photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Mateo Wills leaves the courtroom Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, after a bond modification hearing in Douglas County District Court.

A convicted child molester will be allowed to have supervised visits with three family members ahead of his sentencing on Oct. 30, when it’s expected that he will receive a lengthy prison term.

Such visits had, up until Tuesday, been forbidden by a court order that said Mateo Clavel Wills could not have contact with any minor children or witnesses in his case, which began more than three years ago, when he was accused at age 19 of molesting preschoolers as they napped at Lawrence’s Raintree Montessori School.

In September of this year, about a month after Wills pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, his attorney, Hatem Chahine, requested that Wills be allowed to see two of his minor siblings and his grandmother, Marcia Granger, a directress at the school where Wills’ crimes occurred.

Judge Sally Pokorny on Tuesday granted the visitation request, but placed limits on the interactions. Wills has been living at the home of family friends since he was freed from jail and put on house arrest in April of 2024. Pokorny said Wills could have three visits — one per week — in the time leading up to his Oct. 30 sentencing. The visits must be at the house of the family friends, must be supervised by Wills’ mother and must not involve any discussion of the court case.

“I’m going to trust you for the next three weeks,” Pokorny told Wills, while agreeing with Chahine that Wills’ behavior during the case had been “exemplary.”

Special Prosecutor Joshua Ney did not object to the sibling visits but did — unsuccessfully — oppose any visitation with Granger before sentencing since she is a material witness in the case. That objection was based on the possibility that “things can happen,” he said, such as a motion to withdraw a plea between conviction and sentencing.

Wills, who has no criminal history, is facing more than 15 years in prison as part of his plea deal, but Pokorny previously told him that she could give him as much as 19 years.

Wills was originally charged under Jessica’s Law, which would have meant a life sentence, but that option, along with several counts of aggravated indecent liberties, was taken off the table as part of the plea deal.