Senior Reporter, Investigations

Phil Barber

Phil Barber is an investigative reporter for The Press Democrat. His work has included exposing forced sterilizations at the Sonoma State Home, wage theft at a string of Subway franchises and the implosion of the LeFever Mattson real estate investment empire. He is a former sportswriter who covered Super Bowls, NBA Finals and World Series (and lots of high school athletics) for The Press Democrat. Barber grew up in Marysville, in the Sacramento Valley.

Gail Hines and her husband share a story and give their thanks to God, during a Christmas potluck, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. The couple, along with 10 other people, all LaFever Mattson investors gather to share in their heartbreak but also of friendship and fellowship stemming from the ongoing controversy surrounding Lever and Mattson. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)

How a group of investors wronged by Bay Area real estate mogul became ‘God’s answer to our own prayers’

December 28, 2025 at 12:36 a.m.

As the LeFever Mattson company dissolves into bankruptcy and court cases, a small set of wronged investors has found solace in an unlikely source.

Childhood friends Ken Mattson and Tim LeFever built a real estate portfolio of well over 200 properties before their company, LeFever Mattson Inc., descended into lawsuits, bankruptcies and Mattson’s federal indictment for investment fraud.

Bankruptcy lawyers allege Bay Area real estate firm transferred millions of dollars to co-founder’s mother-in-law

December 24, 2025 at 11:02 a.m.

The surprising move came last week, when the panel representing the interests of the more than 600 people who invested in LeFever Mattson’s real estate acquisition sought permission to subpoena...

Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Lake County. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)

Trump Administration intervenes in PG&E dam controversy

December 24, 2025 at 9:52 a.m.

Opponents of a plan to remove two Pacific Gas & Electric Co. dams from the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties have gained a powerful ally: the Trump administration.

Indicted real estate developer Ken Mattson’s Farragut Avenue estate in Piedmont. The property is one of several posted as collateral should Ken Mattson be found guilty. (Google Maps)

Indicted Bay Area real estate mogul must give up deed to East Bay house

December 11, 2025 at 6:08 a.m.

Federal prosecutors prevailed Wednesday in forcing Ken Mattson to place a Piedmont estate owned by his wife, with equity valued at $2 million, in bond -- an action he has...

(From left to right): Congressman Mike Thompson; and Eric Jones, self-described progressive Democrat running for the 4th Congressional District. (Darryl Bush / For The Press Democrat file, Beth Schlanker / The Press Democrat file)

‘Introduces a creep factor’: Campaign worker for Rep. Mike Thompson rival investigated for surveilling congressman’s Napa County home

December 5, 2025 at 10:20 a.m.

A 19-year-old linked to the campaign of challenger Eric Jones was investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police for surveilling the St. Helena home of incumbent Rep. Mike Thompson in October,...

Ken Mattson moves through his home at 3003 Castle Road outside Sonoma in May 2024. Federal prosecutors accuse Mattson and family members of purging evidence at that time, two days before the FBI raided the house. (Mattson family home surveillance footage seized by FBI and included in court documents)

Indicted Bay Area real estate mogul is living in a $6 million house. His creditors want him evicted.

December 11, 2025 at 6:09 a.m.

Ken and Stacy Mattson’s former company, KS Mattson Partners, has moved “to pursue all remedies available under applicable law” to gain possession of the couple's $6 million estate just outside...

Joaquin Phoenix appears at the photo call for the film “Joker: Folie A Deux” during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 4, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)

Actor Joaquin Phoenix weighs into Sonoma County poultry farm case with support for convicted activist

November 26, 2025 at 11:04 a.m.

“Criminalizing people for rescuing suffering animals is a moral failure,” the Oscar-winning actor wrote. “Compassion is not a crime."

Teresa Rosson, center, holds a photo of herself at age 11 as attorney Jeff Anderson, right, displays a photo of Stephen Kiesle during a 2010 news conference in Oakland. Records reviewed by The Press Democrat show Kiesle served in Windsor after his first sexual-abuse conviction. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Convicted of child sexual abuse in the East Bay, a priest quietly served at a Sonoma County parish. Advocates ask if other survivors exist

November 17, 2025 at 4:36 a.m.

Evidence shows Stephen Kiesle worked at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Windsor in 1979 — a year after the Catholic hierarchy stripped him of pastoral duties following his plea...

Vegetation grows between rows of photovoltaic panels at the Napa Valley College solar array in October 2025. The system lasted about 14 years, despite projections of 25-30. (Beth Schlanker / The Press Democrat)

Bay Area college’s $7.5 million solar field was once a model. Now it sits dead in the weeds

November 14, 2025 at 9:16 a.m.

Once hailed as a national model for clean energy, the Napa Valley College solar field quietly shut down after 15 years. Records, interviews and missing data show how the project...

Jon Minadeo II, left, gouges the eyes of Deago Buck during a neo-Nazi rally in Nashville in 2024. Minadeo, whose antisemitic flyers have been distributed across the U.S., was raised in Sonoma and Marin counties. (From public court documents)

Neo-Nazi leader resurfaces in the Bay Area, faces lawsuit over violent hate rally in Tennessee

November 12, 2025 at 10:56 a.m.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing former Petaluma resident Jon Minadeo and his Goyim Defense League over alleged assaults and harassment during a 2024 neo-Nazi rally in Nashville.

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