Stunning courthouse support shown by husband whose teacher wife 'raped boy 50 times'
The 30-year-old former special education teacher and soccer coach looked anything but remorseful as she arrived at DuPage County court Wednesday beside husband Michael.
Both refused to answer a single question about the explosive allegations.
'Michael was holding her hand the entire time. They were smiling at each other—literally smiling at each other the entire time until she got up,' one courtroom insider told The New York Post. 'They look really confident.'
Christina has been holed up at her parents' $560,000 home on a golf course since mid-June when her charges were upgraded from one count of sexual abuse to 52 counts.
She was slapped with an ankle monitor and warned to remain outside a 5,000-foot buffer zone that legally keeps her away from the alleged victim, meaning she had to leave her marital home.
But in a bold request on Wednesday, she asked the court to slash that distance in half to just 2,500 feet, arguing the boy often hangs out with friends near her house and even has a job in the area.
However Judge Mia McPherson rejected her argument and denied the motion.
Last month, the teacher was slapped with a staggering 52 additional charges, including aggravated criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault.
Prosecutors allege she abused the teen more than 50 times, with a chilling 45 of those encounters reportedly taking place on school grounds.
The illicit relationship allegedly kicked off when the boy, who was 14 at the time, was a member of her soccer team at Downers Grove South High School.
After an injury sidelined him, she began offering him private tutoring sessions before school which prosecutors say quickly turned into something far more sinister.
The alleged sexual relationship is believed to have begun in her classroom, with the first encounter occurring when she was 28 and the boy just 15.
Formella and her husband are college sweethearts who tied the knot just last year, just weeks before her alleged sordid affair with the teen reportedly fizzled out in September.
Prosecutors claim she told the boy she planned to dump her husband and abscond with his family's vast fortune.
Michael Formella is the scion of E. Formella & Sons, a renowned Chicago-based Italian foods empire.
Despite Formella's alleged scheme to ditch him and plunder his family's wealth, his father, Randy Formella, has continued to show up in court to supporting her.
He has not commented about why the family still stands by her.
Michael, a former baseball star, previously whined to police that he was 'completely blindsided' by the allegations and swore he had no clue his wife was allegedly shacked up with an underage boy.
But investigators paint a different picture, claiming the illicit relationship unfolded right under his nose, with Christina allegedly texting the teen even while the couple were vacationing together in Italy.
Prosecutors also accuse Christina of grooming the boy.
The allegations emerged in March after the boy's mother stumbled upon horrifying text messages on his phone, including one from Formella professing her 'love' for him and another chillingly stating, 'I love having sex with you'.
Initially, prosecutors believed the sordid affair culminated in a single sexual encounter after months of inappropriate communication.
But they say further evidence revealed the pair had engaged in sex dozens of times, allegedly in her classroom, and even multiple times at the home she shared with her unsuspecting husband.
DuPage County prosecutors claimed that during her police interview, Formella tried to portray her victim as a boy obsessed with a teacher because she's 'good looking' and claimed her husband was aware of the situation.
'Throughout her interview, [Formella] tried to paint [the accuser] as her "stalker" and claimed that her husband was aware,' prosecutors said in court documents obtained by the New York Post.
But prosecutors say a string of text messages, along with a steamy, unhinged diary discovered on her phone, told a very different story, painting her as obsessive, manipulative, and controlling.
'I went back and screen shotted every, single, time that I said we should break up until after the wedding and after you graduated,' Formella allegedly wrote in the diary.
'And every single fking time you came back and convinced me it would be fine. YOU ruined us.
'I warned you that we should never have started dating a long long long fking time ago and you gas lit me and convinced me it was fine,' she allegedly said of the teen boy.
'We WILL be in each other's lives forever. We will be able to love each other while also living our own lives,' the diary added.
Formella later claimed the writings were part of a therapeutic journaling exercise, and insisted that any sexual references in the entries were about her husband.
After the charges were made public in March, Downers Grove South Principal Arwen Lyp shared the following statement with Downers Grove High School parents and staff:
'We are cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the allegations. Additionally, we will contact families whose students have had direct contact with Formella...
'We are devastated, and our community is reeling. An adult has been charged with the most serious of violations, and trust has been broken. Our team is here to support students who are impacted by this terrible news.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Oklahoma doctor accused of killing young daughter and faking a drowning at Florida rental home
An Oklahoma medical doctor is accused of traveling to South Florida and staging the death of her 4-year-old daughter to make it appear the child drowned in the swimming pool at their rented vacation home in the middle of the night, detectives say. Dr. Neha Gupta, a 36-year-old pediatrician, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. She is accused of first-degree murder in Miami-Dade County, an arrest warrant states. Gupta 'attempted to conceal the killing of the deceased victim by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,' a Miami-Dade sheriff's homicide detective wrote in an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press. In addition to facing the murder charge in Florida, she is accused of fleeing to the Oklahoma City area where she lives to avoid prosecution in Florida, according to jail records. Gupta is jailed without bond, and Florida authorities are seeking her return to Miami to face the murder charge. The records do not list an attorney for Gupta who could be reached for comment on her behalf. Gupta told investigators that she was sleeping with her daughter Aria at the Airbnb rental home in El Portal, north of Miami, when she heard a noise around 3:20 a.m. on June 27. She noticed a sliding-glass door in the bedroom that led to the outdoor patio was open. She then found Aria under water and unresponsive in the deep end of the pool, the affidavit states. Gupta said she tried to save the girl, but told the detective that she doesn't know how to swim and was unable to get Aria out of the water. Police and firefighters arrived and performed CPR on the girl, but Aria was pronounced dead at a hospital before dawn. A doctor who performed an autopsy at the medical examiner's office did not find water in the child's lungs or stomach, and that 'based on these findings she was able to rule out drowning as being the cause of death,' the detective wrote. Dr. Tuyet Tran also advised authorities that she believes the child was dead before being placed in the pool, the detective wrote. The cause and manner of death are pending, but Tran found injuries such as bruising within the girl's cheeks. Tran's preliminary findings are that these injuries 'are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering," the affidavit states. Police have not revealed any possible motive in the case. The detective noted in the affidavit that Gupta shares custody of the child with her ex-husband, who told detectives that he and his ex-wife are involved in an ongoing custody battle over the girl. The ex-husband also told detectives that he was unaware that Gupta and the child had traveled to South Florida. Based on surveillance video and Airbnb records, investigators determined that Gupta and her daughter were the sole occupants of the rental unit, the affidavit states. Gupta practiced medicine at Oklahoma Children's Hospital, part of the University of Oklahoma's health system, according to records from the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. The university's faculty directory showed that she has also been an assistant professor at the university's health sciences center. The University of Oklahoma and its health system released a statement this week saying that Gupta has been 'suspended from patient care, given notice of termination, and was no longer seeing patients at the health system as of May 30, 2025.' Gupta has also been given a 'notice of termination' by the university, the statement said.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr arrested by Ice over alleged cartel ties
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has arrested Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr in California and begun proceedings to deport him, citing cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime. Chávez Jr, 38, the son of the legendary world champion Julio César Chávez Sr, was taken into custody by Ice agents on Tuesday in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for celebrity residences. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he had been living in the US unlawfully and posed a significant threat to public safety. Chávez Jr first entered the US legally on a six-month tourist visa in August 2023. He later filed for permanent residency in April 2024, citing marriage to a US citizen. That application raised alarms within federal agencies due to what officials described as 'multiple fraudulent statements' and connections to the Sinaloa cartel, a powerful drug trafficking organization labeled a foreign terrorist group by the Trump administration. His arrest comes amid mounting political tension over the Biden administration's immigration enforcement policies. Internal DHS documents reportedly showed that although Chávez was flagged as an 'egregious public safety threat' in December 2024, his removal was not prioritized. In January 2025, despite those warnings, Chávez was allowed reentry into the country at the San Ysidro port of entry in California under a discretionary parole process. 'This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate with an active arrest warrant for trafficking guns, ammunition, and explosives was arrested by Ice,' said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a sharply worded statement. 'It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat but chose to not prioritize his removal and let him leave and come back into our country.' Federal officials allege Chávez Jr has longstanding ties to organized crime. In Mexico, he is wanted on charges of weapons trafficking and manufacturing explosives without authorization. In the United States, he has a criminal record dating back more than a decade. He was convicted of DUI in California in 2012, and more recently, in January 2024, he was convicted of illegal possession of an assault weapon and manufacturing or importing a short-barreled rifle. The boxer has struggled with substance abuse and legal trouble throughout his career. Once seen as a rising star in Mexican boxing, who held the World Boxing Council's version of the middleweight title from 2011 through 2012, his in-ring performances in recent years have been overshadowed by repeated arrests, erratic behavior and suspensions. Chávez's wife – through whom he filed for a green card – has also drawn scrutiny. DHS officials say she was previously in a relationship with one of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's sons, though she has not been charged with any crime. Chávez is currently in Ice custody and will be processed for expedited removal. A spokesperson for his legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The arrest highlights ongoing friction between immigration enforcement priorities and public safety concerns, as both major parties prepare for a general election in which border policy is expected to feature prominently.
The Independent
24 minutes ago
- The Independent
Husband says he will continue to back Trump despite ICE detaining his Iranian wife
Arpineh Masihi said goodbye to her husband Arthu Sahakyan and the couple's four children after federal agents swarmed their California home on Monday. Masihi, who is from Iran, was arrested and placed into removal proceedings due to immigration issues stemming from a past conviction, according to her husband. She came to the United States when she was 3 years old as a refugee, but her green card was revoked 15 years ago after she was accused of stealing something worth 'less than $200,' he said. In the days after Donald Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, escalating tensions that have threatened to spill over into a regional war with Israel, federal agents reportedly detained dozens of Iranian nationals in the United States — including Masihi. But the couple aren't giving up their support for the president. Sahakyan says a red, white and blue TRUMP 2024 flag flying outside their home will stay there. 'I'm still supporting [Trump],' he told FOX 11 in Los Angeles. 'Even though my friends say 'take the flag down, you're going through a lot.' I'm like, no. The flag stands.' Masihi attended an immigration check-in appointment in April, and agents told her 'you're fine' and 'see you back in September or October,' Sahakyan said. Home surveillance video footage from outside their home in Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County on Monday shows Masihi, speaking with several officers as she throws out her arms in exasperation before walking back inside. 'She came and kissed the kids and that was it,' Sahakyan told FOX 11. 'That was the last time we saw her.' Sahakyan insists that 'Trump is not trying to do anything bad.' 'We understand what he's doing. He wants the best for the country,' he told the outlet. 'I'm just trying to make the best of it. I don't want any families to go through this. If they are, I apologize for what they're going through because it's hard.' Masihi's case is among a wave of similar arrests across the country, from New York to Louisiana, targeting Iranians who are legally living in the United States. Mandonna 'Donna' Kashanian, an Iranian woman who has lived in the United States for 47 years, was arrested outside her New Orleans home. Kashanian, 64, was gardening outside her New Orleans home when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrived and swiftly handcuffed her, according to her family. She arrived in the United States in 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum, fearing retaliation for her father's support of the U.S.-backed shah Mohammad Reza. She is married to a U.S. citizen and the couple have a U.S. citizen daughter. Kashanian lost that case but was allowed to remain in the country with her family on the condition that she regularly check in with immigration officers She is now detained inside ICE's South Louisiana Immigration Center, roughly three hours from New Orleans. Trump's Department of Homeland Security 'has engaged in racial profiling and indiscriminate mass arrests of Iranians across the country, all under the guise of 'national security,'' according to National Iranian American Council president Jamal Abdi. More than 130 Iranian nationals have been detained within the days after U.S. airstrikes, with 670 Iranians in ICE custody nationwide, according to Fox News. 'As with all broad and racially motivated enforcement actions, everyday people suffer the most,' Abdi added. 'Like many Iranian Americans, those arrested often came to the U.S. in search of opportunity and freedom from an authoritarian government,' he said. 'Now, their mere identity now appears to be grounds for arrest in the so-called 'land of the free.'' Sahakyan told FOX 11 that he supports immigration agents vetting Iranian nationals for so-called 'sleeper cells.' 'I think it will resolve a lot of issues because we'll know exactly who's in here for what reasons, even though I miss [my wife] dearly,' he said. 'I think we could have a faster process [where they determine] she's not a radical, or tied to the crazies, let her out.' The Trump administration has thus far detained an average of roughly 20,000 immigrants each month, three times as many under the same point in 2024. The president's mass deportation agenda has also set More than 56,000 people are currently held in immigrant detention centers across the country, according to a Syracuse University database. Internal government data obtained by CBS News suggests an even higher figure, with roughly 59,000 immigrants behind bars — or 140 percent of the agency's ostensible capacity to hold them. Among those in detention now, 47 percent have no criminal record whatsoever, and fewer than 30 percent have been convicted of crimes, according to analysis from The Independent.
