Allegations similar to Livingston County case
The details laid out in court about what an Urbana school teacher is alleged to have done to three young girls at Thomas Paine school are strikingly similar to a 2002 case from Livingston County.
Champaign County Assistant State's Attorney Troy Lozar said in court that sometime between September and December, three different girls were asked to report to Jon White's classroom during lunch or after school when there were no other students around to take part in blindfolded "taste tests" or a tasting "game."
Boys were not allowed to play the taste game, the girls said in interviews that were videotaped at the Children's Advocacy Center in Urbana on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Lozar said Urbana police searched White's classroom Tuesday night and retrieved numerous items. The search warrant said police were looking for different sauces and toys and trinkets as well as evidence of bodily fluids.
The details of the allegations are almost identical to a case involving Gerald Scott Huddleston, 40, of Fairbury.
The former Chatsworth Elementary School teacher was convicted of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and is now serving life in prison.
According to details of Huddleston's case outlined in an Illinois Supreme Court opinion, Huddleston told Livingston County sheriff's deputies that he played a "food taste game" with three fourth-grade girls in his classroom in May 2002.
In Huddleston's written statement, he admitted having inappropriate sexual contact with the girls after the school day was over.
"I had only intended to have them help me in cleaning chores in the room. Something snapped inside me and I went too far. I don't know why I did it," wrote Huddleston, who was married and had a child.
His case was covered by The Pantagraph in Bloomington-Normal for three years as it wound its way through the courts. The Illinois Supreme Court ultimately ruled that life in prison was the appropriate punishment for Huddleston, who is serving his sentence at Menard.
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