Matthew Werner, 49, is up for parole in October, serving just nine months after being sentenced to four years in prison.
“The Office” actress Shira Scott Astrof, one of at least half a dozen women in Los Angeles that Werner has been accused of catfishing on dating apps and sexually assaulting, expressed outrage.
Werner, a Las Vegas resident originally from Massachusetts, had taken a plea deal in 2023.
He was charged in 2023 with three counts of sexual assault, including rape, against two different women.
The crimes were particularly brazen. Investigators said he targeted women using social media and dating apps while using various aliases to avoid getting caught.
Werner was arrested Feb. 28 of 2023 on suspicion of a series of violations of rape dating back to 2015 in the areas of North Hollywood, Mid-City, Hollywood and Woodland Hills.
Police identified five women who Werner allegedly assaulted in L.A.
Astrof spoke directly to The Post about her case and her frustration with the system.
“It’s like a never-ending battle, and it shouldn’t be this hard,” she said. “There’s no justice system here. We have to be our own advocate.”
She described meeting Werner on Tinder in 2015 under an alias. He pretended to be a professional soccer player from Sweden named Sebastian Larsson.
On the day of their scheduled date, Astrof wasn’t feeling well, and Werner offered to bring soup to her apartment.
“He’s a coward that has to attack you when your back is turned,” Astrof said in a statement to the outlet. “He has no soul.”
Astrof has not been silent about the investigation process that took years to bring charges. She told The Post she was repeatedly told her case wasn’t strong enough without other victims willing to testify.
“I kept emailing them and I kept saying like, ‘You need to find him, you need to trace him. I know that he’s not abiding by anything,'” she said. “I’ve just been the detective on my own case in every way.”
She discovered the parole news by checking his prison status online, as she routinely does. The detectives on the case were shocked.
“I spoke to the two main detectives on the case two days ago, and they both had no idea why it was happening,” she said.
Astrof expressed serious concerns about her own safety. “I’m a sitting target. He knows everything about me, he knows where I live. He won’t stop, we already know that.”
“He’s already violated every single part of his probation,” she added.
She blamed both the criminal justice system and the judge who approved Werner’s initial plea deal—Democratic Judge Serena Raquel Murillo, who was nominated as a federal district judge by former President Joe Biden in November 2024, and was appointed to the role in January 2025.
“She was so disrespectful,” Astrof said of Murillo. “She violated every single one of my… rights” to fairness, privacy and safety.
In 2023, Werner took a plea deal, registered as a sex offender and was placed on probation. This arrangement angered many of his victims.
Werner violated his probation a third time by traveling out of state without permission from the probation department. A judge then sentenced him to four years in prison.
In the viral moment from his arrest investigation, police tied Werner to at least half a dozen rapes across Los Angeles County. Cops said he used different aliases on social media to find victims for his drug-fueled attacks. LAPD Detective Brent Hopkins told the Los Angeles Times that he was “a real Jekyll and Hyde.”
The case never went to trial. Instead, Werner was offered a sweet plea deal in 2023 — no contest to one count of felony assault and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Astrof is calling on other survivors to come forward now.
“I just wish I could get the message to them that, ‘He’s already been convicted of raping someone. I’ve already done the legwork. You just have to come forward,'” she said. “I just need one of them, just one to come forward and keep him there.”
Werner is up for parole in October.