Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / TEACHER: 'I WILL THROW UP;' STUDENT SEX ABUSE ALLEGED, CLAIMS Framed Bc So 'Good-looking'

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TEACHER: 'I WILL THROW UP;' STUDENT SEX ABUSE ALLEGED, CLAIMS Framed Bc So 'Good-looking' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a married special education teacher,
0:09
Speaker 1: threatens I'll throw up busted on sex abuse with a
0:15
Speaker 1: teen boy, now claiming wait for it, that she has
0:19
Speaker 1: been framed because she's so good looking. Her words not mine.
0:25
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
0:28
Speaker 1: being with us.
0:29
Speaker 2: Christina Formela is a Concordia University grad and former soccer
0:33
Speaker 2: team star. Now she's a special ed teacher and soccer
0:36
Speaker 2: coach at Downers Grove High School in Illinois. But for
0:39
Speaker 2: Mela's world comes crashing down when a dark secret is
0:43
Speaker 2: revealed at a routine traffic stop.
0:46
Speaker 3: A dark secret. I don't know that I would call.
0:50
Speaker 1: Alleged sex abuse on a child a miner that is
0:55
Speaker 1: your student.
0:56
Speaker 3: I don't know that I.
0:57
Speaker 1: Would call that a secret. I think more apropriately, I
1:00
Speaker 1: would call it a felony. But caught on tape the
1:06
Speaker 1: married special ed teacher, for Peace's sake, they were practically
1:09
Speaker 1: still on their honeymoon.
1:11
Speaker 3: They'd only been married less than.
1:13
Speaker 1: A year, I believe, caught on bodycam threatening to throw up. Well,
1:19
Speaker 1: after I learned about this case and investigated it myself,
1:22
Speaker 1: I don't want to throw up too.
1:24
Speaker 3: But let's take a look.
1:25
Speaker 1: A lot of people have claimed she is so called
1:27
Speaker 1: glamorous special ed teacher.
1:30
Speaker 3: She's not glamorous to me.
1:32
Speaker 1: I have prosecuted so many child rape and child sex
1:37
Speaker 1: abuse cases. She looks like she's straight from hell to me.
1:42
Speaker 1: But you decide. Let's watch what was caught on police bodycam?
1:48
Speaker 4: How you doing flicer go with Donor's girl, Jeffrey license
1:51
Speaker 4: on you? Yeah, I'm sure a cofews. I was playing
1:56
Speaker 4: ta door Christina, okay for change.
2:01
Speaker 5: Me faiting step on the car for me.
2:03
Speaker 6: I know your Cons'll explain everything to you.
2:06
Speaker 5: You don't have anything on you.
2:07
Speaker 7: You can grab whatever you need, whatever I need.
2:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, whatever you need to get your phone, your your
2:12
Speaker 6: first go and grab it.
2:13
Speaker 5: Is she going somewhere?
2:14
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're gonna explain everything to you. Guys, go and
2:18
Speaker 6: grab out. We're not going anywere right now.
2:20
Speaker 7: Of course, of course.
2:23
Speaker 8: I understand what's going on here.
2:24
Speaker 5: I get it. Yeah, you can go grab your things.
2:27
Speaker 8: Can you come with me?
2:28
Speaker 9: Yes?
2:28
Speaker 7: Yes, you stay there for right now? Is there to
2:31
Speaker 7: stay there?
2:31
Speaker 1: But well yes you can uh uh straight out to
2:34
Speaker 1: Brian Fitzgibbons, joining US Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security leading
2:39
Speaker 1: a team of investigators every single day.
2:43
Speaker 3: Why are they being so solicitous to her?
2:48
Speaker 1: She is charged with molesting a minor, a teen boy,
2:53
Speaker 1: and I believe still lying about it, claiming it only
2:56
Speaker 1: happened once. Uh okay, but that said, Fitzgibbons, what happened
3:01
Speaker 1: to licensed registration? Why are they saying, I'm sure you're confused.
3:07
Speaker 1: I'll explain everything. You're Christina. What are they on a
3:10
Speaker 1: first night basis?
3:11
Speaker 7: So here's the deal, Nancy.
3:12
Speaker 10: I believe that that police officer actually did a very
3:15
Speaker 10: excellent job with this contact with Christina.
3:19
Speaker 7: Formella number one.
3:21
Speaker 10: He secured that cell phone, which is going to be
3:24
Speaker 10: a key piece of evidence in this case, and he
3:28
Speaker 10: got that without a fight from her. So he de
3:31
Speaker 10: escalated the situation and secured the cell phone which is
3:34
Speaker 10: going to be the number one appropriate piece of evidence.
3:37
Speaker 7: Here.
3:37
Speaker 1: Put fitz Gibbons up. Fitz Gibbons, I actually agree with you.
3:42
Speaker 1: I agree with you. However, I believe they're being overly
3:46
Speaker 1: solicitous to what police say, what prosecutors say is a
3:52
Speaker 1: child molester. Fitz Gibbons, you're not bending over backwards for
3:57
Speaker 1: for Mela Christina Frommela, but as she's attractive, are you
4:02
Speaker 1: You know it has been argued in the past by
4:04
Speaker 1: other teachers now convicted of child.
4:07
Speaker 3: Abuse that they were too pretty for jail. You're not
4:09
Speaker 3: on that boat, are you?
4:10
Speaker 7: Certainly not? Nancy.
4:12
Speaker 10: What I saw there was the officer doing everything to
4:16
Speaker 10: make sure he preserved that key piece of evidence.
4:19
Speaker 7: I think he knew exactly what he was doing here.
4:21
Speaker 7: And you're right.
4:24
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at Christina Formella, special ed teacher
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Speaker 1: now charged with child sex abuse with a student, a
4:35
Speaker 1: teen boy just married.
4:38
Speaker 3: By the way. Oh here, she threatens to throw up.
4:42
Speaker 11: Unless sure you don't want to tissue or something?
4:53
Speaker 12: All right, Sea, there, can.
5:05
Speaker 5: You get like a bag? She SuDS, she gets nauseous. Yeah,
5:08
Speaker 5: I don't know. Do we have any of those amesis bags?
5:10
Speaker 5: Like going around with fo I figure she was something
5:14
Speaker 5: better than.
5:20
Speaker 8: Here.
5:20
Speaker 5: Who stay with the agram?
5:33
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to hyperventilate right now watching her
5:36
Speaker 1: hold on just a moment to Scott Iiker joining me.
5:39
Speaker 1: He's joining us later regarding a cell phone analysis but
5:44
Speaker 1: he was the founding member, a founding member of the
5:46
Speaker 1: FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team.
5:50
Speaker 3: But for this question, former police officer.
5:52
Speaker 1: Home Side detective with Norfolk, Virginia Police Department twelve years Scott,
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Speaker 1: I thought they were being again over solicits too. Who
6:00
Speaker 1: are going you need a tissue? Do you need a
6:03
Speaker 1: vomit bag? But I assume you've been in the back
6:06
Speaker 1: of a cruiser before, Scott, iiker, Well, I've.
6:09
Speaker 13: Been in the back of a cruiser, but not in
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Speaker 13: her position. You can see what starting to come over her.
6:16
Speaker 13: She's started to realize what she's done and she's been caught,
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Speaker 13: and that would make me nauseous too. If I was
6:22
Speaker 13: in her position and I can see like.
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Speaker 1: Her will put you mean, she's not sorry she did it,
6:29
Speaker 1: she just doesn't want to go to Hillfort. I was
6:31
Speaker 1: getting to the vomit bag they have to work in
6:36
Speaker 1: that cruiser. I have been there when patrol men and
6:42
Speaker 1: patrol women have to literally hose out the back seat
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Speaker 1: of a cruiser. There's drugs, there's vomit, there's urine, there's feces,
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Speaker 1: there's spit where they try to spit at the officers.
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Speaker 3: The back seat is like has matt to the max.
7:02
Speaker 3: So that's why.
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Speaker 1: I believe they're offering her a vomit bag, you know,
7:06
Speaker 1: like the kind you get on a plane.
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Speaker 13: Oh, I definitely agree, and I've had to clean out
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Speaker 13: my cruiser numerous times for those same reasons you talked about.
7:13
Speaker 13: And that smell never goes away, I swear at the
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Speaker 13: back of the cruisers.
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Speaker 3: No j never ever goes away. Cops drive with the
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Speaker 3: windows down.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't help joining me an all star panel to
7:25
Speaker 1: make sense of what we're learning right now. But I'm
7:26
Speaker 1: going to see that body cam one more time.
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Speaker 3: Now. You see her threatening.
7:32
Speaker 1: To throw up, you see her seemingly hyperventilating, crying.
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Speaker 3: Let's listen to it one more time.
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Speaker 11: Unless you have Luricia down there, I'm sure you don't
7:48
Speaker 11: want to tissue or something.
7:53
Speaker 5: All right, Sean like the bag?
7:58
Speaker 9: O there, pro driver.
8:04
Speaker 7: Can you get like a bag?
8:05
Speaker 5: She said? She gets nauseous. Yeah, I don't know. Do
8:08
Speaker 5: we have any of those Emesis bags? Like going around
8:10
Speaker 5: the spot, I figure she was something better than with
8:19
Speaker 5: the autogram.
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Speaker 14: Eric Fattus really well, Nancy, and looking at her reaction there,
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Speaker 14: one could argue it is consistent with someone who was
8:37
Speaker 14: just caught for something they did.
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Speaker 3: On the other hand, when you look.
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Speaker 14: At it, she's confused, she's hyperventilating, she's crying, she's saying
8:42
Speaker 14: she's nauseous. All of those things could also be consistent
8:46
Speaker 14: with someone who has been accused of something horrendous and
8:49
Speaker 14: who didn't do it. So I'm not sure we could
8:51
Speaker 14: really draw any firm conclusions from that video.
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Speaker 1: Faddess, she hasn't been told yet of what she is accused,
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Speaker 1: so that argument just went right down technical legal phrase
9:04
Speaker 1: the crapper. Okay, so she's not high perventialigning because they
9:08
Speaker 1: just told her what she's accused of.
9:09
Speaker 3: She hasn't been told yet, so take another swing at
9:13
Speaker 3: the ball.
9:15
Speaker 14: Even if she wasn't apprized of the exact nature of
9:17
Speaker 14: the allegations, being in the back of a cop car
9:20
Speaker 14: is distressing, surely, and even more so if a person
9:24
Speaker 14: did not do anything criminal there and they're you know,
9:27
Speaker 14: sort of be fuddled about what in the world is
9:28
Speaker 14: happening to me?
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Speaker 7: You know, I'm not taking a.
9:31
Speaker 14: Personal position on the facts, but I'm just saying that
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Speaker 14: reaction has multiple interpretations.
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Speaker 1: Okay, even if she had been at that juncture told
9:39
Speaker 1: why she was arrested, you still are standing by your story.
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Speaker 14: I'm just saying, in terms of a human reaction to
9:47
Speaker 14: a very distressing situation, that can be interpreted multiple ways,
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Speaker 14: and those expressions that we're seeing, those those outward behaviors
9:56
Speaker 14: are consistent with someone who has been caught for doing
9:58
Speaker 14: something horrible, and they're also can with someone who is
10:01
Speaker 14: being accused of something she didn't do. And so I
10:04
Speaker 14: just think at this juncture there's just those inclutions that
10:07
Speaker 14: can be drawn.
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Speaker 1: Erry fattis question if you had been accused of child molestation,
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Speaker 1: because I'm not quite sure in this series of body
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Speaker 1: cam reactions where she knows she's been accused of where
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Speaker 1: she doesn't. If you've been accused of child molestation, you
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Speaker 1: wouldn't say, I've never done that in my life, that
10:29
Speaker 1: did not happen. I want a lawyer, you wouldn't say that.
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Speaker 14: Me personally, as a seasoned attorney, I absolutely would say that.
10:36
Speaker 14: But you know, a thirty year old special education teacher
10:39
Speaker 14: and soccer coach, perhaps that is just not front of
10:42
Speaker 14: mind her.
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Speaker 1: She's a twelve year old little girl in the fifth
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Speaker 1: grade that's never seen law in order. You're saying, oh,
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Speaker 1: she's just thirty years old special ed teacher. To be
10:50
Speaker 1: a special ed teacher, you have to go to four
10:53
Speaker 1: years of school, four years of college. Plus all sorts
10:56
Speaker 1: of certifications. This is an educated person that's been out in.
11:01
Speaker 3: The workforce for years.
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Speaker 1: But you're telling me she's so naive she doesn't know
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Speaker 1: to say I didn't do that.
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Speaker 3: I want a lawyer.
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Speaker 14: The thing is that there's no playbook for how to
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Speaker 14: respond when a person is accused of something horrible. Some
11:16
Speaker 14: people might react one way, whereas others might react a differently.
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Speaker 14: And I'm just in looking at this without some sort
11:21
Speaker 14: of psychological evaluation, it's just hard to say exactly where
11:26
Speaker 14: that reaction is coming from.
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Speaker 1: Okay, who is this woman? Christina Formela?
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Speaker 3: Listen.
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Speaker 9: Christina Formela is a special education teacher and soccer coach
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Speaker 9: at Donors Grove South High School, a proud Mustang since
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Speaker 9: twenty twenty for Mela graduated from Concordia University three years
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Speaker 9: earlier as an accomplished student athlete, playing as a starter
11:46
Speaker 9: in forty nine soccer matches during her college career. That's
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Speaker 9: where Christina meets her now husband, also a student athlete,
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Speaker 9: a pitcher on the baseball team for Christina's senior year.
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Speaker 9: They share the number twenty two. The happy couple tie
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Speaker 9: the not in a gorgeous summer ceremony August of twenty
12:03
Speaker 9: twenty four.
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Speaker 1: Straight out to Crime Stories, investigative reporter Sydney Sumner. Sydney
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Speaker 1: tell me how the whole thing unfolded? What is she
12:12
Speaker 1: charged with? How did the whole thing start? Is it true?
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Speaker 1: According to police, these are all just allegations. She has
12:19
Speaker 1: not been proven guilty. She's still presumed innocent under the law.
12:23
Speaker 1: According to police, she began flirting with a teen boy
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Speaker 1: one of her students, and that continued on a school app.
12:34
Speaker 7: That's correct.
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Speaker 9: Nancy So, a mother of a Downer's Grove student, went
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Speaker 9: to police. When she was setting up his new iPhone,
12:44
Speaker 9: she discovered these messages that weren't saved on his old
12:47
Speaker 9: phone but to his iCloud account, and she discovered these
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Speaker 9: messages seemingly discussing a sexual encounter with his teacher, Christina Formela.
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Speaker 9: So is rushdown to the police station. He tells officers
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Speaker 9: that this started out as some innocent flirting. I say
13:08
Speaker 9: the word innocent, but that's obviously not innocent in this situation,
13:12
Speaker 9: but some flirting over the School Messaging Act. So the
13:16
Speaker 9: school has their own specific messaging system and that's where
13:21
Speaker 9: they started communicating. Once Christina Formla became this boy's tutor
13:25
Speaker 9: in addition to being his soccer coach on the field.
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Speaker 9: So these messages then progressed to having her phone number
13:33
Speaker 9: because she wanted to play an I message game with him.
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Speaker 9: So she gives out her phone.
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Speaker 1: Number Sydney, Sydney. Wait a minute, So the teacher wants
13:42
Speaker 1: to play.
13:42
Speaker 9: What you know, those games in your I messages, So
13:45
Speaker 9: on an iPhone you can start a text conversation and
13:48
Speaker 9: play pool ball or something. So that's what she suggested
13:51
Speaker 9: to this teen boy and gave him her phone number.
13:55
Speaker 9: So now they're texting and also facetiming. There's records of
14:00
Speaker 9: numerous spacetime calls in between this teen and the teacher,
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Speaker 9: and he said that culminated in a rape in December
14:10
Speaker 9: of twenty twenty three during what should have been a
14:13
Speaker 9: before school tutoring session. So they're in her classroom, she
14:17
Speaker 9: shuts the door and there is a sexual encounter.
14:20
Speaker 3: Okay, Sidney, I don't like what you just said.
14:24
Speaker 1: Some you remind me of so many defendants that would
14:29
Speaker 1: say we would.
14:30
Speaker 3: I had one judge who was.
14:31
Speaker 1: The greatest judge ever, oldest judge in the courthouse, and
14:35
Speaker 1: therefore he wanted to maintain.
14:38
Speaker 3: His court calendar.
14:40
Speaker 1: He wanted to be on trial every other week to
14:43
Speaker 1: prove he was fit. And he was fit all right, doctor,
14:46
Speaker 1: I mean Judge Luther Alverson. But we would have plea
14:51
Speaker 1: negotiations with me, my investigator, Ernest, the defendant and his
14:56
Speaker 1: defense lawyer to see if the case could be worked out. FYI,
15:00
Speaker 1: it easily went to trial. That said, the lawyer and
15:04
Speaker 1: the defendant would always act like Ms. Grace, I caught
15:08
Speaker 1: a little burglary charge. I they just caught it. Okay,
15:12
Speaker 1: you just said she shuts the door and a child
15:16
Speaker 1: molestation happened. Didn't you leave something out, Sydney Sumner.
15:22
Speaker 9: Yes, Nancy, we're calling that a rape. That's exactly what
15:25
Speaker 9: it is. It's a statutory rape at least, and at most,
15:29
Speaker 9: it is a sexual assault. This woman, this adult, should
15:34
Speaker 9: never have come on to this child in any way,
15:37
Speaker 9: shape or form, especially a teacher. This is a professional relationship.
15:41
Speaker 9: This should be a trusted relationship. And the school said
15:44
Speaker 9: it perfectly. It's broken trust over here.
15:48
Speaker 7: So we do have an investigation going on. We have
15:51
Speaker 7: to talk to you about it at the police department.
15:53
Speaker 6: Okay, so everything you there, it's not my investigation.
15:57
Speaker 7: I don't know the full details. Would you have to
15:59
Speaker 7: bring you there though?
16:00
Speaker 6: Okay, so I get to put your handcuffs and bring
16:03
Speaker 6: it to the police department just as yes, unfortunately.
16:06
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm willing to go with it. I did it.
16:08
Speaker 6: Yeah, unfortunately, we have to do it that way to
16:10
Speaker 6: do a favor.
16:11
Speaker 7: Just tack this off, joining me.
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Speaker 1: An all star panel to make sense of what we
16:15
Speaker 1: are learning tonight. A According to some people, gorgeous thirty
16:20
Speaker 1: year old special ed teacher and soccer coach busted on
16:26
Speaker 1: alleged underage sex translation rape. If you are underage, you
16:32
Speaker 1: cannot give consent. Also a student, a teen boy student.
16:39
Speaker 1: Is it true Sidney Sumner that she also kept a
16:42
Speaker 1: memoir of sorts a memoir detailing the sex sex with
16:50
Speaker 1: a teen boys student?
16:52
Speaker 9: Fancy that is correct, though there are reports of this
16:56
Speaker 9: note at material So these are several writing in her
17:01
Speaker 9: notes app One section titled Manifestations is saying things out
17:07
Speaker 9: loud in the hopes that the more you say them,
17:10
Speaker 9: the more they will happen. And several writings in this
17:13
Speaker 9: section reference to the.
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Speaker 3: Victim, me, what did you just say?
17:18
Speaker 1: The more you say something, the more likely it's going
17:21
Speaker 1: to happen.
17:22
Speaker 9: Yes, Nancy, this is a mantra. It's called manifestation that
17:25
Speaker 9: many young people participate in nowadays.
17:30
Speaker 1: Okay, I've heard of manifestation. I didn't think anyone actually
17:34
Speaker 1: thought it worked, but okay, So I want you to
17:37
Speaker 1: hear what we've learned about her memoir that she kept
17:40
Speaker 1: in the notes section on her iPhone. I hate to
17:45
Speaker 1: give a tutorial to all the future felas out there,
17:48
Speaker 1: but when you basically make it to do list and
17:51
Speaker 1: recount all of your felonious activities on your iPhone, yeah,
17:56
Speaker 1: you're gonna get busted.
17:57
Speaker 3: But you've got to hear this. Listen.
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Speaker 15: I'm not sad. I'm being mad that I let a
18:01
Speaker 15: sixteen year old with me like that, and Nata promised
18:04
Speaker 15: to myself that I will never let any guy walk
18:06
Speaker 15: with me like that again. Ever, in the end, we
18:09
Speaker 15: both lost. You lost the girl who would have stuck
18:12
Speaker 15: with you through thick and thin, who would have changed
18:14
Speaker 15: anything about herself to make you happy. And I lost
18:17
Speaker 15: the person I was before I met you.
18:19
Speaker 3: What is she talking about? Wait a minute, who I
18:22
Speaker 3: definitely need a shrink.
18:24
Speaker 1: But first two, Anna Sonoda joining us child sex abuse
18:27
Speaker 1: grooming expert, clinical social worker, therapist, and author of Duck
18:33
Speaker 1: Duck Groom.
18:34
Speaker 3: Do you hear her?
18:36
Speaker 1: This is the woman, the grown married woman claiming quote,
18:40
Speaker 1: I'm not sad, I am effing mad.
18:43
Speaker 3: I led a sixteen year old confession f with me like.
18:48
Speaker 1: That, and I made a promise to myself I will
18:51
Speaker 1: never let any guy f with me like that again.
18:54
Speaker 1: Ever did she put a bunch of exclamations with hearts
18:57
Speaker 1: at the bottom.
18:58
Speaker 3: I don't know. In the end, we both lost.
19:01
Speaker 1: What you lost a girl who would have stuck with
19:04
Speaker 1: you through thick and thin, who would have changed anything
19:08
Speaker 1: about herself to make you happy. What get a divorce
19:12
Speaker 1: and go back in time to will She was a
19:14
Speaker 1: minor two and I lost a person I was before
19:17
Speaker 1: I met you. What is she talking about, Anna Sinota?
19:21
Speaker 8: This is no girl. This is a full grown, thirty
19:25
Speaker 8: year old woman who abused her position of power. She
19:29
Speaker 8: groomed this young victim. And something I want to highlight
19:34
Speaker 8: here is that predators run on gas. What does that mean?
19:38
Speaker 8: That means you need to have grooming access and space.
19:41
Speaker 8: So she groomed this boy using flattery, kindness, and highlighting
19:47
Speaker 8: him as her selected target and she gained access in
19:52
Speaker 8: her role as a tutor, as a coach, as a teacher,
19:55
Speaker 8: and then what available space did she have? She had
19:58
Speaker 8: an empty classroom before when our school started, she had
20:01
Speaker 8: isolated time with this young victim. My question would be
20:05
Speaker 8: how many others are there?
20:06
Speaker 1: She's acting a lot, She's got a future with this
20:09
Speaker 1: little boy.
20:10
Speaker 3: Okay, where does her husband fit into this scenario?
20:13
Speaker 1: Much less the police, But I want you to hear
20:15
Speaker 1: more of what we have learned in her own memoirs
20:19
Speaker 1: on her own cell phone.
20:21
Speaker 15: Listen is going to reach out to me soon and
20:24
Speaker 15: try to fix things between us. In the meantime, I'm
20:26
Speaker 15: going to live my best life knowing he's not the
20:29
Speaker 15: person I thought he was, and that he is beneath
20:31
Speaker 15: me and I will connect again soon in a positive way.
20:35
Speaker 3: We will both get the.
20:36
Speaker 15: Closure we need in order to move on in a
20:38
Speaker 15: healthy way. We will be able to be a part
20:40
Speaker 15: of each other's lives forever. We will be in each
20:43
Speaker 15: other's lives forever. We will be able to love each
20:46
Speaker 15: other while also living our own lives.
20:48
Speaker 1: What a whack a doodle, We will be in each
20:52
Speaker 1: other's lives forever. In camps, we will be in each
20:55
Speaker 1: other's lives forever. Yes, you will when he and his
21:00
Speaker 1: mommy show up to keep you out from getting parole.
21:03
Speaker 1: So that's a long time in the future. That's something
21:07
Speaker 1: for you to think about crime stories with Nancy Grace
21:17
Speaker 1: Sidney Sumner. Is this her manifesting again? Victim is going
21:22
Speaker 1: to reach out to me soon and try to fix
21:24
Speaker 1: things between us. In the meantime, I'm going to live
21:27
Speaker 1: my best life knowing he's not the person I thought
21:31
Speaker 1: he was, and he is beneath me.
21:34
Speaker 3: He is a little boy. What is she saying?
21:38
Speaker 9: Yes, Nancy, So these are her manifestations. A thirty year
21:41
Speaker 9: old teacher is manifesting wishes about a teen student.
21:48
Speaker 8: So not her.
21:49
Speaker 9: Husband, not wanting to further her career, not wanting to
21:52
Speaker 9: become a better teacher or a better coach, or a
21:56
Speaker 9: better wife, but she wants this teenage boy reconcile with her.
22:01
Speaker 9: That's what's going through her mind every night.
22:03
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, we all need to shrink right
22:06
Speaker 1: about now.
22:08
Speaker 3: Joining us.
22:09
Speaker 1: Doctor Sherry Schwartz forensic psychologists specializing in this line of
22:15
Speaker 1: work at Panthermedigation dot com, and she is an author
22:18
Speaker 1: as well, Criminal behavior and my favorite where law and
22:22
Speaker 1: psychology intersect.
22:25
Speaker 3: Doctor Sherry Schwartz, thank you for being with us. What
22:28
Speaker 3: is she talking about? Do you hear this?
22:30
Speaker 1: We will, in all caps, be in each other's lives forever.
22:35
Speaker 1: We will be able to love each other while living
22:38
Speaker 1: our own lives. We need to move forward in a
22:43
Speaker 1: healthy way. That ship has sailed, Doctor Sherry.
22:47
Speaker 16: Correct, and what I see, what I'm hearing is something
22:52
Speaker 16: that's very dark. Sexual predators need to keep their victims close,
22:56
Speaker 16: particularly when they're victims are minor children. This is her
23:01
Speaker 16: manifestation is I don't want to get caught, so I
23:04
Speaker 16: need to keep him close. I need him to believe
23:07
Speaker 16: that we're in love and we're this unique couple and
23:10
Speaker 16: we're going to go forward together forever.
23:24
Speaker 5: Guess.
23:40
Speaker 17: In addition to the text messages, police also find several
23:43
Speaker 17: writings in Formula's notes app discussing her relationship with the victim,
23:47
Speaker 17: naming him directly. Formla pens what looks like a breakup letter,
23:50
Speaker 17: calling the victim disgusting for cheating on her. For Mela
23:54
Speaker 17: claims the victim manipulated her into maintaining their relationship despite
23:58
Speaker 17: her attempts to break it off. For Mela says she
24:01
Speaker 17: now realizes the victim was only interested in her for sex,
24:04
Speaker 17: and notes that she is angry that she allowed a
24:06
Speaker 17: sixteen year old to mess with her head.
24:09
Speaker 9: Am I in trouble?
24:10
Speaker 16: Like I'm I'm so lost right now?
24:12
Speaker 9: I'm ok?
24:14
Speaker 12: You are you talking about all these topion aps right now?
24:18
Speaker 12: You're made to fame? More investigations.
24:20
Speaker 5: Never bring you in to the list her, And.
24:22
Speaker 7: Once you get there, they're gonna tell you what I.
24:26
Speaker 10: Am.
24:26
Speaker 3: I in trouble?
24:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, you are.
24:29
Speaker 3: Now.
24:30
Speaker 1: One of the most damning pieces of evidence the state
24:33
Speaker 1: has is her Christina Frommela, thirty year old married special
24:38
Speaker 1: ed teacher that starts quote flirty messages.
24:41
Speaker 3: That's not how I would put it.
24:42
Speaker 1: I would call it entice, it a minor, But that said,
24:45
Speaker 1: flirty messages over the school app. I see my children
24:51
Speaker 1: on the school app all the time. I have personally
24:55
Speaker 1: met every one of their teachers since they were in
24:58
Speaker 1: pre pre pre Okay, you think this mom had.
25:03
Speaker 3: Any idea what was happening? Htl n oh. But you
25:08
Speaker 3: hear from Mella.
25:09
Speaker 1: Talking as if she has somehow been quote done wrong.
25:15
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, her memoir that she wrote
25:19
Speaker 1: on her notes at in her phone.
25:22
Speaker 3: You'd have to hear this.
25:23
Speaker 15: Listen, I, once again, from day to one, called your
25:25
Speaker 15: next girlfriend. You're so predictable and disgusting, shocker. You cheated
25:30
Speaker 15: on me with her. All I was to you was
25:32
Speaker 15: somebody to I'm not upset, I'm not mad, I'm not
25:36
Speaker 15: any of that. I've just lost interest. I went back
25:39
Speaker 15: and screenshot it every single time that I said we
25:41
Speaker 15: should break up until after the wedding and after you graduated,
25:45
Speaker 15: and every single time you came back and convinced me
25:48
Speaker 15: it would be fine. I initiated every single breakup, only
25:52
Speaker 15: for you to end things saying you couldn't get over it.
25:54
Speaker 15: You ruined us us.
25:57
Speaker 1: You ruined us like they have a future, like they're
26:01
Speaker 1: going to get married.
26:02
Speaker 3: Simmy Summer explained to me what she wrote.
26:04
Speaker 1: Did she actually say she wanted to quote break up
26:08
Speaker 1: with the little boy after the wedding?
26:11
Speaker 3: Yes, she did, Nancy.
26:13
Speaker 9: She explained that in very good detail for prosecutors in
26:17
Speaker 9: the future as this case goes to trial. She specifically
26:21
Speaker 9: mentioned both this teen boy's graduation and her own wedding,
26:27
Speaker 9: once again establishing that timeline that the rape occurred. In
26:31
Speaker 9: December of twenty twenty three, almost a year before her wedding,
26:36
Speaker 9: So she references this victim by name multiple times and
26:40
Speaker 9: in his breakup in this breakup letter, what this reads
26:44
Speaker 9: as with the teen boy, she also references his new
26:48
Speaker 9: girlfriend's name, so lots of contexts to establish that this
26:52
Speaker 9: note is about the victim.
26:54
Speaker 1: Straight out to veteran trial lawyer, defense attorney Eric fattis
26:59
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier correctly that the defendant, the special ed
27:04
Speaker 1: teacher Christina FROMMELA, claims the boy, the little boy, grabbed
27:11
Speaker 1: her phone, put in her code, and sent himself flirty
27:18
Speaker 1: and sexu related messages that he, a little boy, had
27:23
Speaker 1: the wherewithal to think that he would frame her for
27:27
Speaker 1: future blackmail.
27:29
Speaker 3: Now she's already put that.
27:30
Speaker 1: Out there, so you, the defense attorney, are stuck with it.
27:34
Speaker 1: You can't just erase that that's out there, so you
27:37
Speaker 1: can't now look for another defense. You're stuck with her words.
27:43
Speaker 1: Let's just pretend that that's true that the boy thought, Hey,
27:49
Speaker 1: a year from now, I'm going to try to blackmail
27:52
Speaker 1: her and frame her. So I'm going to send her
27:54
Speaker 1: text from her to me that I can then say,
27:57
Speaker 1: all right, that's a flight of fancy.
28:00
Speaker 3: Eric fattus. What about her memoir?
28:03
Speaker 1: What about the notes on her iPhone where she talks
28:06
Speaker 1: about how angry she is he got a new quote
28:08
Speaker 1: girlfriend and their future. You know, she claims they only
28:13
Speaker 1: had sex aka raped him one time, but this shows.
28:18
Speaker 3: They have been an item for a long time since
28:23
Speaker 3: before her wedding.
28:24
Speaker 14: Nancy, the multiplicity of messages here, if authentic, is surely problematic.
28:29
Speaker 14: You know, the defense is going to say that at
28:32
Speaker 14: this day and age, sixteen year olds are pretty technologically savvy,
28:36
Speaker 14: some of them are more sophisticated than others. And then
28:38
Speaker 14: on the other hand, sometimes they do irrational, erratic, weird things,
28:41
Speaker 14: and perhaps all of that culminated in this alleged act
28:45
Speaker 14: where he tried to text him from her phone to
28:49
Speaker 14: sort of blackmailer. That's what the defense is going to
28:51
Speaker 14: argue when it comes to the memoir. I think the
28:53
Speaker 14: defense is going to say that there's some murmurs about,
28:56
Speaker 14: at least according to Formila, that references to sexual activity
29:00
Speaker 14: in the memoirs actually relate to the husband and not
29:04
Speaker 14: to the time.
29:06
Speaker 9: So what.
29:09
Speaker 1: What did you just say that everything is about the
29:12
Speaker 1: teen boy except accept what she's talking about sex, and
29:17
Speaker 1: then that's about the husband in the same paragraph.
29:21
Speaker 14: That is what the defense has reported. That is what
29:24
Speaker 14: I've read and reports. In terms of what is being
29:26
Speaker 14: referenced in these memoirs, the allegation is that this was
29:31
Speaker 14: kind of an outlet for her anxiety. Is how she
29:33
Speaker 14: put it, I believe, and you know, sometimes people write
29:36
Speaker 14: stuff down and sometimes there's overlap and ideas we get conflated,
29:42
Speaker 14: and perhaps that is the direction her defense will go
29:44
Speaker 14: to try and explain what is in this memoir as
29:47
Speaker 14: it compares to the text messages on the iCloud.
29:50
Speaker 1: Server Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Brian Fitzgibbons joining us
30:03
Speaker 1: Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security at USPA security dot com.
30:10
Speaker 3: Brian, can we believe anything?
30:13
Speaker 1: Christina Formella says, You have the text messages back and
30:18
Speaker 1: forth between her and the child victim, you have her memoir,
30:23
Speaker 1: and then you have her and the ability she possesses
30:28
Speaker 1: to put on an Oscar worthy performance.
30:33
Speaker 3: I want you to watch this, Brian. Can I ask
30:36
Speaker 3: you a quest?
30:36
Speaker 9: Of course?
30:37
Speaker 6: Yeah, it sounds like I said, someone investigation obviously for
30:40
Speaker 6: he every reason, so goad and turn it off for me.
30:49
Speaker 7: So right now it's being detained and there is a
30:51
Speaker 7: type of the.
30:52
Speaker 6: Need to talk to you at the police depart so
31:00
Speaker 6: that your husband he can just come to the police
31:01
Speaker 6: armer as well if he wants to wait for you there.
31:05
Speaker 1: I'm like, I get it.
31:07
Speaker 6: You had a lot of questions. Yeah, everything's okay, we
31:10
Speaker 6: just need to talk to you at the police storm.
31:12
Speaker 7: That's all.
31:12
Speaker 3: I am, like, so scared.
31:15
Speaker 1: That's nothing that can hold a candle to what this
31:18
Speaker 1: boy's mother felt when she saw those messages saved in
31:23
Speaker 1: the iCloud Brian.
31:24
Speaker 10: Certainly, and you said it well, Nancy, that the defense
31:28
Speaker 10: has already put out this conspiracy theory that the teen
31:32
Speaker 10: boy was texting himself from her phone, and they're going
31:35
Speaker 10: to have to produce evidence that supports that, all right,
31:40
Speaker 10: data from the boy's cell phone data, other data from
31:43
Speaker 10: her phone, from other minor witnesses that would have seen
31:48
Speaker 10: or heard about this conspiracy. So I don't think we
31:52
Speaker 10: can believe much of what she's saying right here.
31:55
Speaker 6: Once you at the police department, you'll talk to detective
31:57
Speaker 6: and the hostlin difference.
31:58
Speaker 16: Yeah, but you can't even me like.
32:00
Speaker 6: And I at the moment that it's an investigation that
32:03
Speaker 6: I can really tell you right now I'm sorry.
32:05
Speaker 7: I wish I could tell you more.
32:07
Speaker 5: Excuse me?
32:08
Speaker 16: Is my husband coming with Yes, Yeah, he's thinking it's
32:10
Speaker 16: going ever down.
32:11
Speaker 5: We're saying time for him. We're just going down or
32:13
Speaker 5: growth the septen minutes away.
32:15
Speaker 9: No, I know, but I really would prefer that my
32:17
Speaker 9: husband's with me.
32:18
Speaker 1: Of course, may want to rethink that about how your
32:27
Speaker 1: husband learns his wife is charged with sex abusing a
32:31
Speaker 1: boys student.
32:33
Speaker 3: Back to evidenciery issues. I want you to hear.
32:37
Speaker 1: One more excerpt from Christina Fromela the Special Ed Teachers Memoirs.
32:43
Speaker 3: She wrote in her own iPhone Listen.
32:46
Speaker 15: I warned you we should have never started dating a long, long,
32:49
Speaker 15: long time ago, and you gas lit me and convinced
32:52
Speaker 15: me it was fine every single time because that's who
32:54
Speaker 15: you are. We will never ever be together again. I'm
32:58
Speaker 15: not a second choice. I'm the best you'll ever have,
33:01
Speaker 15: even with all my mistakes. You once again waited and
33:03
Speaker 15: strung me along until it was convenient for you. It
33:06
Speaker 15: broke me last time. This time it changed me.
33:09
Speaker 3: You know, Annison Noda.
33:10
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have encountered other child molesters
33:15
Speaker 1: that believe they have a relationship with the child but
33:18
Speaker 1: that's what this sounds like.
33:19
Speaker 8: I'm having to hold my tongue over here, Nancy. She
33:22
Speaker 8: is working so hard to justify her own actions, which
33:26
Speaker 8: is classic predator behavior dating. She has the audacity to
33:30
Speaker 8: use the word dating. There is no way this is
33:33
Speaker 8: anywhere near dating. This is grooming. This looks like flattery,
33:37
Speaker 8: favoritism forbidden fruits. You entice a young boy with the
33:40
Speaker 8: possibility of sexual contact, that doesn't mean that he was
33:45
Speaker 8: the mastermind behind her plan. I am just shocked, but
33:49
Speaker 8: I do want to pinpoint some exceptionally positive things about
33:52
Speaker 8: this case. The mom in this case needs a gold medal.
33:57
Speaker 8: She checked the self on information, followed up. She then
34:01
Speaker 8: reported it to police, and the police investigated, and it
34:05
Speaker 8: led to an arrest. That is the best case scenario. Unfortunately,
34:08
Speaker 8: that's a rarity in these sorts of cases. But those
34:12
Speaker 8: individuals deserve recognition for acting on that child's best behalf.
34:17
Speaker 1: You know, this is bringing to mind another case, Mary
34:22
Speaker 1: Kay Laturno, who continued.
34:25
Speaker 3: To molest Villi Flau.
34:27
Speaker 1: I believe at that time he was about twelve years old.
34:31
Speaker 3: Years past and when she got out of jail, they
34:33
Speaker 3: actually got married and had a family.
34:35
Speaker 18: Listen for anybody first time figure out what love is
34:39
Speaker 18: for the first time, you know, that's all you know.
34:42
Speaker 18: So for what I know that it was back then,
34:44
Speaker 18: I would say that I was real love.
34:47
Speaker 1: That for our friends at New seven Again, villi Flau
34:52
Speaker 1: was twelve years old when she began raping him. They
34:56
Speaker 1: went on to have a family together. In this case,
35:01
Speaker 1: it sounds as if for Mella believes the two have
35:05
Speaker 1: a future together. Let me go to Scott Iiker, joining
35:09
Speaker 1: as founding member FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team, former police officer,
35:13
Speaker 1: homicide detective as well. I want to talk to you
35:16
Speaker 1: about the defense and we heard Fattest trying to explain
35:21
Speaker 1: it amazingly with a straight face. Scott Iiker, how or
35:26
Speaker 1: can we prove that the boy did not send the
35:32
Speaker 1: messages from her phone to himself to frame her or
35:38
Speaker 1: to use his blackmail at some unknown future date.
35:41
Speaker 3: Is that possible?
35:42
Speaker 7: It is.
35:42
Speaker 13: There's several different ways you can validate this information or
35:46
Speaker 13: disprove what the defendant is saying. We've got the records
35:50
Speaker 13: from the phone company, We've got the extraction information from
35:53
Speaker 13: the phone, We've got the school app that you're talking about.
35:56
Speaker 13: We also can look at in the specific part what
35:59
Speaker 13: you mentioned, which is did he send messages from her phone?
36:03
Speaker 13: We can look at where their two phones were at
36:05
Speaker 13: the time. Was his phone in the same location as hers?
36:09
Speaker 13: That might indicate that he sent those text messages from
36:12
Speaker 13: her phone. But if he's somewhere else, there's no way
36:15
Speaker 13: he could have sent those messages. So it's a lot
36:17
Speaker 13: of different ways. We can look at this and tear
36:20
Speaker 13: that that defensive part, and it's not really easy to
36:25
Speaker 13: break into someone's phone, then go through their app and
36:28
Speaker 13: then copy that and then send it to someone else.
36:32
Speaker 11: Sure you don't want to tissue or something.
36:40
Speaker 5: Sean like the bag out there.
36:46
Speaker 1: We are learning that the special ed teacher turned child
36:50
Speaker 1: molestation defendant is claiming she's too quote good looking for
36:56
Speaker 1: jail and that she has been targeted because she so pretty.
37:01
Speaker 3: Not the first time I've heard that argument.
37:03
Speaker 7: So why do you think you've got all the attention?
37:06
Speaker 7: I don't know, I'll say it. Do you think it's
37:09
Speaker 7: because you're pretty?
37:11
Speaker 3: I think so? In sex seuth.
37:15
Speaker 1: Okay, that's our friends at NBC, and you were hearing
37:19
Speaker 1: Deborah Lefay, convicted from a listing a student, claim she
37:23
Speaker 1: was targeted because she is quote so pretty okay Sidney Sumner.
37:30
Speaker 1: Is that claim being made in the current case by
37:33
Speaker 1: Christina Fromela.
37:34
Speaker 3: Yes, it is Nancy.
37:35
Speaker 9: So her whole defense to this is again relying on
37:39
Speaker 9: that blackmail idea that this teenage boy broke into her
37:43
Speaker 9: phone sent these text messages to himself to make it
37:47
Speaker 9: look like there was a conversation between the two of them,
37:50
Speaker 9: and she says that that happened because she cared about
37:55
Speaker 9: him too much and she is good looking, so she
37:58
Speaker 9: claims she is a good person who just maybe got
38:01
Speaker 9: a little bit too close to a student, but she
38:04
Speaker 9: did not rape him, and she is only being targeted
38:07
Speaker 9: because she is so pretty Sidney.
38:10
Speaker 1: She is also claiming that the quote sex translation rape
38:16
Speaker 1: only occurred one time, but according to the text messages
38:21
Speaker 1: and her own notes in her note area of her
38:25
Speaker 1: iPhone show that a relationship lasted for a really long
38:30
Speaker 1: time and she wanted it to go on, except the
38:33
Speaker 1: little boy got a girlfriend his own age.
38:36
Speaker 9: So Nancy the defendant for Mella, she is claiming that
38:39
Speaker 9: they did not have sex in any way, shape or form.
38:43
Speaker 9: She is claiming that that text message exchange was not
38:46
Speaker 9: discussing something.
38:47
Speaker 3: That happened, but was blackmail to try and roper.
38:51
Speaker 9: Into having sex with him in the future. The victim
38:54
Speaker 9: told police that the encounter in December of twenty twenty three,
38:58
Speaker 9: that rape, is the only encounter between them. So that's
39:02
Speaker 9: what the victim told police. But again, this victim got
39:05
Speaker 9: caught by his mother in an embarrassing situation, so is
39:10
Speaker 9: he telling the full truth? Because if he had any
39:13
Speaker 9: kind of romantic feelings for this woman for his teacher,
39:17
Speaker 9: he likely does not want to see her go down
39:20
Speaker 9: the same way Billy beloved it. So it is one
39:24
Speaker 9: hundred percent possible that this abuse was much more extensive
39:28
Speaker 9: and ongoing than police realize.
39:32
Speaker 3: Is she out on bond?
39:33
Speaker 1: Yes, she is two daughter, Sherry Schwartz joining US forensics psychologists.
39:36
Speaker 1: You know, if this were reversed and the alleged abuse
39:41
Speaker 1: or was a man and the victim was a fifteen
39:45
Speaker 1: year old little girl, he would be under the jail.
39:49
Speaker 16: Why the difference, Well, the difference is because there's a
39:53
Speaker 16: stereotype that because this is a teenage boy, that this
39:56
Speaker 16: is their fantasy. So somehow it's not as c or
40:01
Speaker 16: troubling a crime when it's an older woman with a
40:05
Speaker 16: teenage boy, especially a pretty older woman.
40:08
Speaker 3: But this is false.
40:09
Speaker 16: We know that the harm is the same regardless. This
40:12
Speaker 16: is a minor child. She had an obligation to behave
40:16
Speaker 16: ethically and adhere to boundaries. She never should have crossed
40:20
Speaker 16: a boundary.
40:21
Speaker 1: You know, Lady Justice is blind for a reason. Crossing
40:25
Speaker 1: boundaries yes, unethical yes, But as a former prosecutor of
40:32
Speaker 1: violent felonies, it's not just crossing boundaries. It's not just
40:37
Speaker 1: an ethical This is a crime. Lady Justice does not
40:42
Speaker 1: make a note of whether the victim is a little
40:45
Speaker 1: boy or a little girl, or whether the defendant is
40:49
Speaker 1: a stereotypical child molester stalking a playground and a trench
40:54
Speaker 1: code and a pair of socks, or a pretty young
40:58
Speaker 1: special ed teacher age thirty the defendant the alleged victim fifteen.
41:07
Speaker 3: Let's think about that.
41:09
Speaker 1: We stopped to remember an American hero Detective Clarence of Backcoms,
41:13
Speaker 1: Palm Beach County Sheriffs Detective Backhroms Us Marine Corpvette twenty
41:19
Speaker 1: six years of law enforcement, survived by wife Becky, children
41:24
Speaker 1: Kathy Clarence, Dennis, Cammy and Kelly. American hero Detective Clarence
41:31
Speaker 1: Backcrooms Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend,