John Jefferson
Inset: Matthew Zick Krob (Douglas County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The camping resort park where Krob committed sexual assault in November 2022 (Google Maps).
A prominent Colorado attorney — who worked in and out of the public eye but was employed largely on the public’s dime for the past several years — now faces the possibility of spending decades behind bars.
In May, Matthew Zick Krob, 42, was convicted by a jury on five felony charges including two counts of sexual assault, two counts of unlawful sexual contact, and assault in the second degree involving an attempted strangulation. He was also convicted on two misdemeanor counts of third-degree assault and obstructing telephone service, according to Douglas County Sheriff’s Office records.
On Tuesday, the defendant was sentenced to 12 years to life in prison by a Douglas County judge during a stirring sentencing hearing.
The sentence stems from a sexual assault at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park in Larkspur — a location in a nationwide chain of cabin, camping and RV park resorts near the Pike-San Isabel National Forest; due west of Colorado Springs — that occurred on Nov. 20, 2022.
Police received a 911 call around 4 a.m. on the night in question — someone was crying on the other end of the phone and details were hard to come by, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Tribune, a paper serving Colorado’s Tri-Lakes region. The call was quickly disconnected. When dispatchers called back, someone else answered but swiftly hung up; additional callbacks went to voicemail.
Douglas County deputies responded to a cabin at the cartoon-themed resort park, according to the affidavit. Inside the cabin, the caller was found with blood on their chest. The crimson-colored, telltale signs of violence also covered the bed. The victim told deputies that Krob had sexually assaulted them after an argument earlier that night.
The way the victim felt about the attack, and how they will remember the pain, was made clear this week — along with additional details. And, as it turns out, there was reportedly at least one additional victim.
In impact statements, Krob’s victims said they were kept prisoner and tortured for hours, according to a courtroom report by Colorado Springs-based ABC affiliate KRDO. The victims told the judge during the sentencing hearing they have “no words to describe the devastation,” and that “the sounds from that night will never leave.”
The since-condemned man was silent during the hearing.
Krob’s brother and father, who is also a lawyer, spoke on his behalf — saying the allegations from the sexual assault trial are like nothing they ever heard or knew to be true about their close family member, and trying to extol him as a person of high character.
Now, Krob will spend 12 years behind bars, at the very least, before he is eligible for parole.
The ignominious fall from grace caps several years of work in various publicly-funded attorney jobs throughout the Mile High State.
In December 2019, Krob was hired as the municipal prosecutor for Salida, Colorado — a small town roughly 100 miles west of Colorado Springs. Later, Krob would come to be hired as the city attorney in Florence — a small city some 35 miles northwest of Pueblo.
In March 2022, Krob was fired by the Florence City Council — exactly one week after KRDO reported on his role in an expansive sexual harassment scandal focused on Florence’s then-city manager.
But the municipal attorney still had a job.
In January 2020, Palmer Lake — a small town about 25 miles north of Colorado Springs — hired Krob Law Office, LLC, for their municipal expertise, to help turn things around after several municipal employees were fired the month before.
The town brought both Krob and his father on board. At first, in an interim fashion then later appointing Krob as municipal attorney, where he served for nearly four years. In the end, Krob himself resigned from that position in a letter to the Palmer Lake Town Board last December. Krob’s father then stepped back into the municipal attorney role.
Krob was sentenced to a combined prison term of 30 years to life in prison — plus two days shy of two years in jail — but most of the sentences were assessed to run concurrently, or at the same time, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office told Law&Crime in an email. Two additional charges were dismissed by the DA’s office.
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