Ex-Hinsdale Central coach's sex conviction, sentence is upheld
A former Hinsdale Central High School teacher and coach serving a 32-year prison term for having sexual relationships with two underage students lost his first round of appeals, prosecutors said Thursday.
An appellate court upheld Robert J. Mueller's eight-count criminal sexual assault conviction. The 47-year-old former Woodridge man will ask the Illinois Supreme Court to intervene.
The lengthy prison term was the minimum allowed under the law based on consecutive sentencing for each count. DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said Mueller got what he deserved.
"School is a place where children should be nurtured and educated, not victimized," Birkett said in a written statement. "Anyone who preys upon our unsuspecting youth to satisfy their own desires will be held fully accountable for their actions."
Mueller worked in the Hinsdale school system since 1988. He was a respected science teacher and head coach of the boys varsity basketball team.
Both young women testified during Mueller's 2006 trial. One of them tearfully said she began having weekly sex with the married coach in 2002, when she was 15, in his car and in the high school. She said the sex continued until early 2004 when police received an anonymous letter exposing their trysts.
Mueller was arrested weeks later. He was indicted on allegations involving an earlier affair with another student, a champion athlete, shortly later.
Mueller denied inappropriate contact with the one girl. He admitting the earlier affair with the athlete, but he said it did not begin until after she turned the legal age of 18.
She, however, said their first sexual encounter was when she was 16 in 1999. She said they had sex once to twice a week until January 2002.
A DuPage County jury convicted him Dec. 18, 2006, of sexually assaulting both girls on eight of the 21 counts in which he stood accused.
Justices issued their opinion upholding the conviction Tuesday. Mueller is eligible for parole in 2034.