The Second District Appellate Court of Illinois on Thursday, March 19, upheld the conviction and sentence of former Hinsdale Central High School science teacher and boys varsity basketball coach Robert Mueller.

Mueller was convicted in December 2006 on eight counts of criminal sexual assault. In March 2007 Mueller, 45, was sentenced to 32 years in prison after being convicted for having frequent sexual trysts with two female students who attended Hinsdale Central High School between 1999 and 2004.

At the time of the convictions, DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett called Mueller a “sexual predator” who preyed on his victims, who would “suffer for years to come.”

“He lured them into his net,” Birkett said. “He groomed them under the eyes of fellow teachers."
Both of the former students testified in the circuit court trial that the sex with Mueller was consensual, but the girls were both under age 18 when the relationships began.

Mueller, who was convicted on eight of 13 counts of criminal sexual abuse, currently is an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections Web site.

Six of the counts of which Mueller was convicted related to the first student. The student eventually married and was living in Pennsylvania at the time of the convictions.

The other two counts related to allegations by a woman, a 20-year-old college student at the time of conviction, who said she had sex with Mueller on a weekly basis during her junior and senior years at Hinsdale Central.

Mueller, who lived in Woodridge, was married with two children when the relationships took place.
Birkett released a statement following the Appellate Court’s decision upholding the conviction and sentence.

“School is a place where children should be nurtured and educated, not victimized. I am very pleased with this opinion handed down by the Appellate Court,” Birkett said.