Western Hills teacher found guilty of first-degree sexual assault

A Western Hills Middle School science teacher was found guilty Monday of first-degree sexual assault, but his second-degree sexual assault charge was dismissed.

Matthew Sheridan, 49, was arrested in May 2016 for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 2003.

A release from Amy Kempe, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s public information officer, said Sheridan “groomed the young man to look upon him as a father figure only to sexually assault the teen when he was 15 years old.”

Sheridan, a Cranston Public Schools employee since 2004, has a hearing for a new trial scheduled for Thursday, June 29, at 9:30 a.m. before Associate Justice Daniel A. Procaccini. He is appealing his conviction on first-degree sexual assault.