DINKINS
PAXTON — Robert L. “Robbie” Dinkins, a former Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley coach and teacher charged with six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for alleged sexual activities with a highschool student, will join his two attorneys and special prosecutor
Kate Kurtz in a conference call with Judge Mary Koll in December to discuss a potential plea agreement.
The so-called “402(d) conference” — referencing Illinois Supreme Court Rule 402(d), which applies to plea discussions and agreements — will occur via Zoom from Koll’s Livingston County chambers at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17, and is expected to last up to an hour, according to online court records. Dinkins’ attorneys requested the conference during an Oct. 8 pretrial hearing.
Koll was reassigned the case in June, after the 39-year-old Dinkins, a Gibson City resident, was arrested and charged in Ford County Circuit Court. Dinkins has been ordered detained through trial and remains in custody at the Ford County Jail in Paxton.
Gibson City Police Chief Adam Rosendahl said an investigation revealed “there was data to support Mr. Dinkins having participated in sexual activities with a high-school-age student.” Rosendahl said police executed a search warrant at Dinkins’ residence, where they seized his phone and other electronics for forensic analysis.
Dinkins, a 13-year employee of the GCMS school district, was fired in April from his positions as eighthgrade math teacher and coach of the eighth-grade boys’ basketball and boys’ track teams and GCMS/Fisher varsity soccer team.
Over seven years as the head soccer coach of the Fisher/GCMS Bunnies, Dinkins posted a 116-24-9 record, including an IHSA Class 1A round-of-16 postseason appearance in fall 2024. Before coaching the eighth-grade boys’ basketball team in the 2024-25 season, Dinkins served as an assistant coach for the high school’s boys’ basketball team, as well.
Prior to working at GCMS, Dinkins was an eighth-grade student teacher at Wilmington Middle School in fall 2011 and worked in a sixthgrade teaching practicum at Franklin Middle School in fall 2010 and an eighth-grade practicum at Cumberland Middle School in Toledo in spring 2011.