A retired Stonehill College professor accused of defrauding a woman he met on a Christian dating site will not spend a day in jail. Gregory Shaw, a professor emeritus of religious studies and theology, was sentenced to six months’ probation in Quincy District Court after his two felony larceny charges were reduced to misdemeanors.
Prosecutors said Shaw faced felony charges for allegedly defrauding the woman of $83,813 after using a fake name on Christian Mingle to gain her trust, according to a police report cited by WCVB. That figure has shifted across the case’s history — the station’s earlier reporting put the scammed amount at $80,000, while Enterprise News reported Shaw was accused of taking nearly $84,000 from the woman he met on the dating site in 2024.
Quincy District Court downgraded Shaw’s two felony larceny charges to misdemeanor larceny charges of under $1,200 by false pretense. Rather than entering a guilty plea, Shaw admitted sufficient facts in the case, the station’s report notes.
Competing Accounts of Who Scammed Whom
Prosecutors said Shaw only repaid the woman’s money after police became involved, per the earlier account. Shaw’s attorney, David Duncan, offered a different framing, saying his client repaid the woman after learning she had been defrauded through him — a move that, by Duncan’s account, only deepened Shaw’s own losses to scammers…