Substitute Teacher Allegedly Raped 11-Year-Old Boy Repeatedly: Prosecutors

police in Illinois say an accused sexual. predator is out of the classroom and. behind bars instead a long-term. substitute teacher is accused of raping. one of her 11-year-old students we're. taking a closer look at these horrifying. allegations against Ali bfield with John. Clon an attorney and advocate for sexual. abuse survivors welcome to sidebar. presented by law on crime I'm Jesse. Weber 32-year-old substitute teacher Ali. B field who worked for decer Public.

School in Illinois as a long-term. substitute teacher has been arrested and. charged with predatory criminal sexual. assault does this sound familiar we are. seeing so many of these stories well in. a sworn statement to the court a. detective laid out what are very. disturbing details that he says police. were able to uncover during the course. of this investigation all about. barfield's appalling Behavior with her. sixth grade. student think about that I want to talk.

about all of this as we go in through a. lot of these details with John cloon an. attorney helping fight for victims in. sexual abuse cases John thanks so much. for coming on uh I just want your. initial reaction uh before we even jump. into the court. documents yeah like you said it's. incredibly disturbing um you know I. think that with the a the age of the kid. and the nature of the sexual act is um. probably a little on the more unusual. side but it's a great reminder for all. of us and all of us that are parents.

that you know it's not just male. offenders that we have to be worried. about there are female offenders out. there it's a much smaller percentage but. this is a a perfect example of where you. can have a worst case scenario from. somebody that you might have thought you. could trust and by the way thank you for. the work that you do uh as we cover. these stories it's people like you who. are able to get the victims of this uh. some justice so according to the. detective sworn statement uh this woman. there there was a woman who allowed her. 11-year-old son to spend the night at. the home of his teacher Ali bfield so.

the sixth grader was there for 25 hours. from March 29th to March 30th this is. according to police and when the boy got. home he was apparently acting strangely. this is according to his mom so the next. day she checked his phone and what do. she reportedly find cash app payments. from bfield totaling. $700 over the last several months she. also reportedly checked her son's social. media accounts and found photos and me. messages that the two had sent to each.

other so when the boy's Mom apparently. asked him what was going on he did admit. that he had unprotected sexual. intercourse with. bfield John I mean I don't know what. aspect of this is more stunning than the. next yeah and you know one of the things. I think hits everybody initially is um. is you know why is the kiddo staying at. this teacher's house for 25.

it's it's easy to question that with the. hindsight of knowing what actually. transpired about the the sexual abuse. and the cash app payments but knowing. also that this woman has kids of her own. this could this could have been. something that looked like just a normal. sleepover at the time that the you know. the kid went over to to stay at her. house for the night so although it kind. of stands out that he was at the house. for 25 hours it might have been you know. nothing more than a a normal sleepover. until you find out the events there.

after but you know there's also some. good things that I think are notable. here in what you just read I mean the. first of all the boys acting strangely. and good for the mom for following up. with that um you know a lot of times as. parents you know our kids act strangely. all the time and most of the time we. just kind of s it off they're in a mood. or whatever we're just going to let it. go so good for the mom for following up. with that good for the mom for checking. his phone you know at the age of 11 I. think that you know phones can be a good. um safety measure but they also have to.

have limitations and they have to be. checked and so that was a smart decision. on the mom's part and and and good for. the kid for Having the courage to admit. what had happened it must have been. incredibly embarrassing and who knows. what instruction he was given from Miss. bfield about keeping this secret and I'm. glad you mentioned that uh particularly. about the idea of the mom we don't want. to cast any blame on her you know this. is not necessarily abnormal for for this. to happen but clearly what escalated.

was abnormal the cash app payments have. you seen that before and why does that. usually happen I don't think I've seen. the cash app payments um I've seen we. we've for for years even before we had. apps like this we've seen offenders make. promises or make gifts to children it's. a it's a part of you know the grooming. process it's a you know it develops the. relationship and the interesting thing. is that it actually probably qualifies. as um as sex trafficking as well that. would be a federal crime although. Illinois may have their own version of.

that but um paying you know a financial. transaction for child sexual abuse would. qualify as as trafficking so giving some. sort of Promise is is a common thing I. don't know that I've seen you know. something like cash app or venmo used as. part of the process but it's stories. like this that just remind me how. important it is to be careful about who. you led into your life do you know the. people in your life it's a scary thing. to think about but that is why I want to. talk to you about our incredible sponsor. who may be able to help you out.

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Miss bfield and even described that on. the night of March 29th he slept over. her home was in her bedroom they had. sexual intercourse bfield even allegedly. told him that she would send him nude. photos on the Snapchat app I mean you. mentioned it before John about how. difficult this must be for this boy to. admit this but just the idea of this. woman treating this I don't I'm putting. this in quotation relationship as if it.

was like uh two consenting adults the. exchanging of you know these me these. messages the exchanging of nude. photographs the sexual intercourse what. drives somebody in your experience to do. this with a young child yeah well it's I. mean it's it's super predatory it's. super deviant there's nothing there's no. kind of relationship that involves this. kind of behavior with an 11year old so. you know this is somebody who is a. predatory sex offender and you know we. see it you know with vict that ages even.

much younger even you know toddlers. infants um so I I I can't I can't get. into the mind of what Drive somebody to. do it but it's um it's somebody who has. a super unhealthy psyche for sure yeah. and you just think about the impact that. this has on such a young boy um but it. doesn't end there because you might be. saying oh that seems like they have a. lot of evidence against bfield I didn't. get to this part because police had the. boy text Barfield and speak to her on. the phone and FaceTime all while.

officers were listening and watching all. of this all in the presence of his mom. too she consented to this and they. texted and talked about birth control. and pregnancy telling him she can't get. pregnant bfield allegedly told the boy. to delete a message and she at one point. said that she missed him a whole lot. John have you ever seen that and look. law enforcement they did get permission. from the court to do this but have you. ever seen this kind of Sting operation. like. this um this this is a pretty uh we call.

them pretextual phone calls now they're. texts and video chats as well but this. is something that's been used by law. enforcement for many many years it can. be the case breaker which it kind of is. here as well um you know you get a you. get a call or a text message from. somebody that you recently had you know. some sort of UNT encounter from and you. think it's a private conversation and. it's really being directed by law. enforcement in Most states you don't. even have to get you know Court approval. to do this um it's just a a vol AR phone.

call you do have to be careful with you. know when you're dealing with an. 11-year-old um you know you have to make. sure that you have some comfort level. that this is not going to be a. re-traumatizing experience for the kiddo. to make these calls but if the kiddo can. do it um which which he obviously did. here um it can be incredibly compelling. evidence as you just described oh yeah. um and not surprisingly she was arrested. the next day at her home and after. reading her Miranda writes to her law. enforcement apparently field agreed to.

speak to officers and allegedly admitted. what she did not only to the sexual. component the sex act but exchanging the. nude photos component and she tried to. suggest that the boy came on to her. John yeah I mean she I you know she this. is this is the beauty of the um both the. the digital evidence on the phone and. the the pretextual phone call that they.

did is you can just show this individual. the information they already have and. you know they're going to be it's. they're gonna be hard pressed to um deny. what's going on when when they have her. own voice you know in this phone call so. I'm not surprised that there were some. admissions made um it's obviously. disturbing that she then kind of suggest. that it was the you know the boy um who. is the aggressor I but we've seen I've. seen that before with other um. particularly with female victims or. female offenders where um even much.

younger boys they suggest that they are. the initiator of the sexual contact. which obviously makes no sense but um. either that's where she sees it in you. know in in kind of a more warped view of. the events or she just feels like she. needs to say something to to not be. responsible for it unbelievable um now. look these are allegations at this point. but I should tell you the mon County. State Attorney uh Scott rder seemed to. it seems drop the initial there was a.

grooming charge uh it was quoted as. saying quote grooming The Grooming. charge is a much less serious criminal. offense I felt that we had a very strong. case with respect to the more serious. charge so I didn't want to get. distracted basically on that when we've. got the most serious charge filed um and. the the what I mentioned before the. predatory sex act carries I believe 6 to. 60 years in prison a what do you make of. that idea to now just go forward with I. think the most serious charge and B how. strong of a case is this right right.

now yeah so I mean different prosecutors. do things differently when when I was a. prosecutor there were a lot of times. that I would um I I would streamline the. case and go forward with just the more. serious charge um sometimes depending on. the facts of the case I might go with. everything that we could possibly prove. so I'm sure that's just a strategy. decision on the part of the prosecutor's. office um and how how how strong of a. case it's I mean presuming that there. isn't any Fourth Amendment issues where. these you know this phone or these. confessions can be thrown out um it's an.

incredibly strong case it would be you. know I know she's pled not guilty um but. which I don't get because if she if she. admitted it I I don't I don't get it. yeah I mean I I I think she I think. that's a temporary plea is my my. suspicion her her lawyer doesn't want. her to plead guilty yet because he wants. to he or she wants to see if they can. get some sort of plea bargain some sort. of sentence concession something other. than just pleading pleading guilty to. the charges straight up so I would. expect that to be something that changes.

as her attorney tries to get something. for her in negotiating if she a plea. were to be worked out what would she be. looking at any prison time at all and if. she took it to trial and was found. guilty what do you think she'd be. looking. at yeah I mean you know generally. speaking if you take it a trial and lose. you shouldn't get punished for. exercising your rights but some judges. feel like you know that that's somebody. who has never taken responsibility for. for what they did and so they might be.

facing a longer sentence I I'd be. surprised if there was a plea bargain. that didn't involve some sort of prison. time I mean this is incredibly serious. charge this kid is GNA be dealing with. this issue in some fashion for the rest. of his life and I think judges are. pretty attuned to those things so I'd be. as I'd be surprised if she could get get. something that doesn't involve a prison. sentence but maybe the job of her. attorney is to negotiate something that. limits the the you know the maximum. sentence that that she could get now the.

decor Public Schools they fired bfield. when she was arrested not a shocker. there she's been behind bars since her. arrest after a judge denied her. pre-trial release she chose to wave her. preliminary hearing that's usually where. the prosecution is kind of you have to. present your evidence of what you have. um and she's going to be back at court. uh at the beginning of June um so we'll. see if she changes their plea or what. might happen um the victim's family. announced in early April that they've. retained a attorneys to pursue legal.

action against not only bfield but also. decer Public Schools the legal team said. in a statement quote on April 3rd 2024. Ali bfield was arrested on charges of. grooming and predatory criminal sexual. assault of our client the accused abused. her the accused abused her position as a. sixth grade teacher to exploit our. client trust and engage in reprehensible. acts Miss barfield's actions have had a. profound and lasting impact on our. client which will likely lead to. significant physical emotional ands. psychological challenges the.

perpetrator's predatory actions have. left our client with permanent injuries. that have greatly disrupted his and his. family's daily life as a result we will. PS we will be pursuing Justice not only. against Miss Barfield but also the. school district as a whole which failed. to properly train and supervise in order. to ensure the safety and well-being of. its students we are determined to hold. both the perpetrator and the school. fully accountable under the law strong. lawsuit. John maybe um you know I think you know. you have to keep in mind when schools. are schools are responsible when they've.

done something wrong um not when one of. their employees necessarily has done. something wrong so that's why the the. lawsuit is couched as failure to train. or supervise so you have to have some. sort of information that you know the. school was on notice that they should. have done more training or supervising. for this particular individual I mean. it's it's a it's a case that could get. strong um as the case moves forward or. maybe there's more facts that the family. has that aren't you know disclosed in.

The Limited articles that are out there. but it's certainly understandable to be. very frustrated with the school and. there certainly could be liability there. but um we have to wait and see and she. was married bfield Married with Children. husband Casey recently filed for their. marriage to be dissolved and also filed. for an emergency order of protection. from his former wife on behalf of the. four minor children um as far as we can. tell from court records brafield doesn't. have any criminal history aside from. some minor traffic infractions and or. ordinance violations let's just end it.

with this John not surprising we see. somebody in these cases living another. life having an affair I mean I've. covered so many of these cases of. Educators who are married or have. children or who are uh you know engaged. they do this and does that ever surprise. you does that ever shock. you I mean it doesn't surprise me and I. guess the the media concern is having. these um you know her own kiddos. interviewed um because it's it's not on. common to have crossover Behavior.

between you know an offender finding. victims that aren't their own children. and are their own children so um so. hopefully there are not more victims. here but that that'd be my my first. reaction to hearing about the kids and. the need for the Emergency protection. order from the husband or with the. husand John cloon thanks so much for. coming on appreciate your point of view. thank you Jesse see you that's all we. have for you here on sidebar everybody. thank you so much for joining us as. always please subscribe and a podcast. Spotify YouTube wherever you get your.

podcast I'm Jesse Weber I'll speak to. you next time. [Music].