Friday, January 9, 2009 East Central Illinois

White still faces additional time on McLean County charges

By: Mary Schenk

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Saturday, April 05, 2008

URBANA – Jon White's victims will be older than he is now when the former Urbana grade school teacher gets out of prison.

The sentence by Judge Harry Clem on Friday sentenced White, 27, of Villa Grove, to 48 years, representing six years in prison for each of the eight girls White admitted that he performed acts with during 2005 and 2006 while he was their teacher at Thomas Paine School.

The maximum he could have received for the aggravated criminal sexual abuse counts to which he pleaded guilty in February was 56 years.

"What a colossal waste because Mr. White decided his physical urges took priority over the other obligations he had," Clem said.

Parents of the girls shook hands and embraced in the hall after the emotionally exhausting two-day hearing, then moved to Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz's office.

Rietz said they didn't want to talk to reporters but told her they were satisfied with the sentence and wanted to know what's next for them in terms of White's April 28 sentencing in McLean County.

White, who has been free on bond since June, was taken into custody immediately. In McLean County he faces up to 14 years for two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Prosecutors there will ask the judge to have him serve that sentence after he completes his Champaign County sentence.

Given day-for-day good time, White will be well into his 50s before being eligible for parole. His victims will all be over 30.

In imposing the sentence, Clem said the case was not about what school officials in McLean County or Urbana did or did not do when they learned about White's odd behavior, although he added: "I'm sure officials in both locations wish they had acted sooner."

Civil lawsuits on behalf of the girls – a total of nine in Champaign County and two in McLean – are expected against the school districts at any time.

"What this case is about is a colossal breach of the public trust," Clem said, saying White has caused parents to be less trusting of their children's authority figures.

Testimony earlier Friday from sex offender evaluator and therapist Mike Kleppin revealed that he considered White at "moderate to high" risk to reoffend.

Kleppin did extensive tests and interviews of White and relied on reports about the present cases, information about White's behavior as a teen that showed deviant tendencies, and his use of pornography as an adult.

Authorities learned that in the schools in Normal and Urbana, White engaged the girls in a "tasting game" in which he put flavored sauces on a banana and had the girls, blindfolded, lick it off the fruit. He admitted that watching that sexually aroused him.

Kleppin said White's perception was that such acts were not bad.

"He'd say, 'I had a line in my mind I was not going to cross.' That's a cognitive distortion because this behavior already crossed those lines," Kleppin said. He added that such behavior, if not interrupted, would likely be repeated and could escalate.

In a prepared statement, White apologized to the victims, their families, his teaching colleagues, the Unit 5 and District 116 school districts, citizens of Champaign-Urbana and Bloomington-Normal, his own family, and even to Clem.

"First and foremost, I apologize to each of the students. I am deeply sorry for what was done. I pray they understand they did nothing wrong and I am solely to blame," he said.

Turning to the victims' parents, he said: "It is quite possible this has affected you more than your child. I know each of you will probably never forgive me but I hope you hear me when I tell you I am ashamed of my actions."

White, his wife and his parents all sobbed when he talked about how his "thoughtless actions" will keep him from seeing his 23-month-old daughter grow up. He said his guilt for what he had done to his wife and their child was "unbearable."

In arguing for the maximum sentence for White, Rietz said it's impossible to know what lasting effect White's actions will have on the girls and how they will react when they're old enough to understand sex.

"This court must send a strong message to others who would consider using their positions of trust to take advantage of our children that this behavior will not be tolerated in our community," she said.

Rietz asked for restitution for some of the victims for days of lost work and other unspecified expenses but Clem denied that, saying there was no statutory authority for him to order it.

Defense attorney Brett Olmstead called his client a "master manipulator and a deceiver" in the way he developed the tasting game so that the children never thought it should be a secret.

But Olmstead said while the acts were terrible, "there's no denying it could have been worse." He asked for only 32 years for White.

"The children here, from their point of view, didn't participate in any sex acts," he said.

He noted that of the eight Champaign County victims, five were not receiving any counseling, two received some counseling and one is in regular counseling.

Olmstead said it was his hope for the girls that "with maturity will come a better understanding that you can't control what's in another person's mind."

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