A husband and wife from Rantoul, Illinois, were sentenced on Tuesday to probation after they admitted to having sex with a teenage girl they were fostering.
Court records show that Tate and Jaelyn Survance, 23 and 24, respectively, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse while charges of sexual assault were dropped. They were sentenced to 30 months of probation.
Victim was Placed under Survances' Care in March
The Survances were arrested last month after the teen admitted to Rantoul Police officers that she had been having sex with them. A police report indicated that the couple met her at a party in Mahomet the previous fall and they became friends. The three established regular contact that led to them discussing and then having sex together in the couple's home in February.
The teen told the Survances that she was older than she actually was, the report said. She was living with a relative in Decatur at the time, but when an issue arose regarding the teen's placement with that relative, the teen suggested to a case worker that she stay with the Survances.
The couple passed a background check and were approved to foster the teen in March, at which point they learned her real age. The couple did not tell the case worker about their prior sexual activity with her.
Tate Reported Victim to Police After She Started Flirting with Him
Police finally learned about the matter when Tate Survance reported the teen had been flirting with him and he wanted it to stop. He did not tell police at the time that he and his wife had allegedly had sex with her in the past.
The teen informed officers about the sexual encounters when they interviewed her.
In addition to their probation sentences, the Survances will have to register as sex offenders.
