Once-popular Stanislaus official to admit sending herself death threats

Former Stanislaus County Clerk-Recorder Karen Mathews Davis, accused of fabricating death threats to herself during a congressional campaign, will on June 1 change her plea to guilty, attorneys told a federal judge Thursday.

Sentencing terms won’t be revealed until then, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors said. Randy Thomas, the defendant’s Woodbridge attorney, was not reached for comment.

Roger Steiner, 79, is most curious to learn whether the plea bargain addresses the 19 years he spent behind bars largely on the word of a woman whose credibility now appears severely compromised.

“If she lied now, did she lie then also? That’s supposed to be part of the ongoing investigation,” said Steiner, who has lived in a broken-down trailer in a pasture west of Fresno since his release from federal prison three years ago. He always has said authorities got the wrong man.

Mathews Davis, 68, had testified that Steiner ambushed her in her Modesto garage in 1994, beating, slicing and sodomizing her with a pistol. Prosecutors said the attack was a warning from radical tax protesters; Mathews Davis had been threatened by a fake bomb and in letters, authorities said, and was hailed as a hero for refusing to be bullied.

Having moved to Lodi years ago, Mathews Davis in 2014 revealed supposedly new threats to The Modesto Bee and other news organizations when she ran unsuccessfully for Congress, and she published a book about the assault. On four occasions, she tried to steer federal agents toward Steiner, a neighbor’s nephew, her grandson and a member of her church, agents said upon arresting her in October 2015. She has been out of custody on bail since shortly after.

In May, Mathews Davis told The Bee she made regrettable mistakes leading to her arrest, but not at Steiner’s trial.

Steiner, who uses a walker and has congestive heart failure, has offered to recommend leniency for Mathews Davis in exchange for her telling the truth about the garage attack.

“They’re keeping me bubble-gummed together pretty good at the VA hospital,” he said Thursday. “It’s going to be interesting to see how (her plea) plays out. I just wish they’d hurry because I’m about played out.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 9:12 AM with the headline "Once-popular Stanislaus official to admit sending herself death threats."