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Woman who allegedly posed as BPS student facing trial date as plea negotiations stall
Shelby Hewitt is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 9, 2026.
A former Massachusetts social worker accused of posing as a Boston Public Schools student is staring down a February trial date after backing out of a potential plea deal that would have resolved her case Tuesday.
Shelby Hewitt, 34, has pleaded not guilty to fraud and forgery charges as prosecutors allege she posed as a teenager, using aliases to enroll at three Boston schools during the 2022 to 2023 academic year.
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“The defendant created multiple names and dates of birth for herself and propagated an intricate — but false — narrative of an extremely traumatized child with significant special educational and emotional needs,” prosecutors alleged in a statement of facts filed in court.
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Hewitt was initially charged in July 2023 and has been out on bail since.
Court records indicate a potential change of plea was on the table leading up to Hewitt’s hearing Tuesday. According to The Boston Globe, Judge Debra A. Squires-Lee said the court expected to move on an agreement to end the case with a sentence of probation, mental health treatment, and restitution.
But according to the Globe, Timothy Flaherty, Hewitt’s attorney, said his client would only agree to the deal if the case were continued without a finding, meaning the charges would eventually be dismissed if Hewitt does not reoffend. Meanwhile, prosecutors reportedly said they would only accept a deal in which Hewitt is found guilty.
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“If we’re able to come to some resolution, I’ll report back immediately,” Flaherty told the judge, according to the Globe.
Hewitt is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 9, 2026.
Prosecutors allege she went to great lengths to prop up her scheme, even creating two fictional Department of Children and Families social workers and purchasing a domain for “@masstate.us” — similar to the “@state.ma.us” that appears in many state employees’ email addresses.
Her alleged ruse was uncovered in June 2023, when a man posing as Hewitt’s father told staff at English High School in Jamaica Plain he was going to transfer her to a new school due to bullying. After taking a closer look at Hewitt’s paperwork, a BPS staff member noticed “irregularities” that reportedly included an incorrect DCF letterhead and the name of a social worker who didn’t actually exist.
Flaherty has previously said Hewitt has “a long-standing lifelong, well-documented history” of mental health challenges; according to the Globe, he also said Hewitt suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Per Cleveland Clinic, DID — formerly known as multiple personality disorder — is a mental health condition in which someone has two or more separate personalities that control their behavior at different times.
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Hewitt’s next scheduled court appearance is a motions filing date Sept. 30.
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