Prosecutors say the 43-year-old conceived a child with her daughter’s 14-year-old junior high dance date.
WASHINGTON, Ill. — A 43-year-old Illinois mother, Robyn Polston, has been arrested and held without bail after authorities said a DNA test showed the father of her infant is a teenage boy who once took her daughter to a junior high dance. She faces four felony counts stemming from the alleged abuse.
Prosecutors in Tazewell County said the case moved forward this fall after investigators reviewed records tied to a baby born in January 2025 and matched details to a boy who would have been 14 at the time of conception. Polston is charged with two counts of criminal sexual assault of a victim ages 13 to 17 and two counts of possession of child pornography. Each count carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years, for a maximum of 60 years if served consecutively. She has not entered a plea. A formal arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 4.
According to a probable cause affidavit described by prosecutors, the investigation began shortly after the child’s birth when police obtained a copy of the birth certificate and noticed the infant shared the teen’s middle and last name. When officers confronted Polston, she insisted the baby’s father “was a man in his twenties named Brian,” the affidavit says. Detectives then retraced earlier contact between Polston and the boy, including a junior high dance in May 2023 that Polston chaperoned, and the boy’s return visits to central Illinois in 2024. Authorities said additional interviews and records helped establish a timeline leading to the DNA collection.
Charging documents state that the boy visited in April 2024, roughly forty weeks before the birth, returned again in June, and later moved back to the area in August to live with a friend’s family. Investigators said they recovered “a large number of sexually explicit images and videos” depicting Polston and the teen from devices tied to the alleged victim. The Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office wrote that laboratory testing of samples from Polston, the infant and the teen identified the boy as the child’s father. Officials did not release the teen’s name because he is a minor. No injuries requiring hospitalization were reported. Whether any communications were deleted or routed through alternate phones remains unclear.
Polston, a Washington resident, was taken into custody earlier this month after prosecutors reviewed the findings with the Washington Police Department. Court records list the charges as two counts of criminal sexual assault involving a minor between 13 and 17 and two counts of possession of child pornography. Authorities said the alleged abuse involved a teen who had once dated Polston’s daughter and who attended a school event in May 2023 where Polston served as a chaperone. Prosecutors said the department’s attention intensified after the January 2025 birth and the discovery of the child’s name mirroring the teen’s. Investigators have not disclosed whether any school employees reported concerns at the time of the dance.
The case arrives amid periodic scrutiny of educator and caregiver boundaries around school events in central Illinois. Public records show Washington, a city of about 16,000 northeast of Peoria, shares policing duties with Tazewell County for major cases. In similar prosecutions, local judges have typically ordered no-contact provisions with minors and removed defendants from homes shared with potential witnesses. In this matter, a judge ordered Polston held without bail while the case proceeds. The State’s Attorney’s Office has not said whether any additional charges are being weighed in connection with the images investigators said they seized, or whether any third parties could face charges for aiding or concealing communications.
At this stage, the charges are allegations, and Polston is presumed innocent. Prosecutors said they expect to present the case to a grand jury if required by scheduling, and defense counsel could seek a bond review. The court docket lists a formal arraignment on Dec. 4 in Tazewell County. If the case advances, the next steps would include exchange of discovery, further forensic analysis of devices, and scheduling of pretrial motions. Illinois law allows for consecutive sentences in certain felony sex cases if the court finds separate harms; however, any penalty would be determined only if there is a conviction. Officials have not announced any parallel child-welfare proceedings regarding the infant, and custody arrangements were not described in court filings made public so far.
Neighbors in Washington said the arrest has been the chief topic of conversation since police cruisers appeared near the family’s home. Parents who attended junior high events in 2023 recalled a crowded dance supervised by staff and volunteers, though few could place names. “People are stunned by the details in the filings,” said one father outside a grocery store, adding that families were sharing updates as court dates approached. A local youth counselor said incidents like this can unsettle students. “They see the adults around them, teachers and parents, reacting,” the counselor said. “It changes how safe they feel at school activities.” Authorities did not hold a public briefing; any future statements are expected to come through the prosecutor’s office.
Polston remains jailed as of Wednesday. Prosecutors said the next milestone is her arraignment on Dec. 4, when the judge could set a schedule for motions and address any no-contact orders. Officials said additional laboratory reports and digital-forensic summaries may be filed before that date.
Author note: Last updated November 19, 2025.