Married teacher accused of raping 15yo banned from marital home
Special education teacher Christina Formella, 30, is currently facing dozens of criminal charges, including sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, indecent solicitation of a child and grooming in relation to a former student she allegedly sexually assaulted after meeting at one of her soccer classes.
The former high school teacher, who has since resigned from her job at Downers Grove South High School in Chicago, and has repeatedly denied being a 'predator'.
However, prosecutors claim evidence shows the married woman, whose husband Michael is publicly standing by her, abused the student over a period of months and didn't stop until the boy's mother uncovered it.
After initially being charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault against a minor in March, the charges were upped last month, with the total now coming in at 55 counts.
Ahead of the trial, Judge Mia McPherson recently denied an earlier request from the prosecution to hold Formella in custody, instead setting a number of conditions for the former educator – including that she live at least 5000 feet (1.5 km) away from the alleged victim's home, school and workplace, Yahoo News reports.
But with Formella living within that no-go zone, it has meant she has been forced to leave her marital home, and her recent request for the buffer to be reduced from 5000 feet to 2500 feet (0.75kms) have been denied, the New York Post reported.
At a hearing at a DuPage County courtroom on Thursday, Formella was seen 'holding hands' with her husband as she was delivered the blow.
During the appearance, she explained she has been living with her parents at their $US560,000 ($A855,000) home on a golf course since mid-June when her charges were upgraded and she was given an ankle monitor.
The case shocked the world after details of the alleged sexual abuse first hit global headlines earlier this year.
Formella was initially charged in March, with dramatic police bodycam footage showing the moment she was arrested.
The special education teacher first met the then 14-year-old student in 2023 when she was his soccer coach, however, she later began tutoring the boy in private sessions after he broke his collarbone, documents obtained by TMZ allege.
The pair then began messaging each other on a school platform, which prosecutors claim enabled Formella to give the boy her number so they could play '8-Ball Pool' on their phones.
This contact then allegedly progressed to provocative texts, followed by a FaceTime meeting between the student and Formella.
But it was in a classroom before school started in December of that year that the situation allegedly worsened.
According to TMZ, the court documents claim Formella shut the door of the classroom and started kissing the victim, who reportedly fondled her, and she removed his clothes.
They both allegedly took off her leggings, and he put on a condom and had sex with Formella. He was 15 and she was 28 at the time, prosecutors allege.
Text messages between them show they allegedly later acknowledged to each other what they did was 'wrong', and never had sex again, with contact ending between them in February 2024.
The details, described as 'sordid' by one US publication, come after alleged 'lurid' texts emerged amid the ongoing police investigation.
Formella, who married her high school sweetheart in a lavish destination wedding in Italy's Amalfi Coast just nine months before the charges were laid, has claimed she's being 'framed for being good looking'.
Her family have recently further fuelled allegations of being set up by claiming Formella is the victim of misogynistic 'sexist scrutiny' and bemoaned being painted as a 'predator', the New York Post reports.
'It's a spectacle — a public ritual that punishes women not for what they've done, but for how they're perceived,' a rep for Formella's family told the publication in a statement on Thursday.
'When men face accusations, we discuss evidence and procedure. When women face accusations, we attack their character, their choices, and their worth as human beings.
'This isn't justice — it's gender-based persecution disguised as accountability.'
No date has been set yet for the trial, but Formella is facing a total of 55 charges in relation to the alleged sexual abuse of the 15-year-old student.
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