Modesto rape victim speaks out about attacker, a wanted parolee

The man who raped her is out of prison. He’s supposed to be 200 miles away in Butte County, his movement tracked by an ankle monitor. But he’s twice cut it off and returned to Modesto. Now he is a wanted parolee at large who has failed to register as a sex offender.

“I’m mad. I’m scared, still. I don’t know what he is going to do, I don’t know where he is,” she said.

The 18-year-old Modesto woman sat poised as she told her story, but recounting the horrible event four years later still brings tears to her eyes. The Bee is withholding the young woman’s name to protect her privacy.

She was 14 years old in 2012 when she was raped by Matthew Deante Morgan, then 19, and a juvenile whose name was not released by authorities.

Morgan pleaded guilty to raping an intoxicated victim, avoiding a trial and another felony charge of conspiring to rape a child 14 years or older. The juvenile served time in a prison for underage inmates.

Morgan was sentenced to six years in prison, but because the victim was under the influence of alcohol and possibly a date rape drug, he only had to serve half the time.

The Bee attempted to reach Morgan through Facebook but he did not respond.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees said rape of a drugged or intoxicated person is considered a serious but not violent crime under California state law, so the defendant only must serve a minimum of 50 percent of his sentence. In the case of forcible rape, in which the attacker uses force, violence or duress, the crime is considered serious and violent, so the defendant must serve a minimum of 85 percent of the sentence.

“That is not OK. How is that OK?” the victim said. “I mean, I was a good girl.”

“We do need to foster legislation that reflects this act as rape – particularly when President Obama himself says ‘rape is rape.’ ” Rees said.

The victim said that on the night of her attack she left her grandmother’s home with some acquaintances, a boy and a girl, to get drinks at a nearby convenience store at Standiford and McHenry avenues. But instead of driving her back to the apartment, the boy went to the juvenile defendant’s home, where the rape by the two teens occurred.

The victim says she remembers little of her attack because Morgan handed her a drink and within minutes she felt ill and dizzy.

“The next thing I remember, I was laying down and I couldn’t move,” she said, her voice catching as tears filled her eyes. “I remember Matthew hitting me in the mouth and I tried telling him, ‘Stop, get off’ but I couldn’t move.”

She said her attackers dropped her off at a mutual friend’s house, saying she was too drunk to go home. Her blood alcohol content was later determined to be 0.26, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office.

“I remember waking up at (a friend’s) house and then I wanted my stepmom and my dad and I was just screaming,” the victim said.

The mutual friend called her father, who took her to the hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault exam that later revealed traces of Morgan’s DNA.

“I remember waking up in the hospital and the nurse, she was being very loud and she said I had bite marks in my thighs. I was so sick, I was so sore the day after, it was horrible,” the victim said.

“I watched it dawn on her that she had been raped, and that is a sight you never want to see,” said the victim’s grandmother, April. “Watching a little 14-year-old that you love, having it occur to her that something so catastrophic has happened; that will take your breath away.”

Morgan served just three years of his six-year sentence, half of that in Stanislaus County jail while awaiting prosecution.

He was paroled to Butte County to be kept away from the victim, but “within 24 hours of release he cut off his ankle monitor and came to Modesto,” Rees said.

He was caught by Modesto police in July and arrested on violation of his parole and resisting arrest. Rees dismissed the case here so he could be sent back to Butte County, away from the victim, and to serve time for violating parole.

He was released in October and again cut off his ankle monitor and returned to the area.

He was caught again and returned to prison on the parole violation but was released a few months later, let out early for Christmas.

This time, his parole agent wasn’t notified of his release or that Rees wanted him returned to the Stanislaus County jail to answer for charges of resisting arrest associated with his capture in October, April said.

Since then, the victim and her family have watched his movement on Facebook, his posts from around Modesto as well as Sacramento and the Bay Area. In an October post, between his two stints in prison, he wrote, “Hello free world.”

He is a parolee at large who failed to register as a sex offender, but the woman he raped is the one looking over her shoulder.

“I get scared, I always think what to do,” she said. “When I was in counseling at Haven (Women’s Center), she told me things that I could do if anything ever happened, so that helped me, but I am still scared because I don’t know what I will do. What if I break down crying? What if he sees me? I don’t know what he will do to me.”

Her freshman and sophomore years of high school were torment. She had to go to school with friends of her attacker who she said spread vicious rumors about her. She said she’d run into those same boys at the mall, where they would follow and intimidate her.

She left two high schools to get away from the rumors before finding a third from which she will soon graduate. She plans to study criminal justice. Inspired by her experience, she wants to be a probation or parole officer, to hold people such as Morgan accountable.

Later this month, she will meet with state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, to discuss Galgiani’s bill to impose more severe penalties for possessing date rape drugs such as Rohypnol, GHB and ketamine. She even hopes to testify when the bill goes before the state Senate.

“We want to empower her by giving her a voice,” the victim’s grandmother said.

The victim hopes Morgan is captured soon and that the criminal justice system works in her favor this time, punishing him for his blatant disregard for it.

If she could say anything to him now, “I would just ask ‘Why?’ Why would he do this? Why would he do this to me and then think it’s OK to go out and have fun? Does he feel bad?”

Morgan is a 24-year-old black male. He is about 5-feet-11-inches tall and weighs 180 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair, but his most recent Facebook post shows his hair is bleached.

Anyone with information about Morgan’s whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 209-521-4636. Tipsters can email through the Crime Stoppers website, www.stancrimetips.org, or text tips to CRIMES (274637) by typing “Tip704” plus a message. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and are eligible for a cash reward.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Modesto rape victim speaks out about attacker, a wanted parolee."