Fort Washington Elementary School (Image courtesy of Google StreetView)
He faces 19 charges in the matter which began in August 2024, according to police.
An East Norriton man is currently being held in county jail, unable to pay a $30,000 monetary bail, awaiting a preliminary hearing on 19 different charges after repeatedly harassing the mother of his child, police said.
According to a police criminal complaint, a long tale of harassment began in August 2024 soon after an Upper Dublin Township mother won sole custody of the couple’s daughter on July 22, 2024. Matthew Nathaniel Hairston-Johnston, 37, of the 100 block of Pine Court in East Norriton, is facing felony charges after several months of texting, stalking, and emailing his daughter’s mother, according to police.
First attempting to reach his ex via anonymous texting applications such as Pinger and Text Now, claiming to be a woman having an affair with her current boyfriend, police said Hairston-Johnston went as far as texting pornographic images and videos to the Upper Dublin mother, claiming they were of her current boyfriend having relations with “her” (Hairston-Johnston pretending to be a woman named “Kristen”). The mother changed her mobile number to avoid the continual harassment, police said, but Hairston-Johnston was able to obtain the new number.
According to police documentation on the case, beginning on Sept. 2, 2024, the Upper Dublin woman began getting a long series of impersonating emails, seeking her new phone number, from Hairston-Johnston pretending now to be the daughter’s schoolteacher. Police said that, while the real email from a school district employee would contain an “@udsd.org” handle, these came from an “@yahoo.com” server. The series of emails were first used to obtain the mother’s private information, including her new phone number, but then included the threat that Hairston-Johnston had been hired to cater a luncheon at the daughter’s school, police said, claiming details such as having paid an $1,100 “deposit” to obtain his services.
Fort Washington Elementary School authorities, where the daughter did attend, told police they never hired Hairston-Johnston nor paid any type of funds to him at any time. As Hairston-Johnston has a felony prison record and had only been out of prison for two months, according to police, the mother had questioned the background checks and school policies surrounding the act, then taking the series of email communications to police.
According to the criminal complaint, the true Fort Washington Elementary teacher said she had never once reached out to the mother via email, and that she had no knowledge of any “”@yahoo.com” account in her name. All emails in the series, police said, were fraudulent and produced by Hairston-Johnston.
Upper Dublin Township Police obtained a series of search warrants, that took responders over two months to complete, and served them to Hairston-Johnston’s personal cell phone service (Verizon), home internet provider (Comcast), and Yahoo’s email department, as well as the headquarters of applications including Text Now and Pinger, to connect the utilized cellular phones, IP addresses, and locations, all found to be owned and operated by Hairston-Johnston.
Additional charges included an incident on Sept. 14, 2024, when Hairston-Johnston was found to be physically in the neighborhood of the Upper Dublin mother’s home. In addition to the reported ongoing harassment, she had also obtained a protection from abuse (PFA) from Hairston-Johnston. He however was found to be in her community after 2 a.m., constituting “stalking” actions, police said.
Police also said that, on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, Hairston-Johnston also made a fraudulent call to 911 around 8:20 p.m., telling police he could overhear a “neighbor’s” argument, providing dispatchers with the Upper Dublin woman’s home address. Hairston-Johnston told police that he heard the man there (the mother’s current boyfriend) had a gun, and he was concerned about the safety of a child in the home, said the complaint.
Police were dispatched to the woman’s home, but found no such disturbance, they said. Upon investigation, police found that this call was also made from Hairston-Johnston’s cell phone, said the complaint.
In total, Hairston-Johnston will face two felony charges of stalking repeatedly communicating to cause fear, as well as 17 misdemeanor offenses, including one for terroristic threats with intent to terrorize another, four for harassment via communication of a lewd, threatening nature, and 12 counts of harassment via communication of a repeatedly anonymous manner.
Hairston-Johnston is being held in county jail unable to post a $30,000 monetary bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 20 at 11 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Douglas H. Lavenberg.
According to court documents, Hairston-Johnston did previously serve time in prison after pleading guilty to stalking charges, among other crimes in 2010 and 2018.
