The charges – alleging abuse to at least eight students from 2013 to 2015 — stem from a tip the FBI first received in 2024.
By JACKSON BRANDHORST
Saluki Reporting Lab
and MOLLY PARKER
Capitol News Illinois
mparker@capitolnewsillinois.com
Article Summary
- John Wakey, an assistant football coach and teacher in Carterville, in deep southern Illinois, has been arrested on nine counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
- A tip in the case came to the FBI in late 2024, but local law enforcement and school district officials said at the time that investigators lacked enough evidence and on-the-record statements to move forward.
- Investigators alleged the offenses occurred from 2013 to 2015 and involved members of the Carterville High School football team.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
MARION — John “Jake” Wakey, the Carterville High School assistant football coach and teacher at the center of an ongoing criminal sexual abuse investigation, was arrested Thursday, May 7, in Pontiac, Illinois.
Wakey is charged with nine Class 2 felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving victims aged 13-17 by a person in a position of trust during the 2013, 2014 and 2015 school years.
At a news conference on Friday, May 8, Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich said that four former students had now made statements on the record to Williamson County detectives, and that investigators have developed “solid and credible information” identifying a total of eight potential victims connected to the Wakey investigation.
“Of those eight identifiable victims, four individuals have presently memorialized the facts of their experiences on the record with investigators, which ultimately formed the basis for the charges announced today,” Diederich said.
Investigators allege that the offenses occurred from 2013 to 2015 and involved members of the Carterville football team. Diederich said that at this moment, the sheriff’s office has no evidence about abuses occurring before or after those years but encourages anyone who has experienced abuse within or outside of that timeframe to contact his office.
The arrest comes less than three months after the Willamson County Sheriff’s Office announced it had opened a criminal sexual abuse investigation into an unnamed Carterville school district employee, and over 18 months since the FBI first received the original tip.
The investigation and subsequent arrest stem from a November 2024 FBI tip about alleged sexual abuse involving former students and a Carterville High School employee.
The FBI determined that it did not have jurisdiction to investigate the accusations at the time of the tip, and referred the information to local law enforcement.
The Carterville Police Department requested on Dec. 31, 2024, that the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office assume responsibility for the investigation. The case was assigned to the sheriff’s office investigations unit and is being led by Detective Michael Flanigan — who had previously been the detective at the Carterville Police Department, and was then transferred along with the case to the sheriff’s office the following day.
Williamson County investigators said that they were able to memorialize facts from one victim — an adult who was a minor student at the time of the incidents — on Feb. 20, 2026.
The district then placed Wakey on paid administrative leave that same day after receiving notification from the sheriff’s office that they had begun an investigation into the coach and teacher.
Capitol News Illinois and Saluki Reporting Lab students from the Daily Egyptian later identified Wakey as the subject of the investigation after obtaining subpoenas served to the district.
Diederich previously said that the case remained largely dormant for 15 months because investigators lacked enough evidence and on-the-record statements to move forward.
Diederich said Friday that cases involving criminal sexual abuse often depend on victims being willing to formally recount their experiences to investigators.
“In cases involving criminal sexual abuse, it frequently requires a victim-survivor to come forward, disclose what occurred and allow investigators to memorialize those facts for prosecution,” Diederich said. “For many victims, that process can take months or even years, as appears to have occurred in this investigation.”
In the subpoenas, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois State Board of Education sought records from Carterville Unit No. 5 School District related to Wakey’s employment. The sheriff’s office sought his personnel and disciplinary records, while a second subpoena requested academic records for 17 former students whose names were redacted by the district. The Illinois State Board of Education also issued a subpoena as part of what it described as a licensure investigation.
Wakey has worked for the Carterville district since 2003 as a teacher and assistant football coach. Records previously obtained by CNI and the DE show that Wakey was suspended for 10 days without pay in 2009 after the district accused him of inappropriately texting students, allowing students to spend time at his home late at night without other adults present, and drinking in front of students before driving to catch a bus to a football game.
He was not charged with any crimes at the time.
Additional records obtained by CNI and the DE also show that Wakey began working for the district days after completing court supervision for a misdemeanor conviction for providing liquor to minors in Coles County earlier in 2003.
“The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office is aware of longstanding community concerns, suspicions, rumors and allegations involving inappropriate conduct, including allegations related to alcohol, student-teacher contact and the sharing of images involving students and/or faculty members,” Diederich said.
Handling of case draws scrutiny
The case has drawn scrutiny from parents and community members over how long it took to begin an investigation, how the district handled earlier warnings and how communication has been shared since.
Like the sheriff’s office, Carterville school officials have said they did not have enough information involving multiple anonymous tips in the past to conduct an internal investigation or to make a report to child welfare officials, but took immediate action after law enforcement notified the district in February that a former student had provided a formal statement.
Williamson County States Attorney Ted Hampson said during the news conference that cases like this come with facts that are sometimes “a little bit daunting.”
“We were able to proceed with evidence yesterday before the grand jury, which returned these nine indictments,” Hampson said. “As a result of the arrest, we anticipate that there’ll be a detention hearing for this defendant on Monday, in which the state will be seeking to detain him at that time. Beyond that, since this case has now been filed, the state’s attorney’s office cannot discuss the facts of this case and procedural aspects. We do, however, intend to seek justice for these victims, and we will pursue it to the fullest extent of the law.”
Since the investigation became public, Carterville school officials have said they are reviewing employee conduct policies, strengthening training on appropriate communication with students and prohibiting the use of personal technology for school-related communications.
The sheriff’s office also said investigative efforts connected to the Carterville case led detectives to uncover separate allegations involving Christopher C. Ballard, a faculty member assigned to the Williamson County Special Education District and associated with Herrin Elementary School.
Ballard was arrested on April 21 and charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, Class X felonies, and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, Class 2 felonies, according to the sheriff’s office.
Wakey is being transferred from the Livingston County Jail in Pontiac to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office in Marion.
The Carterville Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, to take action on the “discipline and/or dismissal of a licensed employee of the District,” according to the meeting agenda.
The Saluki Local Reporting Lab is a special project of the SIU Carbondale School of Journalism and Advertising and is designed to give students from diverse backgrounds practical reporting experience while providing news coverage to underserved communities.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
