A Lake County special education teacher’s aide is facing up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a student, according to prosecutors and court records.

       Israel Suaste-Gonzalez, 50, formerly of Mundelein, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of criminal sexual assault. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop other counts he faced. He had been scheduled to go on trial that day before Judge Mark Levitt, who is set to sentence Suaste-Gonzalez on Sept. 14.

       Under the terms of the negotiated plea, Suaste-Gonzalez will face a minimum term of eight years in prison; each of the two counts carries a four to 15-year year term, and the terms will be served consecutively, prosecutors said.

       Suaste-Gonzalez has been held in the county jail in lieu of $2 million bail since his arrest in December 2019.

       Authorities say he assaulted a mentally disabled young woman between September 2016 and June 2018 while working as a teacher’s aide for the Special Education District of Lake County. At the time of the assault, the woman was around 20 years old, according to court records.

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       A lawsuit filed by on behalf of the student said she told a family member of the sexual abuse in late 2019, which led to Suaste-Gonzalez’s arrest. He had been assigned as an aide in the woman’s classroom, according to the lawsuit.

       She was enrolled in SEDOL’s community-based transition program for students between the ages of 18 and 22 at the Atkinson Center in Grayslake.

       The suit says Suaste-Gonzalez forced the woman into many nonconsensual sex acts over the two-year period, sometimes in a conference room attached to her classroom, and would warn her against telling anyone about what had happened.

       According to the women’s attorneys, she suffered severe emotional distress as a result of the assaults. The suit, which is ongoing, alleges that SEDOL and the woman’s teacher failed to follow district policies that would have provided protection. Suaste-Gonzalez had been a SEDOL employee since 2002, the suit said.

       SEDOL Superintendent Valerie Donnan on Monday declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it was district practice to not discuss ongoing litigation. She said, though, that the district acted promptly in 2019, when police informed SEDOL of the investigation.

       “As soon as we were informed of the allegations, we removed Mr. Suaste-Gonzalez from his position,” Donnan said in an email. “We subsequently dismissed him from his employment. At all times, SEDOL cooperated fully with the police and the State’s Attorney’s office in their investigations of this matter.”

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