| Radio talk show host and Sugar Land resident Jon Matthews faces a third-degree indictment of indecency with a child by exposure, and could be sentenced to penitentiary for up to 10 years.
The indictment, returned Tuesday, had been sealed until police arrested Matthews. District Attorney John Healey announced the indictment at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.
Healey said the indictment alleges there had been no physical contact between the child and Matthews, but that Matthews displayed his genitalia to the child.
The indictment reads that the act had been committed intentionally to "arouse and gratify" the defendant.
The range of punishment for the offense is 2 to 20 years of penitentiary and a fine of up to $10,000, with the possibility the imprisonment or fine could be probated.
Healey says no evidence exists for further charges.
"You never want to say no chance, but at this particular time we have no evidence in reference to that," he said.
Suzy Morton, Chief of the Child Abuse Division of the District Attorney's Office, will prosecute the case, said Healey.
On Tuesday, Matthews testified before the grand jury for an hour and a half, followed by his wife Carolyn.
The investigation of Matthews, said Healey, began when the parents of the victim, who goes by the pseudonym Sara Post on the indictment, alerted Sugar Land Detective Marshall Slot through an intermediary. The victim is under 17 years of age.
The Sugar Land Police Department released the investigation last Thursday to the District Attorney's Office.
Sugar Land Police Department spokeswoman Pat Whitty said Matthews met with Sugar Land Police at an undisclosed location at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, and police transported him to the Fort Bend County jail.
The booking process lasted 30 minutes for Matthews. Before exiting the building, however, Matthews waited in an office for his wife to pick him up, while television and newspaper crews waited outside.
Deputy Craig Brady said the Sheriff's Office allowed Matthews to wait inside due to the fact that he recently experienced surgery and some reporters had been aggressively pursuing him.
Matthews contributes a weekly column to the Fort Bend Star, and publisher Bev Carter says he may still do so.
"Jon hasn't turned in a column in three weeks, but you know, he's only been indicted," she said. "He's not been tried. He's not confessed, and the door is open if he would like to write a column."
Carter called the situation "a real tragedy for Jon and his family."
Matthews, a former Marine with two children, commented for over 15 years on KSEV, developing a following for his conservative politics, frequently criticizing Houston city government and Mayor Lee Brown.
In his Star columns, he regularly criticized "bureaucracy" in the state and county. Recently, Matthews commented on former Sugar Land Police Chief Michael Van Court's ouster, and in his final column he railed against Fort Bend County libraries for not moving two controversial sexual education children's books to the adult section of the library.
Station manager Dan Patrick pulled Matthews off the air in late October as a result of the Sugar Land investigation. Matthews resigned from the station since then.
Matthews' lawyer, Stephen Doggett, would not comment.
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