{"id":37556,"date":"2026-05-08T16:47:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=37556"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:47:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:47:58","slug":"carterville-assistant-football-coach-arrested-on-criminal-sexual-abuse-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/37556-carterville-assistant-football-coach-arrested-on-criminal-sexual-abuse-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Carterville Assistant Football Coach Arrested on Criminal Sexual Abuse Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>(WAKEY)<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The charges \u2013 alleging abuse to at least eight students from 2013 to 2015 \u2014 stem from a tip the FBI first received in 2024.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>By JACKSON BRANDHORST<\/p>\n<p>Saluki Reporting Lab<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com\">jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>and MOLLY PARKER<\/p>\n<p>Capitol News Illinois<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:mparker@capitolnewsillinois.com\">mparker@capitolnewsillinois.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Article Summary<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Wakey, an assistant football coach and teacher in Carterville, in deep southern Illinois, has been arrested on nine counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A tip in the case came to the FBI in late 2024, but local law enforcement and school district officials said at the time that investigators lacked enough evidence and on-the-record statements to move forward.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Investigators alleged the offenses occurred from 2013 to 2015 and involved members of the Carterville High School football team.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MARION \u2014 John \u201cJake\u201d Wakey, the Carterville High School assistant football coach and teacher at the center of an ongoing criminal sexual abuse investigation, was arrested Thursday, May 7, in Pontiac, Illinois.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wakey is charged with nine Class 2 felony counts of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilga.gov\/documents\/legislation\/ilcs\/documents\/072000050K11-1.60.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">aggravated criminal sexual abuse<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> involving victims aged 13-17 by a person in a position of trust during the 2013, 2014 and 2015 school years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At a news conference on Friday, May 8, Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich said that four former students had now made statements on the record to Williamson County detectives, and that investigators have developed \u201csolid and credible information\u201d identifying a total of eight potential victims connected to the Wakey investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOf those eight identifiable victims, four individuals have presently memorialized the facts of their experiences on the record with investigators, which ultimately formed the basis for the charges announced today,\u201d Diederich said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Investigators allege that the offenses occurred from 2013 to 2015 and involved members of the Carterville football team. Diederich said that at this moment, the sheriff\u2019s office has no evidence about abuses occurring before or after those years but encourages anyone who has experienced abuse within or outside of that timeframe to contact his office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The arrest comes less than three months after the Willamson County Sheriff\u2019s Office announced it had opened a criminal sexual abuse investigation into an unnamed Carterville school district employee, and over 18 months since the FBI first received <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/carterville-school-employee-placed-on-leave-for-sexual-abuse-over-a-year-after-fbi-received-tip\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the original tip.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The investigation and subsequent arrest stem from a November 2024 FBI tip about alleged sexual abuse involving former students and a Carterville High School employee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FBI determined that it did not have jurisdiction to investigate the accusations at the time of the tip, and referred the information to local law enforcement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Carterville Police Department requested on Dec. 31, 2024, that the Williamson County Sheriff\u2019s Office assume responsibility for the investigation. The case was assigned to the sheriff\u2019s office investigations unit and is being led by Detective Michael Flanigan \u2014 who had previously been the detective at the Carterville Police Department, and was then transferred along with the case to the sheriff\u2019s office the following day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williamson County investigators said that they were able to memorialize facts from one victim \u2014 an adult who was a minor student at the time of the incidents \u2014 on Feb. 20, 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The district then placed Wakey on paid administrative leave that same day after receiving notification from the sheriff\u2019s office that they had begun an investigation into the coach and teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois and Saluki Reporting Lab students from the Daily Egyptian later identified Wakey as the subject of the investigation after obtaining subpoenas served to the district.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diederich previously said that the case remained largely dormant for 15 months because investigators lacked enough evidence and on-the-record statements to move forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diederich said Friday that cases involving criminal sexual abuse often depend on victims being willing to formally recount their experiences to investigators.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn cases involving criminal sexual abuse, it frequently requires a victim-survivor to come forward, disclose what occurred and allow investigators to memorialize those facts for prosecution,\u201d Diederich said. \u201cFor many victims, that process can take months or even years, as appears to have occurred in this investigation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the subpoenas, the Williamson County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Illinois State Board of Education sought records from Carterville Unit No. 5 School District related to Wakey\u2019s employment. The sheriff\u2019s office sought his personnel and disciplinary records, while a second subpoena requested academic records for 17 former students whose names were redacted by the district. The Illinois State Board of Education also issued a subpoena as part of what it described as a licensure investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wakey has worked for the Carterville district since 2003 as a teacher and assistant football coach. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/carterville-coach-at-center-of-sexual-abuse-investigation-has-history-of-disciplinary-action\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Records previously obtained by CNI and the DE<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> show that Wakey was suspended for 10 days without pay in 2009 after the district accused him of inappropriately texting students, allowing students to spend time at his home late at night without other adults present and drinking in front of students before driving to catch a bus to a football game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was not charged with any crimes at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additional records obtained by CNI and the DE also show that Wakey began working for the district days after completing court supervision for a misdemeanor conviction for providing liquor to minors in Coles County earlier in 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Williamson County Sheriff&#8217;s Office is aware of longstanding community concerns, suspicions, rumors and allegations involving inappropriate conduct, including allegations related to alcohol, student-teacher contact and the sharing of images involving students and\/or faculty members,\u201d Diederich said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Handling of case draws scrutiny<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The case has drawn scrutiny from parents and community members over how long it took to begin an investigation, how the district handled earlier warnings and how communication has been shared since.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like the sheriff\u2019s office, Carterville school officials have said they did not have enough information involving multiple anonymous tips in the past to conduct an internal investigation or to make a report to child welfare officials, but took immediate action after law enforcement notified the district in February that a former student had provided a formal statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williamson County States Attorney Ted Hampson said during the news conference that cases like this <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">come with facts that are sometimes \u201ca little bit daunting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe were able to proceed with evidence yesterday before the grand jury, which returned these nine indictments,\u201d Hampson said. \u201cAs a result of the arrest, we anticipate that there&#8217;ll be a detention hearing for this defendant on Monday, in which the state will be seeking to detain him at that time. Beyond that, since this case has now been filed, the state&#8217;s attorney&#8217;s office cannot discuss the facts of this case and procedural aspects. We do, however, intend to seek justice for these victims and we will pursue it to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the investigation became public, Carterville school officials have said they are reviewing employee conduct policies, strengthening training on appropriate communication with students and prohibiting the use of personal technology for school-related communications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sheriff\u2019s office also said investigative efforts connected to the Carterville case led detectives to uncover separate allegations involving Christopher C. Ballard, a faculty member assigned to the Williamson County Special Education District and associated with Herrin Elementary School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ballard was arrested April 21 and charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, Class X felonies, and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, Class 2 felonies, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wakey is being transferred from the Livingston County Jail in Pontiac to the Williamson County Sheriff&#8217;s Office in Marion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Carterville Board of Education will hold is holding a special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, to take action on the \u201cdiscipline and\/or dismissal of a licensed employee of the District,\u201d according to the meeting agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Saluki Local Reporting Lab is a special project of the SIU Carbondale School of Journalism and Advertising and is designed to give students from diverse backgrounds practical reporting experience while providing news coverage to underserved communities.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(WAKEY) The charges \u2013 alleging abuse to at least eight students from 2013 to 2015 \u2014 stem from a tip the FBI first received in 2024. By JACKSON BRANDHORST Saluki [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":37557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Carterville Assistant Football Coach Arrested on Criminal Sexual Abuse Charges - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/37556-carterville-assistant-football-coach-arrested-on-criminal-sexual-abuse-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Carterville Assistant Football Coach Arrested on Criminal Sexual Abuse Charges - 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