Staggering number of times glamorous teacher is accused of sleeping with student as husband stands by her side amid fresh claims
Christina Formella, 30, faced an Illinois court on Tuesday as she was hit with 52 new charges, supported by her loyal husband Michael, who has stood by her side throughout the scandal.
The teacher and soccer coach is now accused of additional counts of sexual assault, indecent solicitation of a child, grooming and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
According to the new complaint, Formella groomed a 15-year-old male student and then had sex with him at least 45 times at Downers Grove South High School while classes were in session, and another five times at her home.
She was the boy's soccer coach and tutor.
The alleged abuse began in January 2023 and continued through at least August 2024. It was only discovered when the student's mother found disturbing messages between the two when she logged into her son's iCloud account.
'The new allegations against Ms. Formella, including the allegations of grooming and that the abuse lasted nearly two years, are beyond disturbing,' State Attorney Robert Berlin said.
'I thank the victim in this case for having the courage to come forward during what I image is an extremely difficult time for him.'
Prosecutor Jaclyn McAndrew told the court that the new evidence suggests Formella first began contacting the boy when he was just 14 years old.
The contact, McAndrew said, lasted far longer than prosecutors initially believed when she was initially charged.
Formella was arrested in March during a traffic stop outside of Chicago and initially charged with just three criminal counts. She has pleaded not guilty.
'She is unbelieving conniving, and she is unbelieving controlling,' McAndrew told the judge, according to the Daily Herald.
McAndrew claimed Formella had told the boy she did not intend to marry her husband, and that he was having an affair with her best friend.
Formella allegedly told him that her husband would leave her and she would come into millions of dollars.
It is also alleged that she was texting the boy while on a vacation with her husband in Italy.
Shocking police bodycam footage captured the moment she was arrested as she sat in her car next to her 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.
However, her husband told investigators it was the first time he had heard about a situation involving the boy.
'Oddly enough, her husband told detectives that he knows nothing about [the accuser] beyond his status as a soccer player,' prosecutors said.
Formella allegedly sent shockingly lewd messages to the boy, telling him how much she 'loves him' and 'loves having sex' with him.
The teacher has maintained that she never sexually assaulted the student and that 'everybody comes after her because she is good-looking,' according to court documents.
She confessed to police that she 'cared too much' about the student, but claimed that he broke into her phone and sent the text messages as blackmail.
'She claimed that one day, [the boy], had grabbed her phone unattended, had entered her passcode... had sent the message to his phone, had then deleted the message from her phone, and had saved it to his phone as blackmail,' the documents said.
Formella's next court appearance is scheduled for August 4, 2025.
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