photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Mateo Wills appears in Douglas County District Court on Nov. 19, 2024.

A Lawrence man accused of inappropriately touching two preschoolers at a private school where he worked was ordered on Tuesday to stand trial, after multiple days of hearings and a playback of a police interview in which he says “I felt good that I got caught.”

Mateo Clavel Wills, 22, is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14, two involving a 3-year-old and two involving a 4-year-old, according to charging documents. On Tuesday, Judge Sally Pokorny found that there was enough evidence to order him to stand trial, and she also ruled that the statements he made in an interview with police would be allowed at that trial.

The incidents are alleged to have happened between November 2021 and July 2022 at Raintree Montessori School, 4601 Clinton Parkway, when Wills was a part-time child care worker there. Wills was arrested on July 6, 2022.

Wills’ attorney, Hatem Chahine, had sought to suppress the statements that Wills gave to police in two interviews. In the first part of the hearing on Nov. 19, 2024, the court watched Wills’ first interview with police, in which he describes touching the two girls during nap time and tells the investigators he did so because he was “curious.”

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Mateo Wills, left, appears with his attorney, Hatem Chahine, right, in Douglas County District Court on Jan. 28, 2025.

During the second part of the hearing on Jan. 21, Detective Evan Curtis with the Lawrence Police Department played a recording of Wills’ second interview with police.

In this recording, Curtis asks Wills about children at the school other than the two alleged victims. Wills says he did not touch any of these other children inappropriately. Curtis also specifically asks whether Wills had inappropriately touched his own younger sister. Wills replies: “Never; it was too close to home. I never wanted to ruin home.”

Curtis asks Wills why he chose to talk about the incidents. Wills tells him that it was “like a weight coming off of his chest” after keeping a secret. When Curtis asks whether Wills knew that he had done something wrong, Wills says “yes.”

“I felt bad that I touched them. I felt good that I got caught,” Wills says in the video.

After reviewing the evidence and case law, Pokorny said Tuesday that she’d determined that Wills gave his statements to police freely and that he was not coerced. Pokorny characterized Curtis’ interview with Wills as “one of the gentlest interviews” she had ever seen in her 48-year career, both as a defense attorney and as a sitting judge. She said it was clear that Wills was coherent during the interview and that Wills even corrected officers when necessary.

In addition, Pokorny noted that Wills had been interviewed by two psychologists, both of whom determined that Wills was of high intelligence. Pokorny said Wills was also given multiple opportunities to end the interviews with police and contact a lawyer, and that during the first interview he continued talking to police even after the assistant head of school, Heather Eichhorn, advised him to stop.

Pokorny then ordered Wills to be arraigned on Feb. 28 and told Chahine and special prosecutor Joshua Ney to have their calendars ready on that day to set a trial date.

The charges against Wills are off-grid felonies and could result in a life sentence if Wills is convicted. Wills is currently free on a $100,000 own-recognizance bond.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Mateo Wills appears in Douglas County District Court on Nov. 19, 2024.