make sure all of his stuff stays here’. As she was trying to answer, her mother stepped forward, interrupted and asked ‘Is that a threat? Are you threatening her?’ My boyfriend answered ‘no’. We left and were putting the stuff in the car when she came over and asked for my son’s keys back. I told her that as long as my son’s stuff was in that apartment, I would not give her Brad’s keys. She then told me the police should have taken the keys and I replied that if the police wanted them I would give them the keys.

He told me Robin and the boys came home late about 8:30. She told him they were over her mother’s house. (Her story to police was that they went to dinner at Spoons)(My theory is that her and her mother planned this whole night out) My son and her went into the bedroom to talk after she put her youngest son to bed. They had a slow dance in the bathroom to Garth Brook’s song ‘The Dance’. (One of her stories, she admits to the dance and at the preliminary she said he mentioned it but they did not and another states she watched TV from the time she got home until she took her shower) They then sat in the bathroom for a few minutes and talked. They went into the bedroom and continued talking about breaking up. She was uncertain about what to do. She knew this relationship wasn’t going to work, but didn’t want to move out. She told my son that she was going to talk to a counselor on Friday about where her life was going. My son had a couple cans of beer during this conversation. Also, during this conversation they were kissing and sitting close to each other. At 10 o’clock, they took a bottle of wine out to the living room, because my son wanted to watch wrestling on TV. They each had a glass of wine and Robin asked Brad to pour a glass of wine for Brandon. At 10:55pm, 5 minutes before wrestling was over, she went into the bathroom to take a shower.

My son finished watching wrestling and he went to the bedroom. When she came out of the shower, she was in a towel only. She came over to the bed and became sexually aggressive with him. They did have intercourse. (My son didn’t go into detail with me about the sex). After the intercourse, about midnight, she went into the bathroom to take another shower. When she came out of the shower, she told my son she wanted to move into the living room.

My son then got despondent and went to his closet and pulled out his .32 caliber gun. He told her he couldn’t live like this and wanted to kill himself. She said don’t do it, so he handed her the gun and told her to do it. He told me that with all her indecision, he felt like she was killing him slowly. She wouldn’t take the gun so he put it away and they decided to talk about this again tomorrow. They both went to bed and fell asleep. This was about 1am.

At approximately 9:30am the next morning, he called her at work and she said she would be in a meeting most of the day and she would call him later. They both said they loved each other and hung up. At approximately 3 o’clock that day, police came and arrested my son. During this whole ordeal my son's story has not changed, her's has (it's easy to remember the truth but hard to remember lies.).

The bail was not set until the next day. When the bail bondsman did call that day, they told us that the bail was set at $200,000. They gave me the name of a lawyer who could possibly get the bail reduced. I then called the lawyer and made an appointment to see him. I told the lawyer the facts of that night, as told to me by my son. He came to the court on the date appointed and talked to my son for about 15 minutes. My son told him what happened that night and the lawyer came out and told me that he was convinced of his innocence. He told me that my son looked him in the eye and he could tell he was telling the truth. He did get the bail lowered to $100,000 and we were able to bail my son out of jail. My son received a copy of the police report from the lawyer and couldn’t believe what she had told the police.

At approximately midnight, Robin disrobed to take a shower. (It was actually 11pm after wrestling). She entered, he followed. He started kissing her on the neck, and made sexual advances. When she rebuffed him, he bit her neck, twice. (The later report, preliminary, and at the trial she states he pinned her against the bathroom door and threatened her and this is when he bit her). (In later reports, she states that she went out of the bedroom a couple times to tell her son she was ok. She states she went out and checked in with her son after Brad threatened her. But at the trial she stated that she did not go out at anytime and check with her son. When her son testified he stated that she did come out twice that night).

After taking her shower, she put on a T-shirt and underwear (Her story differs here as to what she actually had on) and was walking out of the bathroom when he grabbed her, pushed her onto the bed, then inserted his finger(s) into her vagina, saying “I bet that hurts, because of your bladder”. (The victim has a bladder disorder) (This was never confirmed). (One of her stories says he came into the bathroom and pulled her out, one says she came out and sat on the bed to put her sweat pants on)(She states at the trial that she brought nightclothes into the bathroom to dress after showering, because she didn’t want to give him any ideas that she wanted sex)(If she didn't want sex with him, why did she come out of the bathroom in panties instead of covering up?)

He then inserted his fingers into her rectum and said “I’m going to treat you like the slut that you are”. (She often asked for this. There were times she would say something suggestive to my son, and my son would say I should slap you for saying that. She would reply with a smile, “Ooh, promises, promises.”) Robin stated she was able to talk him down. (In the later report she states that he is upset at her and got off). At the preliminary she was very matter-of-fact. At the trial, with the jury watching, she was crying at this point.

A few minutes later, he started getting despondent. Robin said she told Brad “Its over”. She said Brad became even more despondent, grabbed his revolver, loaded it, (with what ammo) handed it to her and said “Here, you go ahead and do it for me. I’ll write a note so you don’t get blamed for it”. Robin said “What are you doing, put the gun away, I’m not going to kill anybody”. (In one of her stories she states that she knocked some bullets out of his hand while he was loading it). She said Brad replied “Maybe I should kill all of us”. (On all reports and at the preliminary, she stated that Brad never pointed the gun at her, and at the trial she stated he handed her the gun barrel first.)

Robin, sensing that he was going to do something terrible, i.e. shoot her and her kids, tried to calm Brad by lying. She told him that maybe they could salvage the relationship, that there was still hope. (She states in another report and at the trial that this is when she knocked the bullets out of his hand)

This seemed to calm him, who began a dialogue about reconciliation. Eventually he put the gun away. They talked for a few minutes, then went to sleep. As soon as she got to work this morning, she notified the authorities, and made arrangements to have her two sons placed at a safe location. The police report states that there are 2 phones in the bedroom and one in the living room. Yet, she did not call 911.

Robin told Officer Payne that she initially did not want to go to Valley Medical Center to be examined because he and his family worked there. (My son could not harass her there since she knew that he was in jail. I work in facilities maintenance, which is completely separate from the hospital. It is located down the street quite a ways.) She said she was hoping to get an appointment with her own primary care physician. Officer Payne explained the importance of the SART nurses’ medical exam for gathering evidence. She told her their office was discreet and separated from the main lobby. She directed her, again, to contact SAIU to make an appointment with a SART nurse. Robin said she would and signed a medical release form in case she met with her own doctor as well. (She never had a doctor’s exam, even though she stated in the preliminary that she had tears down there. If she had a SART exam, it would have proved she had intercourse, consensual sex with my son that night. If she was in pain as she contends why didn't she go to her own doctor?)

Robin told Officer Payne she was very concerned about Brad being released from jail. She said that his family went to her home late yesterday to gather some of his belongings and they were hostile towards her. They also refused to give back her house key. (Her mother was the one who was hostile and I had my son’s key, not her key.)

Robin said Brad called her from jail this afternoon. She didn’t realize who it was when she accepted the collect call because she was distracted by being on the other line. (When you accept a collect call from the Main Jail, it gives you a 2-3 minutes greeting stating who is calling you and says you must press 0 to accept the call and agree that it might be recorded. She couldn’t have been that distracted, that she didn’t know what she was doing.) He asked her why she was doing this to him. He also said that he didn’t know what had happened. He said that all he knew was that they had made love just like they always do. He told her that he did not threaten to kill her or the children, only himself. He then asked her to drop the charges. Brad also told her that she was the one who said, “Treat me like the whore that I am”. Brad then said that he was only doing what she had asked him to do to her. The DA brought up this collect call that my son made that day. Yet the court did not allow us to ask her any questions about the recorded message.

I don’t have the transcripts of the trial; it would cost too much to have them done. There are many inconsistencies between the police reports, preliminary trial and trial. Her story changed from day to day. My son’s lawyer tried to get some of preliminary testimony into the trial and the judge denied it, saying relevance. It was relevant in that it was sworn testimony and differed from sworn testimony at the actual trial, which goes to prove her credibility. We caught her in many lies but the judge would not let us pursue. The judge did allow the synopsis of the police interviews with my son in the testimony, which stated my son said he was drunk that night. The DA kept harping on the issue of my son being drunk. My son is 6’2”, 230 pounds and a couple beers and a glass of wine does not make him drunk. But the DA kept harping on this. At the preliminary and again at the trial, she said that Brad had been drinking beer before she got home. This was not on any of the reports. Did the DA concoct this part? After the trial and sentencing we heard the rumor about his wife and daughter. This would be the only reason the DA would harp on that issue. This judge was unfair at the actual trial and at sentencing.

In a police report Robin admitted to having anal sex with Brad approximately 6 times, but at the preliminary hearing she denied it. She continued to deny it even after she was asked to look at police reports to refresh her memory. She couldn't remember, couldn't recall. A lot of her testimony was "I don't recall" or "I don't remember."

The police wrote in a report that he told them where the gun, a.32 caliber and ammunition was. They listed what they found, the .32 caliber gun, a replica gun that was inoperative, 1 box of .22 caliber, a box of .45 caliber and a box of 380 rounds and that was it. This was an important fact because Robin kept insisting that he loaded the gun. Since he had no ammo for that gun he could not have possibly loaded it. Robin was caught in a lie. Then all of a sudden 20 minutes before being brought into evidence at the trial, the prosecutor handed our lawyer a property record that showed 4 boxes of ammo, which included .32 caliber. This was a clear discovery violation, yet the judge let it into evidence. The police testified he must have made a mistake, even if he did add and that was it. My son said he never had a box of .32 ammo, we have no idea where this came from. We also think that they were .32 longs and we know his gun is a .32 short. You cannot fit long ammo into a short gun. But because of the late discovery violation we did not have the time to investigate this.

Robin has made a history of going to court. She has had two criminal filings. She pled guilty to petty theft and completed a diversion program on a drug charge. In addition she has filed 2 bankruptcies, 1 paternity matter (where she lost custody of her two oldest children) and 6 other civil filings. She had a restraining order against my son in Superior Court, but still went to Family Court to get another one. In the one from Family Court, she asked the court to have my son pay for half the rent and half the utilities even though he would not be living there. This shows that one of her motives was to have my son pay for her living arrangements. Of course the judge would not let any of this information into court, even though it shows a pattern, it shows her character.

We had to subpoena her second ex-husband, Wes, to court. He was terrified of her. He told our lawyer and later testified that he is scared that she will retaliate against him. She had brought false charges against him, amazingly when he was 25 years of age. His lawyer told him that it is very difficult to win a domestic violence charge. He wanted her out of his life so to get away from her he pled no contest and took a deal. She threatened him with sexual charges if he fought for custody of his son. (I was in tears after listening to this young man testifying.) There was a lot of information we could not ask him questions about. In a police report filed by Robin regarding the case against Wes, the police noted that Wes had a bruise on his arm, Robin had no visible marks. They also disclosed that Robin admitted taking Prozac and was under care for psychiatric problems. But of course, the Judge did not allow any of that information to be entered into the trial. The prosecutor was allowed to keep telling the jury that he had pled 'guilty' when in fact it was 'no contest.'

My son observed her taking the prescription drug Meridia. Meridia is a controlled substance. It is to be prescribed for overly obese patients only (Robin is 5’2”, 113 pounds.) Meridia is highly addictive and should never be prescribed to patients with a history of drug abuse. It has many bad side effects including unusual bruising. Of course she denied taking any drugs and we weren't allowed to enter any of this in evidence.

We looked for her first ex-husband Eric. The private eye that went to his home several times, saw someone peeking behind the curtain at the window but no one would answer the door. The private eye was very suspicious that maybe Robin had warned and/or threatened him. We tried to find her ex-boyfriend Eddie who had a restraining order against him, the one who she was trying to make jealous the night she met my son. He could not be found at all. Maybe he was hiding because he had been threatened also.

My son was originally booked with 3 charges against him. The preliminary trial contained only the 3 charges. We were shocked at the start of the trail when they read 4 counts against him. We were never informed of the extra charge. There was the great bodily injury, the threat with gun charge and now instead of 1 count of sexual penetration, there were 2 counts.

He was found guilty of all 4 charges. The corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition was the hickey. The threats charge with use of a firearm had to be taken as a threat and be so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific that it conveyed a gravity of purpose an immediate prospect of execution of the threat and caused the person to reasonably be in fear of her's and /or family's safety. He said he only threatened to kill himself. It was a stupid thing and he did it only for theatrics, to get her attention. She said that he said 'Maybe, I should kill us all." He never pointed the gun at her, she testified to that; the only person it was pointed at was himself. He put the gun away himself. She even agreed that he tried to give her the gun so she could shoot him. She didn't take it. If I were scared for my life and especially my children's lives, I would have taken the gun from him immediately. She was not scared or she would have taken the gun, gotten out of there when she could or called the police, instead she spent the night sleeping next to him in a twin bed. Even if someone believes her story, "Maybe I should kill us all', does not fulfil the requirements needed in this charge. Maybe is not unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific.

The 2 sexual charges were a finger in the vagina and a finger in the anus. She testified that each incident lasted only 1 minute and that they happened one right after the other. He said she asked him to do these acts and they made love that night. She contends that he forced her and there was no intercourse. Of course we cannot prove the intercourse because she would not get a SART exam.

We had 8 friends and family there, as well as 25 letters written to tell the judge about Brad's character and prove to him that he had support within his family and the community. He was a Cub Scout/Boy Scout, played T-ball and little league, played on the high school football team, and is the 5th generation to live in San Jose. He has had 3 jobs since he was 18 years old. Since late 1996, Robin has had 9 different jobs, getting fired from her last one. There were so many things that we weren’t allow to say. But we were just shocked when the sentences came out.

The probation department suggested 6 years total (concurrent) sentencing. The judge gave consecutive years for a total of 16.4 years. My son has no prior record. The DA stated at the sentencing hearing that the victim was too scared to be there. When in fact, the probation department left her several messages and she never returned their calls, they were also told that she would not be back to work for a few weeks. The judge knew this, if he read the probation report, but let the DA blatantly lie in the courtroom.

I have researched into the law a little bit and found that to impose consecutive charges the judge has to state a reason. Also if there are 2 of the same charge they have to be entirely different incidents for the judge to give consecutive sentences. The person had to have time between the 2 incidents to consider and think.

We need someone’s help in righting this wrong. I have always believed that when someone does something wrong, they are disciplined for it. I can not believe that a woman can walk into a police station and say that a man did things to her and the man has to prove his innocence. I was always under the impression that you are innocent until proven guilty. Not anymore.

It is really scary that people will believe words without any physical evidence, no witnesses. How do you prove your innocence? This was a ‘she said, he said’ trial. This woman is a great little actress. She should win an academy award. Why would she do this, why would she lie? The answer is money, revenge, power. It's like a game to her. There is no wrath like a woman scorned.