Keys gets 6 more months in prison after deleting Sacramento business magazine’s videos

Solano County journalist Matthew Keys was sentenced Monday to another six months in prison following a Sacramento judge’s finding that he deleted Comstock’s magazine’s online videos and its Youtube account after quitting his job with the business publication in January 2020.

Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller also ordered keys to submit to 18 months of supervised release after he gets out, and to submit to outpatient mental health treatment to provide “further tools for self-reflection and self-control.”

“I do believe Mr. Keys needs to stay under the court’s thumb for a sufficient period of time...,” Mueller said. “I think there’s a chance – only Mr. Keys knows – that he’s figured out how not to come back before the court.”

Keys attorney Mark Reichel had been asking for no prison time for Keys’ latest violation, with federal probation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hemesath seeking a one-year sentence and a year of supervised release.

Keys already had done two years in prison following his 2015 conviction in federal court in Sacramento in a case involving a hack of the Los Angeles Times website. Evidence at that trial also indicated he obtained email addresses of Fox 40 viewers after leaving his job there, then sent messages to the viewers disparaging the company.

Keys’ supervised release from that case was to expire April 29, 2020, but Hemesath filed a petition just before that date accusing Keys of violating the conditions of his release by going into the Comstock’s YouTube account and deleting videos and the channel itself.

Hemesath wrote in court documents that Keys “brazenly repeated acts of digital vandalism and deletion” that were similar to those for which a jury convicted him in 2015.

“Apparently showing no growth since that time, Keys deleted the catalog of YouTube videos in apparent retribution against his former employer, and then took steps to cover his tracks,” Hemesath wrote in court filings. “He then lied to his Probation Officer about his involvement and accused others of being responsible for the deletion.

“There is little the government could add in argument to what the court has already seen — Keys seems to be incapable of controlling his anger to those whom he perceives have wronged him.”

Keys declined to address Mueller before she pronounced her sentence during a Zoom video hearing.

But in a four-page letter to the judge filed last week, Keys wrote about his background in journalism, awards he has won and lauded the influence of a Solano County online news operation he founded, which he said he hoped would grow to allow the hiring of employees and freelance writers.

“Those plans have been significantly delayed due to the ongoing legal situation, and the outcome of this case will largely decide the fate of the service going forward,” he wrote.

But Hemesath noted in court that Keys did not write of accepting responsibility for his actions after leaving Comstock’s.

“This was an opportunity for Mr. Keys to accept responsibility and he wholly rejected it,” Hemesath told the judge. “He blamed those around him, including the very victims, that this must have been the fault of Comstock’s.”

Reichel said accepting responsibility was “impossible” as long as there was a chance the government would file new charges against his client, and he said he plans to file an appeal in the case.

Meanwhile, the judge agreed to recommend that Keys serve his time at a minimum-security prison camp in Atwater – where he served his previous sentence – and that he be allowed to surrender to authorities on Sept. 1 so that he can attend a friend’s wedding that had been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 12:11 PM.