A former Chicago Public Schools dean entered a guilty plea Wednesday to sexually abusing a student — only to take the plea back a short time later over confusion about how long he would have to register as a sex offender.
Brian Crowder, 41, pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in a deal with prosecutors that included the state’s attorney’s office dropping six other felony counts, including aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony.
As part of the plea, Crowder would have been required to submit to testing for sexually transmitted disease and provide a blood sample to state police.
But when prosecutors said Crowder would also be required to register for life as a sex offender, it apparently caught him and his attorney by surprise.
After a break, the attorney told Judge Mary Anna Planey that they had understood the registration period would be for only a decade and asked for a continuance in the case.
Planey vacated Crowder’s plea and a status hearing was set for Aug. 6.
An attorney representing the now 24-year-old woman who accused Crowder of abusing her said his client was disappointed in the delay. The abuse “has had a tremendous impact on her whole young adult life,” said attorney Martin Gould, who represents her in a civil suit against Crowder and CPS.
The young woman did not attend the proceedings Wednesday, but Gould said she had provided a statement that would have been read during the hearing. Prosecutors said the woman had given her approval to the plea deal.
She was between 15 and 17 and a student at the Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice when the abuse occurred, prosecutors have alleged. Crowder was employed as dean of students at the school when he allegedly began messaging her on social media.
On one occasion, Crowder gave her alcohol and then sexually abused her, prosecutors said. The abuse continued and the girl became pregnant in 2014.
Crowder brought her to get an abortion, posing as her stepfather in order to sign the consent forms and pay for the procedure, prosecutors have said. He allegedly did the same when she became pregnant again a year later.
She filed a report with Chicago police in 2021 and Crowder was removed from his position at that time, prosecutors and school officials have said.
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of probation for Crowder. But judges are not bound to those agreements and the Class 2 felony carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, prosecutors noted in court.
Wednesday’s hearing was slightly unusual in that both the assistant state’s attorney and the judge were filling in for the day.
Crowder is scheduled to appear before Judge Stanley Sacks at his next hearing. Sacks has been assigned the case since Crowder was indicted in 2022.