Ex-St. Viator coach facing new sex abuse charge
A former St. Viator High School coach and counselor who was already facing misdemeanor charges alleging he sent inappropriate text messages to teenage students now faces a felony sexual abuse of a minor charge.
Joe Majkowski was arrested Dec. 27 on a single charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim between the ages of 13 and 18, according to court records.
He posted 10% of his $25,000 bail and was released from custody the next day. He is next due in court Jan. 23, prosecutors said.
In May, Arlington Heights police began investigating Majkowski after several female students accused him of sending inappropriate text messages. School policy is to only email students and include parents on all correspondence.
The newest allegation was made in October, according to Arlington Heights police Sgt. Andrew Blevins.
Blevins said the mother of the girl accusing Majkowski of sexual abuse called police after the initial allegations against him were made public and said her daughter had received similar text messages from Majkowski, who was her guidance counselor. However, the mother did not wish to pursue charges initially, Blevins said.
The 16-year-old girl and her mother eventually did agree to talk to investigators after the girl told therapists Majkowski had "groped" her during one encounter in his office last year, Blevins said.
Blevins said the girl told investigators Majkowski had rubbed her shoulders and chest area over her clothes during a counseling session.
Majkowski's attorney, Al Stavros, said his client denies the allegations as "unfounded and unsubstantiated."
"My client maintains his innocence, and we'll be going to trial," Stavros said. "We're kind of at a loss with this new charge. This is a guy with a stellar career, and all this comes out right before his retirement. I think there's a lot more to this story, but we'll see."
In June - a day before he was set to retire from the school - Majkowski was escorted off the Catholic high school's campus by police.
In July, he was charged with four misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for what authorities said involved sending inappropriate text messages to four 15-year-old students.
Stavros maintains Majkowski is charged only in connection with texting one student. Court records indicate the charges stem from contact with all four girls.
Copies of the text messages to the students were heavily redacted when released by police after a public records request, but investigators noted in a police report that in one message Majkowski wrote "that he loves them."
A bond proffer issued to the judge by prosecutors after Majkowski's most recent arrest outlines many of the previous accusations against him.
In the document, the girls reported the texting began just months before Majkowski was set to retire. Prosecutors said that in one exchange, Majkowski wrote, "When you're older I wanna do stuff with you but you can't tell anyone that."
A judge had ordered the text messages turned over to Stavros in October, but the attorney said he never received them and has filed a motion to dismiss the charges because of that.
"They haven't given us any of that, and it's been four months," he said.
Majkowski stopped coaching boys basketball in 2011 but remained at the school as a counselor until this year.
School officials notified parents of the allegations when they were first made but told police they were not conducting any internal investigation, according to a police report from the time. None of the parents interviewed initially reported their children had been inappropriately touched.