Illinois teacher Christina Formella left new husband totally in the dark about twisted relationship with 15-year-old student: docs
A teacher accused of molesting a 15-year-old student has claimed the boy was a “stalker” and that her new husband knew all about the boy's so-called obsession with her, court docs show.
The Illinois teacher accused of molesting a 15-year-old student claimed to cops that the boy was a “stalker” and that her new husband knew all about his so-called obsession with her after she was arrested.
But, Christina Formella’s ex college baseball player spouse said he was totally in the dark about the boy, according to court documents.
Formella, 30, of the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, tried to play off the allegations that she had a months-long relationship with the teen — which he said culminated in them having sex in a classroom — as a boy obsessed with a teacher because she’s “good looking,” according to the docs filed by DuPage County prosecutors.
“Throughout her interview, [Formella] tried to paint [accuser] as her ‘stalker’ and claimed that her husband was aware,” the documents read.
But it was all news to Michael Formella, who married his college sweetheart Christina last summer about six months after the alleged abuse, according to the docs.
“Oddly enough, her husband told detectives that he knows nothing about [accuser] beyond his status as a soccer player,” investigators wrote.
According to torrid diary entries that prosecutors found on Formella’s phone, she also seemed to blame the teen for “ruining” her marriage, according to the docs.
“I went back and screen shotted every, single, time that I said we should break up until after the wedding and after you graduated. And every single f****** time you came back and convinced me it would be fine,” she wrote. “YOU ruined us. I warned you we should never have started dating a long long long f****** time ago and you gas lit me and convinced me it was fine.”
“I’m f****** mad I let a 16 year old f*** with me like that … in the end, we both lost. You lost the girl who would have stuck with you through thick and thin,” she wrote, later expressing hope in a section titled “Manifestations” that the boy would reach back out to her to mend their relationship.
“We WILL be in each other’s lives forever. We will be able to love each other while also living our own lives,” she allegedly wrote.
The assault allegedly took place in a Downers Grove High classroom in December 2023 when Formella was a 28-year-old soccer coach and special education teacher at the school.
She had been the boy’s soccer coach and was giving him private tutoring sessions when the pair allegedly began messaging each other — which prosecutors say quickly escalated into inappropriate conversations, and culminated in a sexual encounter in a classroom one morning, according to docs.
The alleged affair was discovered after the boy’s mother recently found text messages on his phone from Formella in which she professed her love for him and talked about sex they’d had — including one message where she said “I love having sex with you.”
After her arrest, Formella claimed to police the boy planted the messages on her phone to “blackmail” her “because she is good looking.”
Despite her allegations of stalking, prosecutors noted Formella never reported any inappropriate behavior to school administrators or the boy’s parents — and that she also had shirtless photos from his social media on her phone, and text messages with people where she “spontaneously” brought his name up, according to docs.
And while she denied ever having sex, Formella later fessed up to having a relationship with the boy, prosecutors said.
“Defendant admitted that she knew her relationship was wrong, but she was unable to stop it because she cares too much about him,” documents read.
Formella told investigators those writings were merely an outlet for anxiety, and that any references to sex were about her husband.
Prosecutors requested that Formalla be denied pretrial release, but she was let go on the condition that she not enter school grounds or have contact with anybody under 18.
She faces two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, and is due in court on April 14.
Formella began teaching at Downers Grove in 2020, and has been placed on paid leave from the school.
She played soccer at Main South High School in Park Ridge, and went on to play for Concordia University where she dated her future husband.
Photos from their recent wedding showed the pair dancing and kissing lovingly while loved ones looked on and cheered.
Formella was driving with her husband when police pulled her over and detained her over the rape allegations — and he appeared baffled by what was happening.
“Is she going somewhere?” he asked cops as they took her away.
Originally published as Illinois teacher Christina Formella left new husband totally in the dark about twisted relationship with 15-year-old student: docs