A former Benicia Unified school teacher accused of child molestation returns to Solano County Superior Court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing in Vallejo, where he faces 12 counts of lewd acts on four children under 14.
The hearing for Matthew Joseph Shelton, 43, which will determine whether there’s enough evidence to hold him for a jury trial, comes as a Solano County Superior Court judge last week ordered Napa Valley Unified officials to release public records of the defendant’s alleged sexual abuse while he worked in the district in 2007.
Shelton was tried on sexual misconduct charges during his tenure in Napa but was later acquitted.
REALTED: 3 former students file suit against Bay Area elementary school teacher charged with sexual misconduct
But he faces similar charges related to his alleged sexual misconduct in 2022 while working in Benicia Unified School District.
When freelance reporter Holly McDede, who wrote about the case for the Vallejo Sun, filed California Public Records Acts requests with both the Napa and Benicia school districts, Shelton filed a lawsuit to block them from releasing the documents. The court directed the districts to withhold the records until the matter was settled.
According to a Santa Rosa Press Democrat report on Saturday, Judge Stephen Gizzi on Thursday lifted the protective order. All the Napa records, specifically Shelton’s employment documents, will be released. However, four of the requested documents in the possession of BUSD will be withheld to protect the identity of the minors in the case.
The Reporter on Monday requested a copy of Gizzi’s ruling, but his office in Department 3 did not respond by press time in the late afternoon.
Attorney David Loy — who represented McDede, on behalf of the San Rafael-based nonprofit First Amendment Coalition, in the reverse CPRA lawsuit against both school districts — confirmed some information in Gizzi’s ruling during a brief telephone interview Monday.
“The court largely agreed with our position,” he said, adding of the four Benicia documents, “The judge was concerned that (their release) would uncover the identities of the students.”
“The people have a right to know how school districts investigate and respond to allegations of substantial misconduct by teachers and other staff,” said Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties. “And we’re glad that the court largely agreed with our position. Almost all of the records can be disclosed.”
Napa attorney Amanda I. Bevins represents Shelton. Deputy District Attorney Barry Shapiro leads the prosecution.
In the BUSD case, Shelton, in an amended complaint filed Aug. 12, 2024, is charged with five counts of a lewd act on one child, two counts on another, one on another, and four on a fourth child.
Wording in the complaint includes “factors in aggravation,” and they are that the victims were “particularly vulnerable” and that Shelton “took advantage of a position of trust.”
Additionally, court records indicate the court has subpoenaed records from Highland Elementary in Vallejo, Adventist Health in Vallejo, and Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez.
It is unclear if Judge Robert Bowers or Judge D. Scott Daniels will preside over the preliminary hearing.
During a previous court hearing in July, Bowers denied a discovery motion submitted by defense attorney Bevins to force the Solano County DA’s Office to request a confidential juvenile case file from Placer County. It was unclear how the confidential Placer County documents are specifically related to the Shelton case, which Bowers, hearing the request, called “tragic, quite frankly.”
Looking directly at Bevins, seated next to Shelton, clad in a light blue shirt over dark slacks, Bowers then mentioned Evidence Code section 1042, which protects the identity of informants in a criminal proceeding.
“I have a responsibility to make sure this person (a minor) is protected,” added Bowers.
Official court records show that the judge indicated he was inclined to release records subpoenaed from Solano County Health and Social Services to Bevins with “appropriate protective orders.”
Misdemeanor sexual abuse charges involving four of his students had previously been filed against Shelton in Napa, where he was working as a third-grade teacher at Phillips Edison Elementary School in April 2007. After a six-day jury trial in 2008, however, he was acquitted of six counts of child molestation because, according to reports at the time of the trial, three girls testified and Shelton’s attorney argued that their stories were fabricated and inconsistent with one another.
Shelton remains out of custody on a pretrial services contract.
Originally Published:
