Ex-teacher pleads guilty in sex case

Published 10:23 am Monday, December 22, 2014

A former Pacelli Catholic Schools teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student.

Mary Gilles

Mary Gilles

Mary Gilles, 28, faces six counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after she was accused of sleeping with one of her students several times in 2014. She pleaded guilty to two of those six counts last week in Mower County District Court.

According to a court complaint, Pacelli staffers saw Gilles with the student earlier this school year inside the school auditorium late at night, which prompted administrators to search the student’s school and personal email accounts. In addition, emails uncovered by school administrators revealed Gilles could have been pregnant by the student.

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The victim and Gilles told police they had slept together four or five times between February and June, and continued to have sex in September, according to the complaint.

Gilles was suspended from teaching high school math and arrested at her home on Oct. 6. She was fired from her job the next day.

She is scheduled to be sentenced in March.