Friday, November 20, 2009 East Central Illinois

Ex-Urbana teacher to be sentenced in April

By: Mary Schenk

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Thursday, February 21, 2008
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Photo by: The News-Gazette

Former Urbana grade school teacher Jon White pleaded guilty in both Champaign and McLean counties to charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse Wednesday.

BLOOMINGTON – It will be late April before Jon White knows how many years he'll spend in prison for acts he engaged in with female students in two counties while he was a grade-school teacher.

White, 27, of Villa Grove, formerly of Normal, pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon before McLean County Judge Charles Reynard to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse alleging that between Oct. 1, 2004, and April 30, 2005, he placed an object in the mouth of two girls, then ages 6 and 7, for his own sexual gratification.

Reynard explained to White, who indicated he understood, that White faces six to 14 years in prison for those convictions and that they could be served at the same time or after he serves whatever sentence he receives from a Champaign County judge for eight counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse to which he pleaded guilty earlier in the day in Urbana.

The potential range of penalties for his Champaign County convictions is 24 to 56 years in prison.

Probation, while an option, is not likely. Any time White serves in prison is eligible for day-for-day credit for good behavior.

McLean County State's Attorney Bill Yoder had no comment about the resolution of White's case in that county, which came to light after his arrest in Urbana on Jan. 31, 2007.

But White's attorneys, Brett Olmstead and Carol Dison of Urbana, and Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz all expressed relief that the 11 girls named in the charges in both counties would not have to testify at a trial.

Neither will they be testifying at sentencing, Dison said Wednesday afternoon. In Champaign County, White's sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 3 and 4. Family members of the girls and family and friends of White probably will be taking the stand in both counties.

During White's pleas, prosecutors in both counties gave the judges a lengthy recitation of their evidence against White, who is married and has a 22-month-old daughter that he is able to visit while supervised.

Rietz said it was an Urbana school district employee who told her husband, a University of Illinois police officer, about the "taste-test game" on Jan. 29, 2007. He called Urbana police that day, launching an investigation that resulted in White's arrest two days later when he arrived at school to teach.

Urbana police and trained Department of Children and Family Service workers interviewed about 20 children, most of them girls, before concluding that there were nine potential victims in Champaign County. Rietz ultimately decided to have White plead to charges involving eight.

Rietz said the statements of the girls named in the charges to which White pleaded guilty were fairly consistent: That White blindfolded them with sleeping masks and scarves, held a banana with various flavors on it, told them not to bite or touch the banana, and to lick the flavors off. If they correctly guessed the flavor, they were rewarded with a trinket such as rubber fingernails or candy. The taste tests took place in a corner of his classroom out of the line of sight of anyone walking down the hall and that the games took place either during lunch recess or when the after-school program was going on.

Rietz said a male student who heard about the taste test and wanted to participate was told no by White. That boy would testify that the students never did a taste test in class and that they did not study Helen Keller.

Rietz said White told Urbana police Investigator Duane Maxey that he used Keller's disabilities as an instructional tool, that the tests were done with the whole class and that the children blindfolded themselves.

Other potential testimony would have come from Thomas Paine Elementary School lunchroom supervisor Thelma McMillon, who said three girls asked to go to White's classroom for a taste test. "She took the girls in to White's classroom, and one of the girls tried to tell him that they were there to do the taste test, but he cut her off and said he did not have time," Rietz said.

Semen on two scarves and a night mask that were found in a closed classroom cabinet during a Jan. 30, 2007, search was the most damning evidence against White.

DNA tests on the stains matched White's. Stains on the scarves were also identified as coming from two of the girls named as victims, Rietz said.

In McLean County, Assistant State's Attorney Kim Campbell said police in Normal learned that in the fall of 2004, while a teacher at Colene Hoose Elementary School, White downloaded pornography from the Internet on to his classroom computer, then sent it to his home computer.

Campbell said during the same time, another teacher expressed concerns to school officials that White had students sit on his lap, contrary to their training.

Several of his former students interviewed at the Children's Advocacy Center in Bloomington said during reading times, White would ask female students to sit at his feet, hug his legs, and scratch his calves on his bare skin. One child reported being asked by White to give him a back rub underneath his shirt.

The girls named in the McLean County aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges also would have testified that White was working on a Helen Keller project but wanted to practice with them first. He blindfolded both girls and had them sit on chairs near the back of the classroom out of the view of the front door. They, too, were instructed to lick – not bite – a banana and to identify the flavors.

Asked how their client was taking the news about his potential prison term, Dison said: "As a criminal defendant in these circumstances, you go back and forth as to how you feel. It is difficult for him and his family."

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