photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Mateo Emilio Clavel Wills is pictured during a motions hearing in Douglas County District Court on March 3, 2023. Wills is accused of multiple sex crimes against a 3- and 4-year-old at the Raintree Montessori School in Lawrence.

As a Douglas County district judge grapples with whether to admit an alleged confession into evidence and whether to lower a defendant’s bond, recent court filings have shed more light on what led to sex-crime charges against a Lawrence child care worker — notably details regarding a police interview with the accused.

As the Journal-World has previously reported, Angela Keck, the lawyer for Mateo Emilio Clavel Wills, 20, of Lawrence, is asking Judge Sally Pokorny to suppress Wills’ incriminating statements to police and to modify his bond so that he could be released from custody pending disposition of the case. Pokorny has scheduled a hearing on those matters for next month.

Meanwhile, the recently obtained written motions on those matters, which were unavailable to the Journal-World at Wills’ last hearing on Friday, reveal further details about Wills, who is accused of aggravated indecent liberties with a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old at Raintree Montessori School, 4601 Clinton Parkway. Previously, information surrounding his arrest on July 6, 2022, and the criminal investigation had been sealed by Judge James McCabria.

In a motion recently filed by special prosecutor Jeannette Wolpink, the state laid out the basic events that led to Wills’ incriminating statements.

According to the state, a parent of a child at Raintree reported to police on July 1, 2022, that her 3-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted by her “preschool teacher.”

On July 6, Lawrence police went to the school to interview three adults who worked in the child’s classroom, including Wills’ grandmother, who’s a teacher, and Wills. Police did a recorded interview with Wills for about an hour in the office of Heather Eichhorn, co-head of Raintree. Eichhorn was in the office, at Wills’ request, during the first 45 minutes of the interview, according to the motion.

Wills initially denied inappropriate touching of any children, but around 40 minutes into the interview he allegedly told police that “I believe the touching at naptime went too far, and I touched where I shouldn’t have … I touched them on their private areas,” according to the motion.

About five minutes later Eichhorn left the room and reportedly told Wills “in a low voice” that he did not have to continue talking if he did not want to. The investigator also advised Wills that he was not under arrest and was not required to continue at that time, to which Wills responded, “I feel like I really should stay here and say as much as I can because it’s true, it’s what I did,” according to the motion.

Shortly after Eichhorn left the room, Wills “continued to make further admissions” about touching two children inappropriately, the motion said. After the interview ended, Wills was asked by his employer to leave the property, and Wills left with his mother.

Later that day, police learned that Wills lived with a child, and they re-contacted him and arrested him.

After his arrest, Wills was read his Miranda rights, but waived them, according to the state, and he gave the police a statement and underwent a 38-minute interrogation.

Wolpink argues in her motion that Wills’ statements were given freely, that he was not under arrest at the time of the initial statements and that he was given repeated opportunities to end his interview with police. She further argued that his second statement was freely given after he waived his Miranda rights and that he was not coerced in any way.

Keck’s original motion to suppress was filed under seal, meaning it was not available to the public. However, in a motion to reduce Wills’ bond filed on Feb. 28, she references her motion to suppress Wills’ statements. Additionally, the state’s response to the motion to suppress was not filed under seal.

In Keck’s bond motion, she argues that Wills denied any allegations of sexual misconduct and only after being subjected to a series of leading questions, Wills “made admissions to suggestive and leading questioning.”

As part of Keck’s arguments to suppress, she wrote that Wills underwent a psychological evaluation with Gregory Nawalanic, the clinical director of Psychology Services at the University of Kansas Health System’s Strawberry Hill Campus.

Nawalanic’s report said that Wills is “highly suggestible and easily swayed to making statements that are false, but please the questioner, especially authority,” and that Wills is “statistically more likely to yield to suggestive pressure and confabulate than 99.7% of the male population.”

“However, even in yielding to interrogation, he never admits to any sexual arousal or gratification. In this measure, he remained consistent on one item through both questionings,” according to Nawalanic’s report, cited in Keck’s motion for bond modification.

Other reasons given by Keck to reduce Wills’ bond include his age, ties to the community, lack of any disciplinary infractions during his eight months in jail, and that while in jail Wills has developed a “very serious medical skin condition” that needs to be treated by an appropriate doctor.

Keck also argues that of the alleged victims in the case the 4-year-old made no accusations against Wills during her police interviews and described Wills as her favorite teacher, while the 3-year-old victim alleged that the contact occurred while she was sleeping.

Keck’s bond modification motion asks the court to significantly lower the $750,000 bond or to change it from cash or surety to an own-recognizance bond with house arrest and GPS monitoring. An own-recognizance bond would mean that Wills would not have to put up any money to bond out but may be charged that amount if he fails to appear in court.

Wolpink said during the hearing on Friday that the state would object to any bond modifications “due to the confession.”

The motion for suppressing Wills’ statements and bond modification are scheduled to be argued in front of Pokorny on April 21.