MURRAY – For the first time, the Murray High School teacher who resigned seven years ago after state police launched an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with students is facing criminal charges after a woman came forward last month, alleging a sexual relationship while she was a student at MHS.
Jason Shelby, 47, was arrested Wednesday and charged with third-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse, according to a press release from Kentucky State Police (KSP) Post 1.
KSP began looking into Shelby in August 2018 after receiving a report from the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) about possible sexual relations between Shelby and at least two MHS students. Despite detectives’ efforts to investigate the case at the time, there was not enough evidence available to obtain an arrest warrant until recently.
A Murray native, Shelby graduated from MHS in 1996 and returned to his alma mater as a faculty member in 2002. He taught history and, until 2013, coached the academic team and helped with the band. He resigned in October 2018 and voluntarily surrendered his teaching certificate in 2019, resolving a six-year inquiry by EPSB, according to WKMS.
But allegations of inappropriate behavior with students go back 20 years.
The earliest surfaced in 2005, when a teacher shared concerns with then-principal Teresa Speed over Shelby’s interactions with students that “bordered on sexual misconduct,” according to a WKMS story written after Isabel Duarte-Gray, an MHS alumna who claimed Shelby “groomed” her, contacted the radio station in 2018, “hoping to shed light on the issue.”
In 2008, it was alleged that Shelby had impregnated a student. In 2018, former Superintendent Coy Samons told WKMS in an email that neither his predecessor Bob Rogers – who led the Murray Independent School District (MISD) from 2005 to 2017 and now serves as the mayor of Murray – nor Speed believed the report was credible after speaking to the student and her mother, both of whom denied the allegations. Shelby also denied them when the administrators spoke to him.
Duarte-Gray told WKMS she realized Shelby’s behavior was not isolated in 2013, after a fellow MHS alumna shared her own story about inappropriate interactions with the teacher. Motivated by the epiphany, she met with Rogers and Speed, accompanied by three other alumni and the teacher who spoke out in 2005, none of whom were named in the reporting. Together, they expressed their belief that Shelby “was almost certainly a serial predator” and offered emails and handwritten notes to support their claims.
“They seemed to believe that what he had done was inappropriate, but when I started to tell them that this was not isolated and that there were others who had been groomed, they told me this was pure hearsay,” Duarte-Gray said. “Mr. Rogers looked me in the eye and said, ‘This is a man’s life we’re talking about.’ At that point, I had brought up the (allegations from) 2008, which Ms. Speed confirmed were, in fact, made.”
Following the meeting, Rogers gave Shelby a private reprimand and banned him from being involved with extracurricular activities, under the advice of the school board’s attorney at the time, David Buckingham, whose investigation did not yield enough evidence to warrant termination. He also filed a report with the EPSB for them to look into whether Shelby had abused his power by grooming minors.
In an email, Rogers told WKMS there were no indications that Shelby had sexual relationships with any students while they were enrolled at MHS, “but perhaps one or more did so after graduating and becoming adults.” He also noted that the co-academic team coach – whom WKMS identified as the unnamed teacher who made the 2005 complaint – stepped down from that position in 2005 over issues with Shelby, though he could not recall the specific reason for the resignation.
Five years after Rogers’ initial report, EPSB reached a point in its review where it was appropriate to alert law enforcement about potential criminal activity. As such, KSP launched its investigation in August 2018.
Samons, in his 2018 email, characterized Shelby as “popular,” noting there were complaints when he was removed from extracurricular activities. Nonetheless, when Samons received new information that corroborated some of the older, unsubstantiated allegations, he immediately suspended Shelby, who subsequently resigned in October of that year.
According to the complaint warrant, the alleged victim contacted KSP in August, expressing willingness to cooperate with the 2018 inquiry. She reported having repeated sexual encounters with Shelby from May 2008 to January 2009. When the alleged affair began, she was 15 years old, and he was 30.
It is unclear whether the victim in this case was involved in any of the aforementioned allegations made in 2008.
The victim told detectives that she and Shelby communicated through email, and they used “code words” to arrange meeting times and places for the sexual encounters, which she said took place in his car, at Chestnut Park and at his residence. She provided emails to corroborate her story, deciphering the alleged code words and phrases for investigators and tying them back to specific sexual encounters she claimed to remember.
When detectives arrived at Shelby’s home to speak to him, the complaint warrant noted he was cordial and invited them inside. They informed him that the 2018 investigation was active again. When they identified the victim by name, “Shelby had an obvious demeanor change” and told the detectives he no longer wished to speak to them without an attorney present.
He was arrested the next day, lodged in the Calloway County Detention Center and released after posting a $20,000 cash bond, court records show. Shelby will be arraigned in Calloway District Court at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16.
KSP advised that the investigation remains ongoing and encouraged anyone with information about this or related incidents to contact KSP Post 1 by calling 270-856-3721 or submitting a tip on KSP’s website.
Individuals accused of crimes are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
*Note: The KSP release incorrectly listed Shelby’s age in 2008.
