Former Algonquin high school substitute teacher pleads guilty to ‘grooming’ teen

Algonquin — A 26-year-old Lake in the Hills man was taken into custody by McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputies Tuesday to begin serving half of his 180-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to “grooming” a teenaged student he met while working as a substitute teacher at Jacobs High School in Algonquin.

Brandon Memmini, of the 800 block of Noelle Bend, also will serve two years of probation and is required to undergo a sex offender’s evaluation and register as a sex offender when released from McHenry County Jail. Under Illinois law, he is required to serve half of his jail term.

Memmini is accused of sending sexually explicit videos and messages through Snapchat, a social media platform, to a 15-year-old girl, according to documents filed in the McHenry County courthouse. The girl was a student at Jacobs High School in Algonquin where he was working as a substitute teacher for about six weeks during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a relative of the girl.

In exchange for his plea, additional charges of grooming, one charge of indecent solicitation of a child and distributing explicit material to a minor were dismissed, according to court documents. The indictment states he “attempted to seduce, solicit, lure or entice” the teen on Dec. 27, 2019, and Jan. 8, 2020. He was accused of doing so “with the intention to commit aggravated sexual abuse and/or criminal sexual assault.”

The principal at Jacobs High School declined to comment. Calls to the district office were not immediately returned Tuesday.