Law&Crime Sidebar - California Teacher Accused of Molesting Young Girls on School Field Trips: Lawsuit

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Matthew Shelton, a teacher at Robert Semple Elementary School in Benicia, California, is charged with multiple counts of lewd acts with a child. At the same time, the families of multiple former students have filed lawsuits against Shelton and the school district. Shelton was arrested and tried for similar charges in another county, but returned to teaching when a jury acquitted him. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber digs into how Shelton was allowed back on the job with trial attorney Ashley Hadler.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus and by going to our link Wondery.fm/lcsidebar!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A former elementary school teacher in California is facing criminal charges of sex acts with students. And he's also named in multiple lawsuits filed on behalf of those alleged victims. We are going to break down Matthew Shelton's complicated legal situation with an attorney who represents survivors, and families affected by sexual abuse. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Let's talk about Matthew Shelton. He worked as an elementary school teacher in Northern California for at least the last dozen years or so, but now he's out of a job and he's facing multiple charges of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14. So far, eight young girls, some as young as six years old,

have come forward with allegations against Shelton. At least three civil lawsuits have been filed against the Benicia Unified School District. This is northeast of San Francisco. Those lawsuits are seeking compensation for alleged sexual abuse and sexual assault. 42-year-old Matthew Joseph Shelton, he'd been a fifth grade teacher

at Robert Semple Elementary School in Benicia. In February of 2024, though, he was charged with five felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14 years old. The felony complaint was then amended in March, bringing the counts up to seven. Now, to be clear, according to the school district, Shelton did not work there in the school year that we're in right now, 2023 to 2024. But prior to that, California salary records show Shelton had been working at the elementary school since 2016. And before that, he'd worked at another school district in Napa Valley where he was also accused of sexual abuse.

Okay, so now I want to get into this, and I want to bring on a special guest. I'm joined right now by trial attorney Ashley Hadler, and her law practice focuses specifically on representing survivors and families affected by abuse, in particular, sexual abuse. So, Ashley, thanks for coming on. When you hear what is going on here, these kinds of allegations, what's just your initial take? Unfortunately, Jesse, this is something that we see far, far too often. It's very common. And we know that perpetrators like the one that we're discussing today will find ways to access victims. And unfortunately, he fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system once before and was allowed the opportunity to violate additional victims. Okay. So now to be clear about this, we will talk about what you're exactly referring to, what went through the cracks. but look as a legal point of view yes these are serious allegations they are allegations he hasn't

proven guilty hasn't been proven liable yet although we will talk about this so let's go through it together there is a felony complaint it was filed in salano county court and it lists out the counts that shelton faces with the children's names redacted there's a lot of legalese here but i want you to stay with me so it reads count one on or about in between september 1st 22 and december 1st 22. Defendant Matthew Joseph Shelton did commit a felony, namely lewd act upon a child. And then it goes on to say, in that said defendant did willfully, unlawfully, and lewdly commit a lewd and lascivious act upon and with the body and certain parts and members thereof of the victim, a child under the age of 14 years with the intent of arousing,

appealing to, and gratifying the lust, passions, and sexual desires of the said defendant and the said child. So, Ashley, without getting too graphic, what exactly is the allegation here? So the allegation based on that charge is going to be some type of touching. It may be more specific than that. We don't know from that particular charge,

whether that is over the close, under the close, whether it involved, you know, which parts of the alleged perpetrator's body and the victim's body. It's a little unclear. We would have to dig into the specifics from the probable cause affidavit. Well, the document, it also lists additional information for each one of the counts, including that the crime is a serious felony, that it will require Shelton to register as a sex offender if he's found guilty aside from prison time.

And it's going to require that he provides specimens and samples to be put on file upon conviction. Now, the crimes connected to counts one through five are alleged to have happened between September and December of 2022 in Solano County. Counts six and seven are connected to alleged incidents between August 2018 and July 2019 in Almeda County. So you're having this, Ashley, frightening allegations that are happening seemingly over a period of time and what arguably could be a similar pattern, right? Yes, absolutely. And I would say that without having reviewed the probable cause affidavit, because of the ages of the victims, it's possible that without camera, security camera footage, something like that, they are claiming that these events happened sometime that they knew the victim was in the perpetrator's classroom, but they do not have exact dates based on the evidence that they've obtained to date. And to be clear, in cases of accused predators or convicted predators, a pattern is very similar. When it works one time, they do it again.

Now, the criminal complaint also mentions two special allegations. So the first is sex crimes age of victim, and it states that the victim in counts one, two, three, four, and five was a child under the age of 14 when the offenses were allegedly committed. And the same goes for the victim in count six and seven. the second special allegation is listed as multiple victims, which is basically seemingly accusing Shelton, as I said, of being a serial predator. And at the end of the complaint, the document also lists aggravating factors that the victims were particularly vulnerable and that, quote, the defendant took advantage of a position of trust or confidence to commit the offense. Now, Ashley, it seems to me they're putting that in there as what, a sentencing

enhancement if he should be convicted? Absolutely. I would agree with you. I think that's the purpose of clearly setting forth those factors now so that the judge is aware of that as they move forward. And to be clear, are we just talking if he's convicted decades in prison, years and what kind of penalty could he be facing? I'm not sure about that. It will be tied to both the enhancing factors and how many of those counts they are successful in prosecuting. But I would say, you know, each felony level five is going to carry with it a certain amount of years or months under California law. Hey, everybody. I want to take a quick sidebar from sidebar to tell you guys about Wondery's awesome podcast, American scandal.

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He was reportedly hired there in 2006 to teach third grade at Phillips Edison Elementary School. He was arrested in 2007 for allegedly touching four children inappropriately. According to the Napa Valley Register, two of the alleged victims were nine. The other two were just eight. Shelton had a trial, and guess what happened? He was acquitted. He was acquitted on six counts of child. molestation. Three of the girls actually testified at the trial, but the defense argued that

the stories were inconsistent, that they weren't true, that they made it up. Now, at the time, Shelton's teaching credentials had been suspended, but his attorney said they would seek to have him reinstated, and in 2012, Shelton started teaching as a substitute teacher at Benicia Unified District and got a full-time teaching job in 2015. So I actually have a few questions here. First of all, are you surprised that you see acquittals in these types of cases? I think a lot of us, have the conception that, or maybe the preconception, that there's automatically going to be a guilty verdict or a plea deal, because when you're dealing with such young victims or alleged victims, how on earth could they be making this up? It almost seems that these cases would lead to a conviction,

but an acquittal here, is that very interesting? Is that surprising in your experience? Unfortunately, that does not surprise me. And I would say that, you know, the criminal burden of conviction. is very, very high. It's beyond a reasonable doubt. And when you were dealing with victims of sexual assault and abuse, no matter their age, survivors will react in unique ways. No two survivors will have the exact same reaction to what's occurred to them. And sometimes those reactions, one very common one, is an inability to remember. remember certain details and provide that detail. And that's something that becomes very difficult for

jurors when they are trying to determine whether or not to convict someone or find for a victim in a civil case. They have difficulty when the details are not available. And we know that one thing that our bodies do to preserve us, it's a self-preservation, method is to block out some of those details. And so especially, you know, if you're dealing with young victims or any victim who may have a cognitive or other disorder that prevents them from reporting detail or testifying to the extent that the jury would need to convict or to make a finding, we see acquittals often and we do not come out the way we would. initially expected. That's a tricky dance for defense attorneys to put the blame on such young

victims and say they're making it up. But, you know, as you said, it can work. And my other question to you is, so he's acquitted, that means that he's not prevented from getting another teaching job, as we saw, because I guess is it, look, they were allegations he was acquitted, but wouldn't you think if you're a school district in your experience, do you see this, where the allegations are not enough to stop him? from being hired. Were you surprised by that part of the story? You know, initially I think it's surprising, but again, having done this work in the setting of daycare, school, physicians, I have seen examples in each of those arenas where there has been

a previous criminal charge, trial, acquittal, and it gets lost somehow in the employment screening process. It's either not flagged by the governing body of that person's license. So, you know, the Board of Education in this case, maybe it's not noted there. It doesn't come up in a background screening because it's not a criminal conviction. And if that person hasn't listed references that would lead the new employer back to someone who could report this, it may just, it may be lost and it allow the person to go on and be hired and potentially victimize someone else. Let's talk about the civil litigation right now because in April of 2024, a lawyer for a fifth grader reportedly filed a lawsuit against the district, the school district, claiming that she

reported abuse allegations to the school's principal. She says another student had actually made a similar report a month earlier, but the school's response was seemingly insufficient. After that, apparently four more students filed a joint complaint, and a fifth student reportedly filed her own lawsuit just days later. The lawsuit filed by the four Jane Does claims that Shelton sexually abused a six-year-old during the 2015-2016 school year, as well as multiple other students while chaperoning the school's fifth grade overnight camping trip in 2022. The complaint alleges that the district allowed Shelton to drive children to school-sponsored field trips alone in his car. both the school district and Shelton, they are named as defendants in that lawsuit. The other two separate lawsuits claim that Shelton sexually abused the students both in the classroom

during an after-school program and on a school field trip, and it's our understanding that those particular suits only name the school district. So, Ashley, a lot of legal wrangling going here. What do you make of that? So we're now out of the criminal arena. We're talking about the civil cases. Obviously, the burden of proof is much lower. I think I'm really interested in the lawsuits against the school district, what might amount to that?

So with the school, the victims have the opportunity to be successful in proving their case under a much different standard, which is just more likely than not. So it lowers the bar that's needed, so that can be beneficial when a jury is considered. considering the evidence that they're presented with. And related to the school, there are two options that the plaintiffs will have to succeed. They can either succeed by proving that the school failed to meet certain standards. Maybe they had notice of this and they failed to respond. Maybe they didn't have appropriate abuse prevention policies in place by allowing him to interact one-on-one with students on these overnight field trips.

or, you know, without appropriate supervision or other colleagues around. And they may also be successful if he is found to be in the course and scope of employment at these times, which, you know, without digging into the details of that, it seems that there's an argument to be made that he was. And then the school may be liable for his conduct just based on that special relationship of the employee, employer, like we see in many other contexts. And let me add to this, that the Robert Semple Elementary School's principal, Christina Moore, was placed on paid administrative leave back in May, while all this litigation plays out the lawsuit for the four Jane Doe's claims that Moore

made it clear she didn't believe the students when they allegedly told her about the abuse. Then there's this email to parents that says the decision to place more on administrative leave, quote, was made in a question. accordance with our organization's policies and procedures, and it is essential to ensure the integrity of our school community and uphold our commitment to transparency and accountability. The superintendent Damon Wright released a video statement in response to Shelton's arrest and the charges. We will not shy away from embracing actions that will strengthen our commitment to excellence

across our operations in service to students. I want to stress that hundreds of wonderful people work in our school. schools, teaching, supporting, and nurturing our students with professional integrity that must not be tarnished or overshadowed by the inappropriate actions of a few. Superintendent Wright says that district leaders met to talk about safety procedures at the school, a review of background checks of employees, how to deal with students who might come forward with information seeking support, and Wright also sent an email to district staff and parents addressing this incident, but didn't name Shelton specifically, says, quote,

last year we responded to concerns shared by parents regarding the former employee's behavior and guided by our district policies on the law, we immediately placed the employee on leave. However, in another shocking twist, after Shelton resigned for Benicia Unified, he was hired as an assistant principal for the nearby West Contra Costa Unified School District. Now, he seemingly only worked there for about two months before it came out that he was at the center of a criminal investigation and he was placed on leave. But actually, again, pretty shocking, right? A, he seemingly is able to go to another job. And B, what did you make of the school district's response with all this?

Because it's a tricky response for them, too. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think some of the message is aimed at showing, you know, You know, they're making sure that certain policies and procedures are in place. It sounds like there's a certain amount of retraining that's going on, you know, but it raises a lot of questions, too. You know, when anything was reported to the school, did they take the appropriate steps, report what they needed to report to the Department of Child Services, to the police, to outside agencies who could start investigations, what did their internal investigation show? So it provides a lot of information about what they are doing now and retrospectively, but it doesn't tell us much about what they did at the time of the reports to them.

And the fact that he gets another job, how'd that happen? Yeah, that one. They're allegations, they're allegations, but even I don't think they would want to hire somebody that's the subject of a criminal investigation about allegedly abusing children. Right. which is a major red flag, if there is no requirement that that suspension be reported to the Department of Education, it should be. So that if he attempts to get another job in the interim, that's immediately flagged and he's not able to do that. There's one other piece of information that we have in this very complicated legal battle and saga.

So Shelton has filed a petition of his own against Napa Valley Unified School District. This is the district where he was working when he was accused of molestation and he was later acquitted at trial. He seemingly wants to block his records from coming out. It appears the Solano County District Attorney's Office had gotten Shelton's records from the district through a search warrant. But his petition reportedly says that disclosing his records, let's say, to media outlets would, quote, make it virtually impossible for Mr. Shelton to have a fair criminal. trial and as for his criminal trial a readiness conference that includes a motion to amend and a motion to quash is scheduled for august 12th to be a preliminary examination we believe scheduled for october 1st ashley what do you make of that last part um it you've you see this a lot in both

criminal and civil cases that certain records um that may be scathing if those are made known to the jury in the community. Certain parties may think that they won't have a fair shot. So I think it is attempting to prevent the case from being tried in the media before it's tried in the courtroom because we know that there may be certain pieces of evidence within that record that could come out and are available but may not be admissible in the legal context for a number of reasons. So I think we see that, you know, when a party is trying to protect their interest and available and their ability to have control over what information is submitted ultimately to the judge and to the jury. Just really, really disturbing allegations and seemingly over a long period of time. Ashley Hadler, thanks so much for coming on.

Appreciate taking the time. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you. now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.