Trial starting for ex-DeKalb 428 superintendent charged with sending sexual images of employee to school board members

DeKALB – A former DeKalb District 428 school superintendent accused of electronically sending sexually compromising images of an employee to two school board members 4½ years ago is set to stand trial Wednesday.

Douglas Moeller, who was the district’s superintendent from 2014 to 2016, is charged with non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images, a Class 4 felony. Moeller, now 65, of the 800 block of Carol Avenue in Elgin was set to go to trial in August, but the date was postponed after prosecutors asked for a delay, according to DeKalb County court records.

On May 5, Moeller waived his right to a jury trial – which originally had been set for mid-May – and instead will let a judge decide his fate.

Circuit Court Judge Philip Montgomery is expected to preside over the bench trial, which is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in courtroom 210 at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore. Moeller faces between one to three years in prison if convicted. Montgomery accepted Moeller’s jury trial waiver in a pre-trial hearing in May.

The former superintendent is represented by lawyer Clay Campbell, former DeKalb County state’s attorney.

Moeller was arrested by DeKalb police April 13, 2018, and charged in the case. He has been free on bail since his arrest.

According to court records, prosecutors alleged Moeller paid a former student to buy a cellphone, which Moeller then used to anonymously send compromising photos of a former district employee to two DeKalb School District 428 board members in February 2017.

Moeller allegedly sent the photos to the board members without the person’s permission, prosecutors said. The images were sent a day after the board approved a separation agreement with Moeller, court records show.

Moeller was placed on paid leave from his job as District 428 superintendent in September 2016. He retired April 30, 2017.