Judge to determine former Braidwood teacher’s fate in child porn case

A former Braidwood high school teacher pleaded guilty to knowingly receiving child pornography

Dayna Chidester, 52, of Manhattan was scheduled for a sentencing hearing Sept. 7 to determine how much time she will serve in federal prison after she pleaded guilty May 12 to knowingly receiving child pornography, court records show.

The former Reed-Custer High School teacher was ordered to register as a sex offender in Illinois after she pleaded guilty to the charge.

According to the plea agreement, Chidester initially was indicted on three counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of receipt of child pornography. She then agreed to plead guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.

Chidester engaged in sexual conduct on numerous occasions with a 14-year-old male minor in 2018 and directed him to take photos of himself on his cellphone while he was engaged in sexual conduct, the plea agreement said.

The plea agreement said that on Dec. 24, 2018, the minor took a photo and video of himself while he was engaged in sexual conduct and sent it to Chidester’s Samsung Galaxy Note5, at her request.

Chidester also had taken a sexually explicit photo of the minor on Dec. 4 of the same year, according to the plea agreement.

Federal prosecutors said the anticipated advisory sentencing range for Chidester is between 63 to 78 months of imprisonment. Chidester has been on release from federal custody since Sept. 27, 2019.

She first was arrested in January 2019 and charged in Will County with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, indecent solicitation of a child and grooming. Those charges were dropped Sept. 25, 2019, after a federal complaint was filed against Chidester.

Chidester resigned from Reed-Custer High School after administrators confronted her with allegations of exchanging text messages about drugs with a student.