The 34-year-old woman who posed as a student at three BPS high schools in 2022 and 2023 pleaded guilty to several charges Tuesday, ahead of her upcoming trial. Shelby Hewitt pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery, identity fraud and making a false claim to an employer in Suffolk Superior Court on Tuesday, related to the complex scheme she undertook to pretend to be a child and enroll in high school, according to Boston 25. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors reportedly dropped other charges, including additional forgery, larceny and fraud counts. The defendant originally pleaded not guilty to all charges in 2023 and was scheduled to face the start of her trial next Monday after years of delays. After her plea, Hewitt was reportedly barred from going near any BPS schools, not allowed to work as a social work and required to undergo mental health treatment. Hewitt’s defense cited the defendant’s extensive mental health challenges in court after charges were filed. Hewitt, a former DCF social worker, enrolled in Jeremiah Burke High School, Brighton High School, and English High School during the 2022-23 school year. The defendant laid the groundwork for six months before enrolling, creating multiple fictional social worker identities and aliases as a children in DCF care. The extensive paper trail “propagated an intricate–but false–narrative of an extremely traumatized child with significant special educational and emotional needs,” prosecutors said. The defendant first enrolled as a 16-year-old at Burke High, according to prosecutors, before transferring to Brighton High…
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