Crime & Safety
Prosecutors: Teacher from St. Charles Coerced Sex From Student at Wheaton North
Teacher Edwin Klemm is suspended without pay. "It is alleged that Mr. Klemm used his position of trust and authority to seduce his victim into giving him what he wanted," prosecutors say.
The sexual relationship between a Wheaton North High School teacher and student involved more than 13 different encounters in various places, DuPage County prosecutors said.
At least 10 of those encounters took place in the St. Charles home of , said Ann Celine O’Hallaren, assistant DuPage County state's attorney.
Klemm was charged with 11 counts of criminal sexual assault in connection to his relationship with the student. Criminal sexual assault is a Class 1 felony punishable by four to 15 years per count in prison, according to prosecutors.
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O'Hallaren recounted Klemm and the student's relationship during a March 20 bond court hearing. Judge Elizabeth Sexton set Klemm's bail at $600,000, 10 percent of which he'll need to be freed on bond. Klemm was still in the DuPage County Jail on Sunday evening, according to jail records.
Klemm spoke to investigators on March 19, the same day he was arrested. He is suspended from his teaching job without pay and cannot return, pending the outcome of the case, District 200 officials said Wednesday.
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Klemm said the first sexual encounter between himself and the student took place in his home, on the 1100 block of Howard Street in St. Charles. He admitted to six to 10 instances of oral sex to investigators. At least four of these instances took place in a parking lot at County Farm and Geneva roads in Winfield.
Investigators interviewed the student just a few days before they spoke to Klemm. In addition to the parking lot encounters, the student said that she and Klemm met in a classroom across the hall from Klemm's main room.
The other places Klemm and the student met were in a parking garage for a movie theater in Chicago, and inside of a theater, prosecutors said.
In addition to performing oral sex on each other, there was also fondling and vaginal intercourse between Klemm and the student, O’Hallaren said at the bond hearing. The student told investigators that Klemm always wore a condom and practiced safe sex during the encounters.
"Teachers are role models who students look up to and in whom parents place a great amount of trust," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a prepared statement. "It is alleged that Mr. Klemm used his position of trust and authority to seduce his victim into giving him what he wanted. If the allegations against Mr. Klemm are true, he violated that trust in the worst possible way."
Klemm's case is due in court again on April 15, according to DuPage County court records.
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Related:
- Klemm Was 'Quite Open' About Relationship: Former Student to ABC7
- Patch Roundup: Teacher Charged with Sex Assault on Student; Parent Arrested at School Defends Action
- Readers React: English Teacher Charged with Sexually Assaulting Student
- St. Charles Man Charged With Sexual Assault of Wheaton North Student
