Ex-Downers Grove coach gets jail for affair with student
By Christy Gutowski | Daily Herald Staff
October 17 , 2008
A former basketball coach at a Baptist school in Downers Grove will spend time behind bars for having a sexual relationship with a student.
John Puga, 36, of Aurora was sentenced Friday to serve one year in the DuPage County jail with work release privileges after he pleaded guilty to molesting a 17-year-old girl. He also must register as a convicted sex offender.
Puga had an inappropriate sexual relationship with the girl at Marquette Manor Baptist Church and school from November 2001 to May 2002. Authorities charged him in March 2006 after the girl told a counselor. The two also knew each other through another church where Puga served as a youth pastor, according to court documents.
The legal age in Illinois to consent is 17, but it raises to 18 in situations where the adult is in a position of authority, such as a teacher or coach.
Puga is the third official connected to Marquette Manor Baptist Church to face criminal allegations. Edward E. Greene, 38, of Asheboro, N.C., was sentenced in March 2008 to four years in prison for molesting an underage parishioner. A third man, Frank Stima, 64, an ex-deacon who also lives out-of-state, received a 60-day jail sentence and two years' probation after he pleaded guilty in 2006 to the criminal sexual abuse of a minor within the church.
After completing his jail term, which begins Jan. 5, Puga must serve four years' sex-offender probation.