After a two-day preliminary hearing, a Solano County Superior Court judge on Friday ruled there was enough evidence to hold for further arraignment a former Benicia Unified school teacher accused of child molestations.

Judge John B. Ellis, following a one-hour proceeding in Department 23, ordered Matthew Joseph Shelton to return at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 13 for a held-to-answer arraignment in Department 15 in the Justice Building in Vallejo.

Shelton, 43, is charged with 12 felony counts of lewd acts on four children under 14. He has pleaded not guilty.

Some of the allegations date back to late 2022, while others stem from Shelton’s alleged behavior in 2024, according to testimony heard during the hearing’s first day, Dec. 10.

On Friday, Benicia police Detective Ashley Wright returned to the witness stand for additional cross-examination by Shelton’s defense attorney, Amanda I. Bevins, and direct questionng by Deputy District Attorney Barry Shapiro, who leads the prosecution.

Wright, who in early 2023 conducted an investigation with the help of specialists interviewing minors, told Bevins that a student alleged “inappropriate touching” during an after-school class in a Benicia elementary school.

The female student, Wright said, alleged Shelton “made contact with her shoulder” and at another time “reached for her crotch area” under the girl’s desk.

He is also alleged to have squeezed the buttocks of the girl while she was walking out of the classroom and then squeezed her buttocks again later, when she walked back into the classroom, Wright testified.

Then, she said, there was the time, during a field trip, when Shelton, while driving a vehicle, allegedly stretched his arm and hand into the back seat where a girl was sitting and touched the girl’s vagina.

During the proceeding, Shelton held a black pen in his right hand that rested on a yellow legal pad, but he did not appear to be taking notes.

Seeking to weaken Shapiro’s case, Bevins, referring to a report, said one of the minor victims “said she liked to be hugged” but did not want to be “singled out” in class.

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On redirect, Shapiro got Wright to confirm one of victims was a sixth grader who told investigators about four separate times Shelton allegedly touched her buttocks. During the interview, which was recorded on video, the girl demonstrated how Shelton is alleged also to have touched her vaginal area, an action Wright confirmed.

Some of the alleged touching occurred at Robert Semple Elementary, said Wright.

One of the girls, said Wright, told investigators how Shelton would allegedly touch her, describing that, if they were sitting in a class, he would pull the desk closer.

Shapiro rested his case, then he and Bevins examined a series of color photos entered as evidence in the case.

Addressing the judge, Bevins asserted there was insufficient evidence to hold Shelton for trial, adding that the girls “felt comfortable” returning to the classroom.

“There’s no credible evidence” Shelton touched any of the girls or any other evidence that he made an effort to sexually arouse the girls. All of the alleged acts occurred in the classroom, Bevins argued.

Shapiro asked Ellis for a holding order, then cited several instances of Shelton’s alleged behavior, including a time when he placed a girl’s hand on his penis, erect under his clothing.

As for other alleged instances of inappropriate touching, Shapiro argued it was “not reasonable” to classify them as accidental and he also noted that Shelton has not refuted any of the allegations during the proceedings.

On the witness stand in a Vallejo courtroom, a Benicia school resource officer and a Benicia police detective on Tuesday testified that students at a Benicia elementary school told them their former teacher had molested them.

On the first day of the preliminary hearing, Shapiro had called Stephen Adaya, the school resource officer at Robert Semple Elementary, to the witness stand.

Adaya told Shapiro that Principal Christina Moore told him in December 2022 that three fifth-grade students, all girls, reported Shelton had “touched them inappropriately.”

Adaya testified that he told Shelton what the students alleged, but Shelton, he said, described the students as “caught up in drama” and had “disciplined the class by singling them out.” Shelton, he said, denied the students’ statements and further denied he had touched them inappropriately, including placing his hands on their buttocks.

The girls, said Adaya, were students in an afternoon “extended learning” classroom.

Detective Wright also testified on the hearing’s first day, telling Shapiro that a student told her that Shelton touched her buttocks three times and touched “her crotch area” once underneath a desk for “three to five seconds” while in the after-school extended learning class.

Wright testified that the student described his touching her buttocks while she both entered and left the classroom, and, at one point, recalled his reaching his hand to the lower portion of her buttocks, where “she felt a slight squeeze.”

Later, on March 7 this year, another fifth grader came forward, alleging Shelton also had touched her inappropriately, Wright said, adding that Shelton molested her while in a vehicle during a field trip.

Wright testified that Shelton “reached behind while he was driving and touched her vagina,” causing the girl to feel uncomfortable.

Later, when they emerged from the car, Shelton, she said, walking the girl by the hand placed her hand on his “rock solid” penis for “five to 10 seconds.”

The hearing’s first day came as a Solano County Superior Court judge in early December ordered Napa Valley Unified officials to release public records of Shelton’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  acquitted after a six-day jury trial in 2008.

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.

Shelton remains out of custody on a pretrial services contract.