Three lawsuits were filed against the Benicia Unified School District and are seeking damages for alleged personal injuries arising from childhood sexual abuse and assault. The young plaintiffs all allege that they were groomed by Matthew Shelton.
A California teacher facing criminal charges after a student alleged they were molested by the educator is now accused of molesting six additional girls in three lawsuits filed against the school district.
Four young girls accused 42-year-old Matthew Shelton, a fifth-grade teacher at Robert Semple Elementary School in Benicia, of sexually abusing them in a lawsuit filed on April 24. Five days later, a fifth student filed a lawsuit that made similar allegations against the teacher.
Those lawsuits both followed one filed on April 9 by a fifth-grade student who claims she reported allegation s of abuse to the school's principal in February. That suit also alleges another student made a similar allegation a few months before her and that the school did little to investigate.
Those lawsuits were filed after police charged Shelton with five felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14, according to a felony complaint obtained by Inside Edition Digital. Two additional counts were then added after police spoke with another alleged victim of the teacher.
Shelton had previously been accused by police of molesting four of his students, ages 8 and 9, while working as a third-grade teacher at Edison Elementary School in Napa, according to the Napa Valley Register. The Vallejo Sun first reported on those previous charges earlier this year.
The Register reported that a jury needed just 20 minutes before coming back with a verdict of not guilty after a six-day trial.
He began working as a substitute teacher in the Benicia Unified District just a few years later in 2012, and eventually got a full-time job there in 2015, according to California state records.
The lawsuit filed by the four Jane Does alleges that Shelton sexually abused a 6-year-old student during the 2015-2016 school year, and multiple students while chaperoning the school's annual overnight camping trip for fifth-grade students in 2022. Shelton is also a named defendant in that lawsuit.
The fifth and sixth Jane Doe allege that Shelton sexually abused them as well on a school field trip or in his classroom in their separately filed lawsuits. Shelton is not a named defendant in those two lawsuits.
All three lawsuits were filed against the Benicia Unified School District and are seeking damages for personal injuries arising from childhood sexual abuse and assault.
The most recent lawsuit also seeks damages for negligent hiring, breach of mandatory duty and negligent supervision. Inside Edition Digital spoke with Spencer Lucas, the lawyer representing the Jane Doe plaintiff in that most recent lawsuit.
"[The school district] breached their duty to warn this family about Shelton," Lucas says.
He says that Benicia either knew about the previous accusations against Shelton or the district's vetting process was so flawed that they were unaware that they were hiring a man who had been accused, and then acquitted, of molesting four young girls while working in a previous school district.
Lucas also noted that it was not until Shelton's arrest was made public by the media that the school informed parents of the allegations.
Shelton is now taking legal action as well, filing lawsuits against the Napa Valley School District to block the release of records about his time as an educator in the county.
Shelton is also preparing for his upcoming criminal trial.
According to the complaint, the charges in that case stem from events that allegedly occurred between September and December 2022.
The first four counts of the complaint allege that Shelton "did willfully, unlawfully and lewdly commit a lascivious act upon and with the body and certain parts of members thereof of [redacted] a child, under the age of fourteen years, with the intent of arousing, appealing to, and gratifying the lust, passions, and sexual desires of the said defendant, and the said child."
In addition, he allegedly "did willfully, unlawfully, and lewdly commit a lewd and lascivious act to wit: touching crotch," according to the fifth count in the complaint.
The two other counts involve a different victim and incidents that allegedly occurred during the 2018 -2019 school year.
Shelton has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges. He and his lawyer did not respond to Inside Edition Digital's request for comment.
The school district has placed the principal at the elementary school, Christina Moore, on paid administrative leave. When asked for comment, the school district sent Inside Edition Digital a copy of the letter sent to parents announcing the news that Moore would be put on leave.
In that letter, Superintendent Damon Wright said that the decision to place Moore on leave was "essential to ensure the integrity of our school community and uphold our commitment to transparency and accountability."
In that letter, Superintendent Damon Wright said that the decision to place Moore on leave “while we investigate allegations from pending litigation” was "made in accordance with our organization’s polices and procedures, and it is essential to ensure the integrity of our school community and uphold our commitment to transparency and accountability."
The school district did not address any questions regarding Shelton directly, nor did they address Lucas' allegations that the district must have either known about past accusations Shelton faced, or did not properly vet him before hiring him.
