Ex-Houston talk show host gets 3-year term Ex-Houston talk show host gets 3-year prison sentence

RICHMOND — Former radio talk show host Jon Matthews was ordered to spend three years in prison after a Fort Bend County judge this morning revoked his probation.

Matthews, 61, left the courtroom of state District Judge Brady Elliott after agreeing to a three-year sentence on a charge of indecency with a child.

The state claimed Matthews violated several terms of the probation he received two and half years ago after he pleaded guilty to exposing himself to an 11-year-old girl. Matthews did not dispute the claims made in court this morning.

Matthews, a fixture on Houston's radio scene for almost two decades, was jailed in August after prosecutors filed a motion to revoke the probation and asked that he be sent to prison. He was later released on bail.

Court records show Matthews violated several probation conditions the court set in 2004 when he entered his plea on the charge that stemmed from the October 2003 incident.

The violations included testing positive for alcohol, being terminated from a sex offenders counseling program and engaging in sexual fantasy activity over the Internet, court records said.

The conservative talk-show host resigned from his position on KSEV-AM (700), where he sat behind the microphone 6-9 a.m. each weekday. He also stopped writing a column for the weekly newspaper Fort Bend Star.

According to a July 5 report prepared by the Community Supervision and Corrections Department of Fort Bend County, Matthews tested positive for alcohol in June of 2005 and again in July of that same year.

"He admitted to abusing alcohol for approximately three weeks before testing positive," the report said.

Matthews also was terminated from a sex offenders counseling program because he had been engaging in inappropriate online sexual conduct, according to court documents.

The report said the Texas Attorney General's Office found that Matthews had been viewing obscene material over the Internet and participated in an Internet fantasy message exchange in which he described sex acts performed on a 3-year-old boy.

"Mr. Matthews presented himself to be a female stripper who took her three-year-old son to work with her. The defendant described sexual acts between the strippers and the three-year-old boy," the report said. Matthews does not have a 3-year-old son.

Matthews pleaded guilty to the 2003 offense and received deferred adjudication, a form of probation in which the finding of guilt is deferred for a certain length of time. If the defendant successfully completes probation, the charge is dismissed but the record of the charge remains.

According to the police report of the incident, the girl, who was a neighbor, arrived at Matthews' house to play with his puppy. Matthews answered the door in his underwear, and the girl told investigators Matthews sat on the floor and that his genitals were exposed.

Court documents state Matthews then left the room to put on a pair of shorts.

"Upon his return to the living room, the defendant pulled his shorts and underwear down and exposed his genitals to Sara Post (pseudonym), then he said 'whoops.' "

eric.hanson@chron.com