Prior to his arrest, a pair of investigations found no evidence that a former St. Charles North High School dean’s assistant had an improper relationship with a female student, according to court records and the St. Charles school district.
That assistant, 29-year-old Christopher Lee, is now accused of criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection to allegations he had sex with a female student at his home in St. Charles earlier this year.
Lee, recently freed on $50,000 bail following his May arrest, was the subject of a brief internal investigation by St. Charles North officials during the recently completed school year amid suspicions of a relationship with the same student. School officials determined the claim was unfounded after Lee and the student denied any wrongdoing, according to court records and the St. Charles school district.
A January 2014 probe by St. Charles police, the Kane County Child Advocacy Center and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services came to a similar result after no information was found to substantiate a social media claim Lee had a sexual encounter with a female basketball player he coached at the school during 2013, court documents state.
St. Charles School District Superintendent Donald Schlomann said the system in place to respond to tips or allegations against school personnel worked both times.
“They took these instances seriously,” Schlomann said of school and district officials. “I’m proud of the fact we take anonymous tips seriously. We try to always see if there’s anything there.”
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Lee was coaching a girls basketball team at St. Charles North during the 2013-14 school year at the time the first allegation came up. He was placed on administrative leave while authorities looked into the claim, a decision Schlomann said is a policy followed as a precaution.
The district hired Lee as a dean’s assistant for the 2014-15 school year. St. Charles North officials needed only one day to conclude their internal investigation that found nothing to substantiate a faculty member’s concern about Lee’s relationship with the female student, Schlomann said.
Despite the two prior investigationsinvolving Lee, who was fired within days of his arrest, Schlomann said the situation “befuddles” him.
“This bothers me a lot,” he said.
The St. Charles police officer assigned to St. Charles North received a tip in early May about a relationship between a student and an unnamed staff member. The officer, Det. Eric Majewski, wrote in a search warrant affidavit that he suspected the staff member was Lee, whom Majewski investigated as part of the 2013 allegation. Majewski contacted a St. Charles North administrator, who offered details of the internal investigation from a few months before, the affidavit said.
Majewski, who acknowledged he never heard or saw Lee do anything inappropriate during their interactions at the school, eventually developed enough information to identify the female student.
“(Lee) said after they arrived at his apartment, he and (the student) sat and watched TV in the living room while they ate ice cream,” the affidavit states, citing a May 7 police interview with Lee. “They then began to kiss and then moved to his bedroom.”
Lee later drove the student back to her home, according to the affidavit. She had originally been dropped off by her mother at a St. Charles movie theater, court documents state.
Lee was released from Kane County Jail on June 17 after his mother posted $5,000 bond. He is scheduled to return to court on July 10.
Campana is a freelance reporter