NORTH COAST, Calif. — The Ukiah Police Department said it has arrested a Hopland man who works as a high school teacher and journalist for harassing a female high school student with sexually suggestive messages on social media and for contacting other minors as well.

Matthew Palmer LaFever, 37, of Hopland, was arrested on Monday following an investigation that began in mid-October, the Ukiah Police Department reported.

LaFever is a teacher at Ukiah High School, owner and operator of the MendoFever website — which appeared to have been taken down as of Monday night — a contributor to the Redheaded Blackbelt website and the SF Gate North Coast contributing editor.

Police said that on Oct. 16 they were notified by a concerned parent of a 17-year-old Ukiah High School student that 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.   
 
Ukiah Police detectives conducted an interview with the female high school student, who told them 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.  

Police said LaFever also sent the minor scantily clad and inappropriate photographs of himself.  

The agency said its detectives obtained a search warrant for LaFever’s cell phone, computers and residence.  

The following day Ukiah Police 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. 

Police said LaFever's electronic devices were forensically downloaded, and detectives were able to confirm that the social media interaction described by the 17-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, police said those victims have not been identified at this time due to the anonymity of social media.   

On Monday, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for LaFever for the crime of knowingly annoying and or molesting a minor.

At approximately 7 a.m. Monday, the detectives went to LaFever’s residence, and he was taken into custody.  

LaFever was booked into the Mendocino County jail for the misdemeanor charge at 8:17 a.m, with bail set at $10,000. Jail records showed he posted bail and was released just after noon on Monday.

Police said LaFever used numerous variations of the screen name “Johhnyender” across multiple social media platforms, and authorities are asking that any minors who had contact or received any messages from similar social media accounts contact them.

The Ukiah Police Department said it “remains committed to keeping the residents of Ukiah safe,” and it thanked Ukiah High School and the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office for their assistance in the investigation.