A former teacher at a prestigious Massachusetts school has been charged with three counts of rape, the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Matthew Rutledge, who was accused of grooming students during his 30-plus years at Miss Hall’s School, was indicted by a grand jury based on testimony from two former students, Hilary Simon and Melissa Fares, prosecutors said.
Rutledge, 67, was indicted nearly two years after Simon and Fares went public with allegations of sexual abuse — and after the DA’s office initially declined to charge the former teacher because the accusers were 16 at the time of the incidents. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16 and state law prohibits sexual relations between teachers and students regardless of age.
“They have waited far too long for justice and, while I recognize that our office has taken time to develop a path forward, I hope it is clear that I am committed to holding the Defendant accountable for his crimes,” Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue said in a statement Tuesday.
The DA’s office said it is in the process of sending Rutledge a formal summons, after which he will be given a trial date by Berkshire Superior Court.
“We stand with the survivors whose courage and determination played an important role in this outcome, and we are grateful that they will finally have the opportunity to seek justice in the criminal case against Matt Rutledge,” Miss Hall said in a statement.
Rutledge, an archivist who lives in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, could not be reached for comment. He faces two counts of raping Fares and one count of raping Simon, according to the two women and Julia Sabourin, a senior official in the DA’s office.
Fares, who is now 33 years old, is said to have been abused by Rutledge from 2007 to 2010 and Simon, who is 37 years old, is said to have been abused from 2001 to 2005. During and after that they were students at the school.
Both Fares and Simon testified before a grand jury on Tuesday.
Fares said he was relieved, saying, “There were so many times when it felt like it wasn’t going anywhere.”
“So I held on to hope, but I also protected myself from expecting it,” he said. “That’s part of what makes this moment feel special.”
Simon said he also sometimes feared Rutledge would never be brought to justice.
“What I do know is that Melissa and I were clear from Day 1 that there was never consent,” Simon said. “We’ve never wavered from that. Not once. And I think being consistent, refusing to let anyone repeat what happened to us, is part of keeping this case alive.”
For decades, Rutledge was a “larger than life” figure at the school who shouted “Make way for Mr. Wonderful” as he walked down the hallways, according to a report prepared by Miss Hall’s School after the allegations against the teacher surfaced.
Rutledge has, at various times, served as a history teacher, coach, resident, advisor and department chair, the report said.
But in April 2024, Rutledge resigned after Fares reported allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation to school administrators during her studies and after graduation.
Soon after, Simon came forward with his suspicions about Rutledge.
That same month, the local DA, the Pittsfield Police Department, and the state Department of Children and Families all began investigating Rutledge’s allegations. In Massachusetts, there is no statute of limitations for reporting alleged rape of victims 16 and under; for anyone 17 and older, the statute of limitations is 15 years.
Meanwhile, news of Rutledge’s alleged abuse began to spread on social media among angry students at Miss Hall’s school.
Faced with chaos, Miss Hall’s school hired a law firm to investigate the allegations.
The report, released in August 2025, found that Rutledge had been reported multiple times for inappropriate behavior to school leadership and that the school failed to act. It found that Rutledge had molested five girls over a 20-year period.
It also detailed other allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1940s against individual students and staff at Miss Hall’s School.
Head of School Julia Heaton issued an apology on behalf of the school and herself after the report was released.
In October 2024, Fares and Simon’s hopes that Rutledge would be prosecuted were briefly dashed when Sughrue announced that his office would not be able to prosecute the teacher.
“Massachusetts law defines the age of consent as 16,” Sughrue said in a statement at the time. “While ethical allegations are deeply troubling, they are illegal.”
Disappointed but undeterred, Fares and Simon are working with members of Parliament to help gain support for a proposed bill that would allow people in positions such as teachers to be charged with a crime, even if the student is of legal age. That bill is still being considered by the state legislature.
They filed separate lawsuits against the school, Fares in 2024 and Simon in 2025.
Meanwhile, the DA’s office assigned a team of special prosecutors and state police detectives to review the evidence gathered by Pittsfield police and the school’s law firm and concluded that Rutledge “violated the Massachusetts Constitution.”
The DA’s office did not provide further details about the evidence but stressed that its investigation into Rutledge “and any alleged criminal conduct by staff at Miss Hall’s school” is ongoing.
