Warning: this article discusses sexual assault. 

 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A former teacher pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to three counts of felony counts rape related to his tenure at Miss Hall's School.

 

Matthew Rutledge, 63, was indicted last month by a Berkshire grand jury following accusations dating back to the 1990s of sexually assaulting students at the girls' school. 

 

"Today, Matthew Rutledge was arraigned for raping me. He began grooming me when I was 15 years old, a student at Miss Hall's School, and his abuse of me continued for years after I left that campus," former student Hilary Simon said to a large crowd outside of Berkshire Superior Court.

"After more than two decades, this case is finally in the hands of the criminal justice system."

 

Simon and Melissa Fares, former students, publicly accused Rutledge of abuse and called out the school for failing to protect them. 

 

They provided testimony at his indictment and, on Wednesday, were in the courtroom to see their alleged abuser arraigned. 

 

Rutledge was working at the day and boarding school until the allegations surfaced nearly three years ago. Pittsfield Police investigated the claims but initially concluded no charges could be brought forward because the students were 16, the age of consent in Massachusetts. 

 

However, the Berkshire District Attorney's Office took up the investigation and, with information from a report commissioned by the school, a team of special prosecutors say they found Rutledge to have violated state law.

"This arraignment has been a long time coming. Thank you, Melissa and Hilary, for your patience. You have been waiting for justice not only over the past two years, but since the abuse first occurred," said Berkshire DA Timothy Shugrue at the press conference following the arraignment. "While today represents just one step in that ongoing process, I hope it has offered at least some sense of long over-due acknowledgment from the criminal justice system recognizing your experiences."

Shugrue said the two women have not only waited for justice for the past two years since coming forward, but also since the abuse occurred.  

"What changed? That is a question we continue to be asked and an understandable one at that. After work initially accomplished by the Pittsfield Police Department, information presented in the Aleta Report, and later work from my State Police Detective Unit and team of prosecutors, we were able to charge Matthew Rutledge with three counts of rape. We presented this case through a direct indictment to the grand jury on March 24th and were ultimately able to bring the three charges forward," he said. 
 
"At this point in the process, as my office works to bring this case to a successful conclusion, I will be henceforth limiting my comments to maintain both the integrity of ongoing investigations and to ensure a fair judicial process." 

He emphasized that the investigation continues, and strongly encouraged anyone who may have experienced or witnessed abuse by him, or any abuse connected to Miss Hall's School, to come forward and speak with investigators.

"Sharing information does not mean immediate publicity," Shugrue said. 

"… Hilary and Melissa have both provided our office permission to use their names in press releases regarding the abuse they survived. They have agreed to be a public face, but if you come forward, it does not mean that you also need to be a public face. I will never ask any survivor of abuse to be named publicly by our office. Melissa and Hilary have done so without our office requesting they share their identity, but rather with their determination to help other women come forward." 

Fares described her experience as living inside trauma without fully understanding it for a long time. It showed up in her body image, relationship with food and alcohol, intimacy, and how she moved through the world. 

"I put my life on hold to face it, and it was messy. I was building a life in Paris, a dream I've had for as long as I can remember, and I came back here to tell this story and stay close to the people who've held me up. It was over the last several years that I began piecing together the truth of what happened to me: that Matt Rutledge had used me, abused me, and raped me. That I had been groomed and threatened into silence by a serial predator. That my youth wasn't my youth at all," she said. 
 
"When I came forward two years ago, I honestly had no idea how any of this would unfold — whether I'd be believed, whether there were other survivors, and if so, whether they'd join me in this fight. But my body knew something I couldn't ignore. It felt urgent. I had to name what Matt Rutledge did to me — what he took from me — and release his shame from my shoulders back onto his," 
 
"Then I met Hilary Simon, and I wasn't alone anymore. That changed everything. She and several others came forward too — not because they had to, but because they chose to — absolute queens. I'll never be able to thank them enough." 

With that solidarity, she said, came a devastating truth: Miss Hall's School knew. 

"They enabled a culture of abuse for decades. They failed us, our families, and every girl who trusted them to protect her. They must also be held accountable," Fares said.

Being back in Pittsfield, she kept thinking about the 15-year-old girl who first arrived at Miss Hall's nearly 20 years ago with no idea what was coming. She felt that younger version of herself at the courthouse that day, and was so proud of her for breaking the silence. 

Explaining why it took so long to come forward, Simon said Rutledge was a dangerous man, and when a child is trapped with someone that dangerous, her body does what it has to do to survive. For her, survival looked like fawning, and she said she kept his secret because Rutledge threatened to kill himself and swore Simon would destroy his family if she spoke.

"I was a kid, and the weight of those threats was not mine to carry. That was not consent. Fawning is never consent. It is a trauma response. His control did not end when the abuse ended," she said. 
 
"I fought this privately for 20 years. I have been fighting it publicly for two. Before any of this, I was just a normal person. A lawyer. A wife and a mother. A woman trying to build a life on top of something I had buried. And then Melissa Fares called. I did not know Melissa. I picked up the phone, and I told her I had been waiting for that call for 20 years."

She said the indictment means they were believed, and that a man who preyed on teenage girls for decades is finally answering for it. She recognized Fares as her "sister survivor."

"He did it because he thought he could. He did it because he thought the law would protect him. It will not," Simon said. 
 
"The shame was never mine. The shame was never Melissa's. The shame belongs to Matthew Rutledge and to every adult who enabled him."

They have worked alongside state Rep. Leigh Davis to pass H.4538, which aims to prevent educator and guardian sexual misconduct and abuse of children and youth. Davis filed legislation to address an imbalance of power between adults in positions of authority and the young people in their care, and she said the women's courage is a beacon of hope for so many.

She said this legislation makes clear a truth — that in a school setting, where an adult holds authority over a student, consent is not possible. Davis noted that Simon and Fares' determination to protect the next generation of students was palpable, and kept her committed to this work. 

"Right now, the law protects adults in positions of authority. This legislation protects the children in their care. As one of the legislators committed to this issue, I'm building on years of work to push for change. Protecting students takes all of us — survivors, law enforcement, prosecutors, and lawmakers," Davis said. 
 
"When those pieces come together, real change happens. Today must be bigger than a moment — it must be a movement. A movement toward accountability. A movement toward stronger protections. And a movement toward a clearer path to justice." 

Fares said the bill recognizes that children cannot consent to trusted authority figures — ever. Simon said systems don't change on their own, and cited a legal system that "has moved around us instead of with us" for too long. She and Fares want to ensure survivors feel safe in the legal system to reclaim their stories. 

"I'll keep saying it: Rape is rape. What happened to me was always serious. It was always credible. It was always criminal. It was never consensual," Fares said. 

"We need to change the way the criminal justice system understands rape. It doesn't always look like a violent attack by a stranger in a dark alley. Far from it. It can also be a trusted authority figure — like a teacher — coercing a student behind closed doors in a classroom closet." 

Updated with write-thru at 5:29 p.m.