Matthew Shelton, 42, had 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. A jury needed just 20 minutes before coming back with a verdict of not guilty.
A married California teacher is accused of inappropriate sexual acts involving a student.
Matthew Shelton, 42, a fifth-grade teacher at Robert Semple Elementary School in Benicia, is charged with five felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14, according to a felony complaint obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
These charges come 17 years after a jury acquitted Shelton of child molestation, according to the Vallejo Sun.
Shelton had 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 Register reported that the 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 in 2012, and eventually got a full-time job there in 2015, according to California state records.
These new charges stem from events that allegedly occurred between September and December 2022, according to the complaint.
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.
Shelton has yet to enter a plea and is due in court on March 11 for a preliminary hearing, according to the court docket. He does not have a lawyer at this time.
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