More Top Picks Best Night Lights For Seniors
player ready...A former Orland Park teacher is expected to return to court later this month on charges she had sex with two underage students.
Cara Labus, 31, of Joliet, faces four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from sexual relationships with two victims between the ages of 14 and 16, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Labus’ case has paralleled a similar one involving another former Orland Park teacher, who was sentenced last month to two years of probation and must register as a sex offender.
“They were in a position of authority, being a schoolteacher and a coach,” said Orland Park police Cmdr. John Keating.
Jeffrey Morowczynski pleaded guilty Aug. 19 to indecent solicitation of a child. The 28-year-old former substitute teacher and basketball coach at an Orland District 135 school was originally charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old inside his car in August 2014. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.
Authorities were “extremely worried about the emotional state of the victim,” who is still living in the community, Keating said.
Prosecutors will sometimes push for a guilty plea to avoid having to force an emotionally unstable victim to testify, he said.
“Fortunately, the victim didn’t have to testify in this case,” Keating said.
Authorities said Labus, who entered a plea of not guilty in March, met the victims while she was a teacher and basketball coach at Jerling Junior High in Orland Park.
She kept in touch with them after graduation and allegedly engaged in various sexual acts with the teens on multiple occasions between December 2008 and February 2011, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
One teen reported the relationship in December 2014, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Orland School District 135 hired Labus in 2006 to teach sixth-grade math at Jerling, according to school board records.
After she left the Orland Park school in 2010, Labus went to work for Hufford Junior High School in Joliet and taught there when she was arrested in January.
She resigned from her position with the school on Feb. 4, said Sandra Zalewski, a spokeswoman for Joliet Public Schools District 86.
Labus has remained free on bond since January. She is due in court on Sept. 22.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.