Woman allegedly posed as Boston Public Schools student in court – NBC Boston

The 32-year-old woman accused of impersonating a Boston Public Schools student is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

Shelby Hewitt pleaded not guilty to several charges, including forgery, identity fraud and making false statements to her employer. Court officials said she is scheduled to appear in Suffolk Supreme Court for a lobbying conference where the parties will discuss a possible change to the guilty plea.

Click here to view a timeline of the Shelby Hewitt case.

Court documents show that between 2021 and 2023, Hewitt posed as a 13-year-old student while working as a social worker for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

Her lawyer said his client has a history of mental illness.

“This is a young woman with serious mental health issues. She has struggled with it her entire life. It is well documented and she continues to struggle with it,” her lawyer Timothy Flaherty said after a hearing last year.

“I think the bigger question is how and what does that say about the safeguards in place,” he added. “The why is yet to be answered, but as I mentioned in court, this is a young woman with serious mental health issues that have plagued her throughout her life. That is well documented and she continues to deal with it.”

Last year, Hewitt was charged with nine counts at Suffolk High Court, with new details emerging alleging that he was a traumatised child with significant support and emotional needs.

She is charged with three counts of forgery, two counts of common law forgery, one count of uttering, one count of identity fraud, one count of theft over $1,200, and one count of making false statements to her employer. The indictment states that between December 6, 2021, and February 3, 2023, the social worker carried out an elaborate scheme to convince the Boston Public School System and the state that she was a 13-year-old child while working for DCF.

Hewitt purchased the domain name @masstate.us and used it in December 2021 to create two fake DCF employees with fake email addresses and phone numbers. She then used a pseudonym and the real identity of a child in state care to enroll in Walden Behavioral Treatment Center for an eating disorder and in three different Boston public schools where she received special education services. All while collecting her $54,000 salary from the state.

After her arraignment, she was released on $5,000 bail and ordered to stay away from the identity theft victim, all witnesses, all BPS employees, all schools, and children under the age of 18. She was also prohibited from engaging in any social activities.

The scam came to light in June 2023, when a man came to English High School claiming he was pulling Hewitt, who he said was his daughter, out of school for bullying. The school discovered an error in its records and notified police. Police later searched a Jamaica Plain apartment and found evidence of fake comments.