Mystery man leaves wallet full of questions in Saskatoon

Matt Johnson is not interested in talking about why he had a wallet full of ID cards from Louisiana, New York and Hong Kong when he got arrested in February in Saskatoon while driving a black Grand Cherokee rental from Calgary.

The 45-year-old American lawyer got kicked out of Canada a few weeks later, on March 7, after pleading guilty in Saskatoon provincial court to auto theft and stealing gas. Johnson was sentenced to 17 days, which he had already served, then taken by Canadian Border Services Agency officers and turned over to U.S. authorities.

Johnson already had ongoing legal troubles in California. He was wanted in Orange County on outstanding warrants for burglary, carrying fake ID and grand theft auto, and subject to a five-year domestic violence restraining order. 

A former girlfriend from Saskatoon, now living in Ventura County, got the restraining order in January after Johnson harassed her for two years. CBC obtained the 81-page file from the county courthouse.

"I ended the relationship in July 2024," she wrote. CBC is not naming the woman because of concerns for her safety.

"This did not go well and led to threats, stalking, harassment, identity theft, anonymous letters to my work, sending nude photos to my ex and colleagues, and even impersonating the CIA."

She says Johnson claimed he is a CIA agent who "works in the shadows."

Before getting shipped out of Saskatoon, Johnson signed a promise not to contact the woman's family in Prince Albert.

Johnson left a trail of victims and questions since showing up in Saskatoon last October. His movements are a complicated narrative detailed across documents from courthouses and police reports on both sides of the border.

CBC contacted Matthew John Johnson by phone and text in California over four days in March.

"My only reason for speaking to you is to ascertain why on Earth you would want to cause further harm by bringing the court of public opinion into anything that surrounds me," he wrote.

"I'll speak to you, but it will be of little benefit."

The missing Mercedes

The Saskatoon part of the story began when Matt Johnson dropped off a rental car at Fargo International Airport on Oct. 13, 2024, according to the court documents.

He arrived in Saskatoon four days later, Oct. 17, the same day the Superior Court of California in Orange County issued a bench warrant for his arrest for burglary, fake ID and grand theft auto charges.

On Oct. 18, he rented a 2024 white Mercedes Benz C300 with B.C. plates at the Saskatoon airport. When it was not returned on the due date, the company tried to contact Johnson and eventually reported it stolen, according to police reports reviewed by CBC.

Shortly after arriving, Johnson began dating a Saskatoon woman he met on the dating app Hinge. 

"He told me he was a New York lawyer working in Saskatoon," the woman, who CBC agreed not to identify due to harassment concerns, said in an interview.

She said Johnson claimed to own property in California, a care home in Saskatoon and more property on Saskatchewan Crescent. He also claimed to be building a home in the Greenbryre neighbourhood, she said. They dated until shortly before his arrest.

Johnson next surfaces in the documents on Dec. 16 when an ex, who lives in Saskatoon, reported to police that he had unexpectedly reappeared in the city from the U.S. and was harassing her. She said he was driving a white Mercedes, but had switched the B.C. plates to California plates to avoid detection.

Johnson told CBC he had worked as a paralegal for a prominent Saskatoon law firm in late 2019 and early 2020, but he was not on record with the Law Society of Saskatchewan in that period to practice as a lawyer. A spokesperson for that firm wrote in an email that he does not work there now.

On Dec. 20, police got a tip that a stolen white Mercedes C300 had surfaced in a parking garage in the Evergreen neighbourhood. An officer went to the scene and found the sedan, with California plates, parked and empty inside the parkade, according to the police report.

The officer left the parkade to call it in. While he was on the radio, the car drove by with a man inside.

The officer pulled the car over. It turned out to be the stolen Mercedes, but the driver was not Matt Johnson. Instead, it was a one-time Saskatoon doctor who told the cop Johnson had loaned him the car to use that day.

The doctor claimed he didn't know the car had been reported stolen.

When he was arrested in February, Johnson had the doctor's driver's licence in his wallet. He told police the doctor was a cocaine addict, heavily in debt, who had given Johnson his ID, bank card and PIN number. 

CBC unsuccessfully attempted to contact the doctor to verify the narrative in the police report.

A wallet full of questions

Saskatoon police arrested Johnson on Feb. 25 on outstanding U.S. and Canadian warrants. He was pulled over while driving a black 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee, rented in Calgary, that was supposed to be returned the day before.

Police described him as "compliant with the commands given."

Officers found two Bank of America credit cards, one gold Amex card, the doctor's ID, plus multiple driver's licences and ID cards from New York, Louisiana, Hong Kong and Saskatchewan.

The case summary reviewed by CBC said banking transactions "indicate a transient lifestyle," with intermittent purchases in Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon.

"He crosses the border frequently in multiple different points of entry into the country," the summary says.

Johnson was held in custody as lawyers on both sides of the border figured out how to handle the Canadian charges and outstanding U.S. warrants.

On March 7, he pleaded guilty in provincial court to the Canadian auto and gas theft charges. Judge Lisa Watson accepted the joint submission for time served, with Johnson's lawyer noting "he's actually an American and an American attorney, so he is well versed in the law."

CBC was scheduled to do another interview with Johnson. Instead, Johnson wrote via text that he'd missed the interview because he was stuck in traffic. He called and left a voicemail message to call back, but did not answer follow-up calls. These were the last communications CBC received from him.

"I called willing to entertain YOUR questions, and called back as promised," he wrote in his final text.

"If you feel that's not sincere that you can simply say in the article that you weren't willing to play phone tag to get those answered."

Johnson did not reply to follow-up requests for a new interview time.