Matthew Steen

{{Infobox person

|name = Matthew Steen

|image = 13765752 513034858886225 7079376517428943570 o copy Matthew Steen and Karen Jessica Evans attending a Democratic Party fundraiser for Jane Kim for California State Senate.jpg

|alt =

|caption = Matthew Steen and Karen Jessica Evans attending a Democratic Party Fundraiser in San Francisco 2016

|birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1949|08|22}}

|birth_place = San Francisco, California

|death_date =

|death_place =

|known_for = Weather Underground, 60 Minutes Interview with Mike Wallace

|occupation = Community Organizer

|alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley, History 1991 University of California, Santa Barbara, Psychology 1976

|nationality = American}}

Matthew Landy Steen (born August 22, 1949), also known under the alias William Hollis Coquillette {{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAQmAAAAMAAJ&dq=matthew+landy+steen&pg=PR2 | title=Domestic Intelligence Operations for Internal Security Purposes, Part 1: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-third Congress, Second Session | year=1974 }} is a former member of Weather Underground Organization and Students for a Democratic Society. In 1972, he was indicted on federal conspiracy and bank robbery charges to finance radical leftist Weatherman activities, sentenced to a ten-year federal prison term.{{cite news|last1=Jamison|first1=Peter|title=Time Bomb|url=http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/time-bomb/Content?oid=2174174&showFullText=true|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150131042508/http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/time-bomb/Content?oid=2174174&showFullText=true|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2015|accessdate=19 April 2015|publisher=SF Weekly|date=16 September 2009}}

In June 1972, Steen attempted to be an informant for the FBI about the February, 1970 San Francisco Park Station Bombing.{{cite news|last1=Jamison|first1=Peter|title=TIME BOMB: A '70S COP KILLING INVESTIGATION LEADS TO A CHICAGO LAW PROFESSOR WHO HELPED LAUNCH BARACK OBAMA'S POLITICAL CAREER|url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/time-bomb-a-70s-cop-killing-investigation-leads-to-a-chicago-law-professor-who-helped-launch-barack-obamas-political-career-6430939|accessdate=15 May 2015|publisher=Phoenix New Times|date=17 September 2009}}{{cite book|last1=Burrough|first1=Bryan|title=Days of Rage|date=7 April 2015|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9780698170070|pages=96–97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QPUVBAAAQBAJ&q=steen&pg=PT74}}

Steen was featured on the lead segment of 60 Minutes, "Fake ID", in an interview with Mike Wallace, first aired February 1, 1976. This was the first time a former Weatherman had ever appeared on national television. He was queried about false identities and traveler's check fraud.United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Crime. (1984). False identification: hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, second session, on H.R. 352, H.R. 6105, H.R. 6946, and S. 2043 false identification, May 5, 1982. Washington: U.S. GPO. p. 55{{Cite book|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015082323240;view=1up;seq=59|title=False identificationhearing before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, second session, on H.R. 352, H.R. 6105, H.R. 6946, and S. 2043 false identification, May 5, 1982|date=30 August 1984|publisher=U.S. G.P.O.}}

1976 ''60 Minutes'' interview

Interviewed in Beverly Hills in mid-1975 by Mike Wallace, Steen responded to questions about identity theft (he possessed ID of at least 150 people) and how he purchased and reported stolen some $50,000 to $100,000 in traveler's checks, while still being able to cash the originals. This was the first time a former Weatherman had appeared on the CBS news show. It was re-broadcast several months later.

The entire interview{{cite web|last1=Steen|first1=Matthew|title=PhreakNIC 19 - Doc it Your Own !@#$% Self|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhlhkZYTWdk|website=YouTube|date=December 20, 2015 |publisher=Nashville 2600|accessdate=24 December 2015}} can be viewed, beginning at the 48 minute 19 second mark, in this November 2015 speech about making documentaries.

Transcript of Steen's portion of the segment:

[From the Congressional Record. May 24, 1977]

"60 MINUTES" MAY 16, 1977—"FALSE ID"

(Note: the episode first aired February 1, 1976 and re-aired on May 16, 1976. It never aired in 1977 and the actual title is "Fake ID")

. . .

MIKE WALLACE: Walking proof that the process really does work is this young man, Matthew

Steen, alias Eric Gilbert Dietz, alias T. Swingle Frick, III, alias Romez Tormey. In

1970, while a student at Berkeley, Steen went underground as a member of the militant

Weathermen organization. Before he was arrested in 1971, Steen says he had

obtained a hundred-fifty different identities—almost all of them courtesy of various

Government agencies.

What kind of documents are we talking about?

MATTHEW STEEN: Birth certificates, notarized birth certificates, driver's licenses

from various states, occasionally Social Security cards, and other superficial types of

identification, like library cards, et cetera.

WALLACE: And you had no real difficulty in doing this?

STEEN: No.

WALLACE: By the time the FBI got to him in 1971, Steen acknowledges he had

used various fake ID's to rip off the Bank of America. He'd buy a set of Travellers'

Checks; then, a couple of weeks later, claim they'd been lost or stolen—and get replacements.

He had doubled his money.

How much did you make this way?

STEEN: Somewhere between fifty and a hundred thousand dollars.

WALLACE: Among the official documents Matt Steen obtained under assumed

names was a U.S. passport. Well, for decades, the head of the passport office in

Washington has been keenly aware of the fake ID problem—Frances Knight.

Ms. FRANCES KNIGHT: This has been going on for years. Identify fraud is nothing

that—that is new in this Administration or in this decade. And yet, nobody—including

the—the brains of the Department of Justice—have been able to come up with

anything to stop it. It's been increasing.

. . .

Federal prison

Steen was sentenced to two consecutive five-year terms, served three years and released from United States Penitentiary, Lompoc in 1974 in Santa Barbara. Shortly after, he campaigned for public office and was twice elected to the Isla Vista Municipal Advisory Council.

Public service

Steen became the director of a Community Action Agency for Santa Barbara County and was elected to the board of trustees of the local Community College District in Santa Barbara.[http://sbcc.cc.ca.us/boardoftrustees Board of Trustees: Board of Trustees - Santa Barbara City College] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924201815/http://www.sbcc.cc.ca.us/boardoftrustees/ |date=2006-09-24 }}{{cite web|title=Board Minutes |url=http://www.sbcc.edu/boardoftrustees/files/bot1986agendasminutes/9-11-86%20Minutes.pdf |website=Santa Barbara City College |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229212131/http://www.sbcc.edu/boardoftrustees/files/bot1986agendasminutes/9-11-86%20Minutes.pdf |archivedate=December 29, 2015 }}

After his return to San Francisco, Steen was nominated to serve a term on the Market-Octavia Citizen's advisory committee, repurposing public lands that became available after removal of the Central Freeway, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/SFGTV_20121210_080000|title = SFGTV : December 10, 2012 12:00am-12:30am PST|date = 10 December 2012}} He has since served on the San Francisco Shelter Monitoring Committee from 2012 to 2016, ending his two terms as Vice-Chairman,{{Cite web | title=August 25, 2004 | url=http://sfgov.org/sheltermonitoring/sites/default/files/12.21.16%20Agenda.pdf | access-date=2024-12-15 | website=sfgov.org}} and is a former Vice-Chairman of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Citizen Advisory Committee.{{Cite web|url=https://sfwater.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=12191|title = San Francisco Water Power Sewer | SFPUC| date=5 June 2023 }}

Steen, with his late partner Karen Jessica Evans, worked on development of open space, preservation of the urban forest canopy in San Francisco and saving the historic, world-famous Palace of Fine Arts from privatization to maintain unfettered public access in perpetuity.{{Cite web | title=San Francisco Magazine {{!}} Modern Luxury {{!}} Tree Activists Are Still Not Letting Their Eucalyptus Fight Die | url=https://modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/tree-activists-are-still-not-letting-their-eucalyptus-fight-die | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170614112734/https://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/tree-activists-are-still-not-letting-their-eucalyptus-fight-die | access-date=2024-12-15 | archive-date=2017-06-14}}{{Cite web|url=http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=91&clip_id=26141|title = Rec and Park Commission - Sep 15th, 2016}}{{Cite web | title=REGULAR MEETING OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF APPEALS | url=http://sfgov.org/bdappeal/sites/default/files/BOA%20Meeting%20Agenda%20for%20August%2009%202017.pdf | access-date=2024-12-15 | website=sfgov.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/garchik/article/Gay-uncle-guncles-provide-extra-love-to-11755645.php|title = Gay uncle|date = 13 August 2017}}