Appeals court won't reduce molester's sentence

SPRINGFIELD -- A state appeals court has rejected convicted child molester Jon White's bid for a reduction in his 60-year sentence.

White contended the 60-year prison sentence he received last year for the sexual assault of school students was excessive. His attorneys wanted to shave off 28 years.

In a decision filed this week, the three-judge panel in Springfield said White's job as a grade school teacher was an important factor in the length of his sentence.

White pleaded guilty last year to eight counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse related to eight students at the Thomas Paine Elementary School in Urbana.

He was arrested in 2007 after the parents of an Urbana student notified school officials of a sexually suggestive game the 6-foot-6-inch, 330-pound White was conducting with female students.