ELLINGTON – The Tolland man charged with sexually assaulting several girls he met on MySpace.com was fired in 2004 from the teacher’s aide position he held at Ellington High School for two years after an investigation revealed that he had “acted inappropriately” with students, according to documents in his personnel file.
Scott Shefelbine, 31, of 167 Mountain Spring Road, was arrested Oct. 10 and charged with first-degree sexual assault, two counts of second-degree sexual assault, and four counts of risk of injury to a minor.
The Journal Inquirer obtained dozens of records from Shefelbine’s Ellington school system personnel file Monday through a freedom-of-information request.
According to the documents, Shefelbine was hired in September 2002 as a program aide at EHS, earning an hourly wage of $9.86, and worked there until September 2004.
According to former Superintendent Richard E. Packman’s notes on the investigation into Shefelbine’s conduct, troubles began to surface towards the end of the 2003-04 school year, when there were “parental complaints that Scott was involved socially with students and that he allegedly had provided students with rides and had arranged to transport students to a ‘juice bar’ or club in Hartford.”
At that time, EHS Assistant Principal Jack Leonard confronted Shefelbine with those complaints, the notes say.
According to the notes, Shefelbine admitted he had given a student a ride home from work once, but denied the other allegations. Shefelbine also told Leonard that he “understood an employee should not be involved socially with students,” the notes say.
In August 2004, Packman received another complaint about Shefelbine, this time from a parent whose daughter attempted to run away from home. The parent said that Shefelbine had driven the young girl to his house.
According to the notes, Shefelbine related his version of the events in a meeting with Packman on Aug. 25.
Shefelbine claimed that a 19-year-old former EHS student who had run away from home with his girlfriend, an 18-year-old EHS student, called his house on Aug. 2 and left a message telling him they had run away but had changed their minds, and asking him to pick them up and take them home.
Shefelbine said the young man called him the next day from Hall Memorial Library after having spent the night in Brookside Park and asked him to pick them up. Shefelbine said he picked up the young man, took him to the young man’s home, and then reported to work.
Shefelbine acknowledged that the girlfriend had gone to his home but said he did not know how she got there, the notes say. At this point, Packman reminded Shefelbine that he had earlier said that she probably walked to his house. To this, Shefelbine said that he was guessing, the notes say.
According to Packman’s notes, the girl told him said that on Aug. 3, Shefelbine picked her and her boyfriend up from the library She said they picked up their bags from Brookside Park and then Shefelbine dropped off the boy at his home, brought the girl to his house, and then went to work.
The notes say the girl’s mother then picked her up from Shefelbine’s house. When asked if Shefelbine ever tried contacting her, the girl replied that she had spoken to him through a three-way telephone call, and that Shefelbine told her that if anyone were to ask, to tell them she had walked from the library to his house.
Packman met with the girlfriend on Aug. 27. At that meeting, according to Packman’s notes, the girl said that she knew Shefelbine from school and that he had once driven her and a friend to a movie and afterwards to a fireworks display in the Rockville section of Vernon, the notes say.
According to a questionnaire submitted by Shefelbine to Leonard, Shefelbine gives a different account of the same incident, saying that he rode his bike to the fireworks display, and since it ended late, accepted a ride home from a student.
Packman’s notes from meetings with Shefelbine’s colleagues say they indicated they had observed that Shefelbine was socially involved with students in ways they thought were inappropriate, such as frequent cell phone conversations and giving rides home.
In a Sept. 7 letter from Packman to Shefelbine, Packman told him that he had been fired for “insubordination for your actions during an investigation, tampering with witnesses during an investigation, lying during an investigation and insubordination to a directive by your supervisor.”
A few days later, on Sept. 10, Shefelbine submitted a letter of resignation.
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