The married Illinois special education teacher who was accused of raping one of her teenage students broke down in tears after learning of the charges she faced, according to dramatic new bodycam footage of her arrest.
Christina Formella, 30, struggled to catch her breath and wept as officers placed her into the back of a Downers Grove police car on March 16, according to arrest footage released by the YouTube channel Ape Huncho. "Oh my God. What the f–k?" she repeatedly sobbed, her hands cuffed as she curled her knees up to her chest. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up," she said as she was dragged and arrested.
Shoved into the Car after Vile Act
The officers are seen rushing off to find her a bag and towels in case she got sick. Formella was recently arrested for allegedly sexually abusing of a 15-year-old student she tutored and coached in soccer two years prior. Formella was a special education teacher at Downers Grove South High School.
The two reportedly exchanged messages expressing their love for each other—along with explicit discussions about their sexual encounters in a classroom on campus.
"I love you sooooo much baby... Even though this morning was short, it was perfect," Formella, who was 28 at the time, allegedly texted the boy.
Their messages were discovered just days before her arrest when the boy's mother was setting up a new phone for him. This led the teenager to admit to the alleged relationship, which he claimed to have ended, and report it to the police.
Formella was stopped by police while driving through her Chicago suburb with her husband. She appeared confused when officers asked her to come out of the vehicle. "You can just grab whatever you need," a police officer said after confirming her identity.
"Whatever I need?" she asked, while her husband asked, "Is she going somewhere?"
"Yeah, we're going to explain everything to you," the officer replied, telling Formella that she was under investigation and had to be taken to the station in handcuffs.
In Complete Shock
As she was handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car, a visibly horrified Formella remarked, "I'm, like, so scared." "Is my husband coming with?" she said as the car drove off.
"Am I in trouble? I am so lost right now," she added, as officers informed her that she was being detained for an investigation and would receive more details upon arriving at the station.
During her police interview, Formella alleged that her accuser was blackmailing her and claimed that she was being targeted because she was "good looking."
"She claimed that one day, [the boy] had grabbed her phone unattended, had entered her passcode ... had sent the message to his phone, had then deleted the message from her phone, and had saved it to his phone as blackmail," according to court documents from her arrest.
"[Formella said] everybody comes after her because she is good looking and she is just a good person who cared too much about [the boy]," they added.
She was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and was released under the condition that she stay off school grounds and avoid contact with anyone under 18. Formella was also placed on paid leave from her position.
Photos from their wedding, shared on social media, show Formella and her husband—a former student-athlete alongside her at Concordia University—tying the knot as recently as August.
