Alderman Mike Matson is being investigating for impersonating a public official. TV6 has been involved in this case from the beginning. We received emails from a Davenport Alderman that turned out to be fake. Police subpoenaed the emails and according to the search warrant traced the emails back to Matson's work laptop. TV6 received the email through the station's tip line on September 13th.
The email that Davenport Police subpoenaed from TV6 said that the email sender was meekergene@yahoo.com or Gene. The content of the email contains confidential city information. The city says some of it's true and some of it's not. The email was about the city's plan to buy Rhythm City Casino. All we can release is that the email details plans for Davenport and the city backed developer, MSEG, to end their agreement.
In the search warrant, police say the email address meekergene@yahoo.com does not exist and is not an email used by Alderman Gene Meeker. During their investigation police used the KWQC.com provider to identify the IP address from the computer that sent the email. It was registered to the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency. Police were then able to trace the IP address to the Davenport Community School District. The district could not provide the exact location of the computer.
Police looked further into the matter and started piecing together the information. Alderman Mike Matson was one of three elected officials present at a meeting where confidential information was discussed. Matson is the JROTC teacher at Central High. Police compared the IP address from the fake email to 2 other emails Matson had sent. It was found that all the emails matched the IP address.
A judge approved the search warrant and police seized the computer from Matson's Central High classroom on October 1st. After some confusion about the laptop's serial number, Davenport Schools confirmed that police had the right computer. The search warrant does not say what was found on the laptop.
Matson has not been charged with any crime. We reached out to Mike Matson, but our phone calls were not returned. TV6 spoke with Mayor Bill Gluba, he said due to the ongoing investigation it would be inappropriate to comment. Davenport Community Schools also declined to comment, due to the investigation. All Davenport Police will say is they investigated the offense of impersonating an elected official.
The findings have been forwarded to the Scott County Attorney. The Scott County Attorney has turned the case over to the Clinton County Attorney's office, because of a potential conflict of interest. Clinton County will review the case and determine if charges should be filed.
