A Solano County jury convicted former Benicia elementary school teacher Matthew Shelton on 11 of 12 felony counts of lewd acts with a child, closing out a five-week trial that revisited allegations stretching back nearly two decades. Jurors deadlocked on the twelfth count, resulting in a mistrial on that charge. Shelton, who taught fifth grade at Robert Semple Elementary School in Benicia, is scheduled for sentencing on December 16.
The verdict, handed down Thursday, found Shelton guilty of sexually abusing four students, according to KQED. Prosecutors told jurors Shelton inappropriately touched three girls in his classroom more than 20 times in 2022, and that he had also touched an underage girl while chaperoning a field trip in 2019. The case drew extensive coverage from the Napa Valley Register, which reported that Shelton was placed on leave in 2022 after the girls disclosed his actions to school administrators.
A Trial Reaching Back to 2007
Seven former students from two school districts, ranging from teenagers to adults in their late 20s, took the stand over the course of the trial to testify against Shelton, per the same KQED account. Two of those witnesses were former Napa classroom accusers who testified in support of the Benicia students' allegations, according to the Napa Valley Register. Court filings describe Shelton having previously faced multiple counts of child molestation and battery involving four young girls at Phillips Magnet Elementary School in Napa in 2007.
A Napa County jury acquitted Shelton of those 2007 charges in 2008 after deliberating for just 20 minutes, KQED reported. Napa Valley Unified School District fired him, but according to Solano County prosecutors cited by the Napa Valley Register, Shelton retained his teaching credentials. The station's report adds that California's Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued Shelton a private admonishment at the time, a punishment that is hidden from the public and must be expunged by the state and employers within three years.
Benicia Unified Hired Him Months Later
Benicia Unified School District hired Shelton six months after his acquittal, per KQED, and he went on to teach fifth grade at Robert Semple Elementary from 2015 to 2022, according to the Napa Valley Register. Shelton resigned from the district in 2023 after new allegations surfaced that he had touched students inappropriately, the broadcaster reported.
Benicia Unified now faces several civil lawsuits from Shelton's accusers alleging the district was negligent in hiring him, the Napa Valley Register reported, with KQED separately noting the district still faces three lawsuits over the 2008 hiring decision. Attorney Brendan Gilbert, who represents plaintiffs in one of those lawsuits, told the Napa Valley Register that the district was fully aware of Shelton's prior allegations and relied on his acquittal when it hired him. Gilbert also said several district employees testified in depositions about Shelton's behavior with youth.
District and Plaintiffs React
Benicia Unified Superintendent Chris Calabrese said the district is committed to strong hiring and screening practices, clear reporting procedures, staff training, and a school culture where students feel safe and heard, according to the Napa Valley Register. Plaintiffs in the case said they felt heard during the trial, the paper reported. Separately, Shelton's wife, Brandy Shelton, was moved from her fourth-grade teaching position at Matthew Turner Elementary School in Benicia in August following parent outcry over her continued relationship with her husband, per the same account.
A Pattern Beyond One District
Shelton's case fits a broader pattern documented in a review by ProPublica, which found at least 67 California educators whose credentials were not revoked after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other sexual misconduct between 2019 and 2025. At least 14 of those educators were rehired by other schools, and at least 12 continued working in education, the outlet reported. California automatically revokes a teacher's credential after a conviction for a sexual criminal offense, but ProPublica notes that a district's own finding of misconduct does not necessarily trigger the same automatic revocation — a gap that let Shelton keep teaching for years after his 2008 acquittal.
What State Reviews Say About Credentialing Records
A separate statewide review documented an earlier problem inside the credentialing agency: in April 2011, the California State Auditor reported that the Commission on Teacher Credentialing's Division of Professional Practices had 12,600 unprocessed arrest and prosecution reports as of summer 2009, almost three times a typical annual workload. That finding concerned an agency backlog, not Shelton's case; the reported finding alone does not establish what corrective actions followed or how districts reported misconduct in this case. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing cautions that its online records do not contain complete information about credentials that have been suspended or revoked. The records therefore have limits as a measure of educator discipline and cannot, on their own, establish the prevalence of sexual misconduct.
The state's credentialing database also notes when a teacher has been disciplined without explaining why, according to ProPublica's reporting, leaving hiring districts with limited information when vetting new hires. The Solano County District Attorney's Office encourages sexual assault or human trafficking victims to call 707-784-6827 to reach an advocate.
