Pittsfield, MA- Following Wednesday’s (4/22) arraignment of Matthew Rutledge, District Attorney Shugrue, State Representative Leigh Davis of the 3rd Berkshire District, Melissa Fares, and Hilary Simon read prepared statements outside of Berkshire Superior Court. Their statements are below:
Berkshire District Attorney Shugrue Statement:
Thank you for joining us today. Moments ago, my office arraigned Matthew Rutledge on three counts of rape involving two survivors, both of whom stand with me: Hilary Simon and Melissa Fares.
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. 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.
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 inditement to the Grand Jury on March 24th and ultimately able to bring the three charges forward.
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.
Today, I want to ask the press to help share a clear message with the public: The investigation into the alleged sexual assaults involving Matthew Rutledge remains ongoing. We strongly encourage 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.
I urge anyone with information to please come forward. I understand why a survivor might be hesitant to speak with law enforcement and share the most harrowing experiences of their life. If you feel hesitant, please call or email our tip line: (413) 449-5055, or BerkshireSPDUtips@mass.gov. You can speak with Trooper Clement to simply learn about the process. She, along with Trooper Jolin, will answer any questions you have as you work to determine if you want to officially move forward or not. We will not pressure you or share your identity with others as you make the determination to allow us to open a formal investigation into your case.
Sharing information does not mean immediate publicity. Troopers Clement and Jolin, along with Second Assistant District Attorney Joseph Yorlano, Assistant District Attorney Zack Grube, and Associate Director of Victim Witness Advocates Kristen Rapkowicz make up the team of people who will work with you should your case move forward. These are the names and faces of a team that will work to bring justice in your case. These are the people you will speak with over the phone and exchange emails with.
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. Meliss and Hilary have done so without our office requesting they share their identity but rather with their determination to help other women come forward. They are excellent resources if you have any questions about our office or this process.
Thank you, Melissa and Hilary, for being here today. Thank you to my team and the Pittsfield Police for your work in this case.
I will now hand it over to Representative Leigh Davis who heard my concern regarding the lack of laws protecting individuals aged 16 to 18 from sexual assault by those in position of trust and authority and worked with her fellow law makers to put forward H.4538, An Act to Prevent Educator Sexual Misconduct. I am grateful that Representative Davis who took action and is, along with her partners on Beacon Hill, working to close loopholes in the law regarding sexual assaults in Massachusetts.
State Representative Leigh Davis, 3rd Berkshire District, Statement:
I’m State Representative Leigh Davis, representing the Third Berkshire District.
I’m here today to stand with Melissa and Hillary—and to support District Attorney Shugrue as he takes this important step toward accountability.
Today’s arraignment in the case against Matthew Rutledge is a difficult moment for our community.
We remember when the allegations first surfaced—the collective gasp—and the moment we held our breath together.
Melissa and Hillary’s courage is a beacon of hope for so many.
For too long, survivors have been afraid to come forward—silenced not just by fear, but by a law that failed to recognize their truth.
After taking office, I filed legislation to address the imbalance of power between adults in positions of authority and the young people in their care.
When Melissa and Hillary testified on that bill—now reflected in H.4538—their determination to protect the next generation of students was palpable.
It’s why I’ve stayed committed to this work.
Today’s proceedings are separate from the legislative process.
But moments like this demand we ask: are we doing enough to protect young people?
H.4538 makes clear what we know to be true: In a school setting, where an adult holds authority over a student, consent is not possible.
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.
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.
What Melissa and Hillary have done matters.
What started with courage must lead to change.
Justice should not be this hard. Thank you.
Melissa Fares Statement:
Hi everyone, my name is Melissa Fares. Thank you so much for being here. It means more than you know.
A lot of what I’m feeling right now is hard to put into words—it’s more in my body than anything else. So forgive me if I don’t have the language just yet. That comes with time. And a lot of therapy.
This moment is … so many things. So long overdue. So earned.
Today I was in the same room as Matt Rutledge, and, for the first time, I held the power.
It has taken everything in me to get here.
For a long time, I was living inside trauma without fully understanding it. It showed up everywhere—in my body image, in my relationship to food and alcohol, in sex and intimacy, in how I 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.
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, though, 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.
None of this had to happen. That’s still sinking in.
What followed has been a ride—disorienting, exhausting, all over the place. I underestimated the grief I’d have to feel, and the memories I’d have to relive.
But through all of it, I found clarity, self-respect, and, in some ways, steadiness.
Now, I’m finding small, quiet moments of safety and joy—being back in my body, even if only for a few seconds at a time. While so much of this is heavy, I can breathe a little deeper.
I’m alive. I’m here. I fought like hell to get to this place—and I’d do it all over again if I had to.
To every survivor, I promise you this: there is a way out of survival mode. In many ways, you’ve already survived the hardest part—the abuse itself, and so much of what comes with it.
You are not weak. You are some of the strongest people on earth. I see you. I love you.
What comes next is hard, but it’s yours. It’s powerful—and honestly, kind of epic. It’s where you begin to find your way back to yourself, and to heal.
You don’t have to attach your name to your story or go public the way Hilary and I did. You can tell a friend. You can say it quietly. You can share it in a support group. But please: don’t carry shame that
was never yours to begin with.
You are not to blame. You are not damaged. The systems around you are.
Working alongside Leigh Davis to pass H.4538 and help close this ridiculous legal loophole has been one of the most meaningful parts of this process—turning pain into protection for others in Massachusetts.
This bill recognizes something we should have always been clear about: children cannot consent to trusted authority figures. Ever.
And 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.
I’m grateful to the District Attorney’s Office for finally bringing these charges. Joe, Zack, Julia, Kristin, Dana, Kyle and Timothy— thank you for doing the right thing.
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.
Hilary—what we share comes from something violent and unfair. There’s anger in it. There’s confusion. There’s grief. And somehow, there’s also love. So much love.
To the journalists who have covered this story: I thank you and I trust you. As a fellow journalist, I deeply appreciate seeing this story handled with such accuracy and care. Trauma-informed reporting is essential.
To my mama, Emile, Mona, Rosa, Romeo, Ria, and Rani, my partner Cri, my beautiful friends, my fierce lawyers, and the MHS and Berkshire community—thank you for holding me through this with more love and support than I knew how to ask for.
Being back here in Pittsfield, I keep thinking about the 15-year-old girl who first arrived at Miss Hall’s nearly 20 years ago.
She had no idea what was coming. She went through more than she ever should have. …But she made it.
I feel her here today—standing beside me. Or, maybe tugging at my mom’s hand, begging to go to the Lee Outlets now that the Berkshire Mall is gone.
I’m so proud of her—for getting me here, for letting me tell this story, and for having the courage to break the silence.
The fight isn’t over. But this is accountability—and it’s a beginning.
Thank you for standing with me.
Hilary Simon Statement:
My name is Hilary Simon. Today Matthew Rutledge was arraigned for raping me. He began grooming me when I was fifteen years old, a student at Miss Hall’s School, and his abuse of me continued for years after I left that campus. After more than two decades, this case is finally in the hands of the criminal justice system.
You may wonder why it took so long to come forward. The answer starts with him. Matthew Rutledge was a dangerous man. When a child is trapped with someone that dangerous, her body does what it has to do to survive. For me, survival looked like fawning. I kept his secret because he threatened to kill himself and swore I would destroy his family if I ever 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.
I fought this privately for twenty 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 twenty years.
Today Melissa is my sister survivor. We share a bond that is hard to put into words, forged in the worst thing that ever happened to either of us and in everything we have built together since. She is the reason I found the courage to say his name out loud.
This indictment means we were believed. It means a man who preyed on teenage girls for decades is finally answering for it. He did it because he thought he could. He did it because he thought the law would protect him. It will not.
The shame was never mine. The shame was never Melissa’s. The shame belongs to Matthew Rutledge and to every adult who enabled him.
Systems do not change on their own. Accountability is not an option unless survivors are visible. For too long the legal system has moved around us instead of with us. Melissa and I want to change that. We want survivors to feel safe in the legal system and to reclaim their stories. To tell them loudly or quietly, publicly or privately, now or never, and to be believed either way.
This indictment changes Matthew Rutledge’s future. It does not change the law.
Massachusetts has to do better. Educator sexual misconduct is an epidemic in this country, and this state is the only one in New England, and one of only ten nationwide, with a loophole that treats sixteen and seventeen year old students as capable of consenting to the teachers who hold power over them. At that age, we are still vulnerable and in need of protection.
H.4538, An Act to Prevent Educator Sexual Misconduct, closes that loophole.
Massachusetts leadership must pass this bill this session. We should be a leader in protecting kids. You are either on the side of children and survivors, or you are not.
District Attorney Timothy Shugrue. Chief of Operations Julia Sabourin. Assistant District Attorneys Joe Yorlano and Zack Grube. Victim advocate Kristen Rapkowicz. Massachusetts State Troopers Dana Clement and Kyle Jolin. They refused to let this case be forgotten. They refused to let us be anything less than heard.
If you have any information about Matthew Rutledge’s abuse, the people who enabled him, or any other faculty or staff abuse at Miss Hall’s School, please call the DA’s confidential hotline at 413-449-5055.
None of this would be possible without our attorneys Eric MacLeish and Kristin Knuuttila. Thank you to the journalists who have followed our story, listened carefully, and worked with us to tell it honestly.
To everyone in the Berkshires, in the Miss Hall’s community, and around the world who has embraced Melissa and me and cheered us forward, we are grateful beyond words. And to Representative Leigh Davis, thank you for fighting for this bill and the kids it will protect.
To every survivor listening today. You do not owe anyone your story. You do not owe anyone a timeline. You do not have to do this the way I did. But know this. You are not alone. It was never your fault. And if you need courage for what comes next, borrow mine.