- Joined
- Nov 14, 2012
Steve "Montagraph" Quest is a conspiracy theorist with belligerent, litigious behavior documented since the early 2000s . He shows symptoms of schizophrenia, particularly delusions of grandeur, warning people continuously of affiliations with U.S. law enforcement agencies and secret societies. Montagraph becomes extremely aggressive when he believes he has been slighted. Being one of the first Internet users, he has an expert-level understanding of online privacy: a tool used both defensively to protect himself, and offensively to go after the livelihoods and businesses of his trolls.
Montgraph's real identity has been a source of contention for over a decade. People popularly believed he was named Dale Ellis Bennett, and have attempted to trace his activity to other Bennetts. However, in 2019, he filed a lawsuit and swore under penalty of perjury his real name was Steve Quest. In 1996, he had changed his name in the same courthouse from Roy Warren Marshall. If he changed his name to that, the papers aren't found.
Montagraph does skits that have earned him some ridicule. Steve has dressed up as Chris Crocker, has made out with a melon to sell it for money, and re-enacted 2-girls-1-cup with chocolate and a barbie doll. He currently spends his time on alternative social media, such as Gab, theorizing on the identity of QAnon. Despite this, he rejects being called a "Q Boomer" because he "identified Q as being a compromised identity of an Australian company as of Thanksgiving 2017". Montagraph will frequently break off from reality mid-thought and start talking about things no ordinary person would know about, without realizing it.
The most famous thing he's done is make out with a melon. It is very hard to find the actual footage of it, and unfortunately, the people following Montagraph over the years tend to edit content deceptively. It is usually pitched that Montagraph had sex with it, but in the found footage he's dressing it up as a girl and fingering it. In the Skype call, which Montagraph claims had 8 people in it, they talk about selling it. It seems like a joke to me, but his detractors say it's a credit card scam.
These images are the sort of brutal takedown you can expect from a master memer.
This is a livestream in which Steve Quest attempts to coerce a lawyer into not making fun of him by threatening meme warfare against his law firm.
Pedophilia Allegations
A large part of Steve Quest's online drama is a tug-of-war against people calling him a pedophile.
Early into the existence of the Internet, he ran a photography business called "Montagraphy" which did nude photography. Trolls alleged that he did nude photoshoots involving minors, but there is no evidence of this, and archives of his website dating back to 2000 indicate he did not work with minors, even with parental consent. (Archive.is, Archive.org)
On July 26th, 2023, Montagraph directly contacted me to ask that I remove a statement in this paragraph that claimed he did nude photoshoots of minors strictly with parental consent. As there is no evidence that he has done any photoshoots with minors, I have done so.
Montagraph also credits himself on IMDb as the creator of The Umbrella Man. It is a short film series that Quest claimed on the phone is an exploration of a serial killers's mind, but his detractors decry it as pseudo-snuff film. It so thoroughly scrubbed off the Internet, even LiveLeak has taken down their copies. There are some stills online, and there are blog posts calling it a heinous work. A post on a blog called Retmeishka dated 2016 describes it at length and seems to believe it's a real snuff film and the girl in it is dead. The blogpost is unhinged and unreliable, but it's all I can find about it.
Quest has told me on the phone that it was a 4-part series, but he only released the first two parts because of the negative reception. He offered a way to find the first part, which does not include the footage of the girl in the pig mask. That was the 2nd episode, "Little Piggy and the Umbrella Man". He didn't provide a way to find it.
Steve Quest v. Jake Morphonios (2019)
On April 11th, 2019, Steve Quest filed without representation in the Jefferson County, Colorado against Jake Morphonios (Case number 19C670). His complaint regarded a 10-year-old YouTube video in which Jake Morphonios accused Steve Quest of being a pedophile. Original document. The defendant's account of things can be found on his website, Black Stone Intelligence, which has taken efforts to prevent archiving. Screenshot of webpage.
On June 13th, 2019, Morphonios had replied to the lawsuit with a motion to dismiss on several grounds. Morphonios was not subject to Colorado jurisdiction, Quest had opted for free servicing by state agent which resulted in the document being left with a 16-year-old minor ineligible to receive servicing by Colorado state law, and for failing to state a claim. The counter-argument was that there was no law Quest could seek damages under. Original document.
The reply also contains quotes from Montagraph threatening to harm Morphonios, undermining his claim.
Quest was given 14 days to reply. Original document. His response is again in written pen on documents supplied by the court's self-help library. He is demanding an on-camera apology. Original document.
In the additional typed documents, they use a different format than courts generally prefer. Templates for court documents are freely available online, but whatever.
Quest complains that Morphonios called him a pedophile, but again fails to state a law he seeks relief under.
His answer for the failed servicing is funny on its own.
The rest of it is intellectually bankrupt nonsense continually reasserting a point, not realizing his goal should be to legally ground his argument, not personally convince the judge he's a good boy that was wronged. There's exhibits not relevant to this filing, but I enjoyed this transcription.
The judge then dismisses the case in part. The pleading was unspecific, Quest failed to state his claim, and the servicing was defective. The dismissal was without prejudice, so Quest could try again if he's dumb enough. Original document.
Morphonios provides on his website a reply to Montagraph's answer to his motion. This is not a part of public record and was never submitted to the court. Original document.
Quote: "Montagraph, now known to be Steve Quest, has pinned to the top of his Twitter profile his false allegation that the father of one of the dead Sandy Hook children, Lenny Pozner, owns a "teen porn site". See EXHIBIT 10. It is the defendant's opinion that Steve Quest initiated his coordinated attack over the defendant having taken a stand in defense of the Sandy Hook parents, including Lenny Pozner who is a long-time target of hateful smears by Steve Quest and his associates. One of the plaintiff's associates even added a pornographic sound track to a slideshow of photos of Mr. Pozner's dead 6 year old son, Noah.
Morphonios also takes a second to clarify identities, and provides documentation of Steve Quest's name change from Roy Warren Marshall to Steve Quest in the same county court in 1996. (Case# 1994C14846). He uses Steve Quest's own pride in online infosec to make the claim it is not possible to defame him because of identity issues.
This is just funny.
The most compelling part of this defense is the part where Montagraph / Steve Quest himself admits to being the author of a short film called "Little Piggy and the Umbrella Man". Montgraph is so proud of this short, he has listed himself as the author of it on the IMDb. I cannot find any copy of it, but this critical blog post about the film expressing concern for real child abuse had a screenshot.
As Morphonios writes, "In 2010, Steve Quest released a video on YouTube in which he wears a checkerboard mask (representing the checkerboard flooring in the lodges of Freemasons) and torments a young woman who is bound and gagged in a shed. In the video, plaintiff is depicted strangling the young woman to death and leaving her corpse on the ground. See EXHIBITS 22-23. This character is known as the “Umbrella Man”. During defendant’s April 6th broadcast, one of the accounts used by plaintiff to harass defendant was “Umbrella Man”. Plaintiff also threatens on Twitter to come to the defendant’s domicile and use a stiff “umbrella” on the defendant. This is a reference to a child snuff film mproduced by the plaintiff entitled, “Little Piggy and the Umbrella Man.” In this sickening video, plaintiff, garbed in his checkerboard mask, torments a young girl with an umbrella as she is bound and crying. The child is forced to wear a pig mask over her face and tears can be seen streaming from her eyes in anticipation of the Umbrella Man sexually assaulting and killing her. See EXHIBITS 24-26. "
Media
Metokur talks about Montagraph - June 24th, 2019
Joshua Moon calls Montagraph - June 29th, 2019
Metokur & Rekieta talk about Montagraph - June 29th, 2019 (about 3 hours after the prior)
Nicholas Robert Rekieta
In 2023, Montagraph sued popular Lawtuber streamer Nick Rekieta. The Montagraph v. Rekieta lawsuit has its own thread.
This private information is unavailable to guests due to policies enforced by third-parties.
Links
Encyclopedia Dramatica (Montagraph has been at this for 10 years, so there's a record of it on ED)
https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Montagraph (https://archive.fo/uQvW7)
YouTube
Montagraph: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRVno4GDsO4Fs2lLAHGKfkQ
Montagraph Live: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu-LTJOtKSoZVdtW65ccqZw
Twitter (He uses a huge network of socks)
(http://archive.fo/hFEEi)
Attachments
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Quest v. Morphonios (2019) - Steve Quest original complaint.pdf
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Quest v. Morphonios (2019) - jake morphonios motion to dismiss.pdf
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Quest v. Morphonios (2019) - court denies quest motion to strike.pdf
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Quest v. Morphonios (2019) - quest response to morphonios motion.pdf
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Quest v. Morphonios (2019) - morphonios' pending answer.pdf
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Quest v. Morphonios (2019) - court dismisses quest complaint.pdf
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Screenshot_2019-06-30 Steve Quest aka Montagraph Lawsuit Investigative Report.png
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