An elite Brooklyn private school teacher accused of defrauding teenage girls for child pornography had voluntarily participated in a sex offender treatment program before his shock arrest, his lawyer revealed during a heated probation hearing Monday.
Winston Nguyen, a former Jeopardy! winner employed as a teacher at the upscale St. Ann’s School, was previously convicted of stealing more than $300,000 from an elderly couple and narrowly avoided returning to prison pending a hearing on whether he violated his probation.
“My concern here is the allegation that he is preying on our most vulnerable citizens,” an excited Judge Josh Hanshaft said at a Manhattan court hearing.
“First it was the elderly, now it’s the children.”
Judge Hanshaft threatened to jail Nguyen but instead imposed strict probation, effectively confining him to his Harlem apartment, a decision made with a view to allowing for a possible plea bargain in the new case.
“The actual charge is that he is having sexual access to vulnerable children. That is of concern to me,” the judge said.
After the hearing, Nguyen’s lawyer, Frank Rothman, could be heard in the hallway saying, “Damn, that was close,” alluding to his client’s near-impossible jail time for the infractions.
Rothman said during the hearing that Nguyen had enrolled in the “Mustard Seed Program” at the recommendation of a therapist two months ago, before his July arrest on child pornography charges.
The program is aimed at “treating individuals who have committed sexual offenses,” it said. website.
When asked by the judge why Nguyen voluntarily joined, Rothman replied, “For self-awareness.” Rothman argued that Nguyen’s personal therapist had encouraged her to join and that it had nothing to do with the pending Brooklyn lawsuit.
Nguyen worked as a math teacher at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights before he was handcuffed in front of his students in June. After his arrest, prosecutors quickly released him to strengthen their case.
Prosecutors filed 30 criminal charges against him, accusing him of posing as a teenager on Snapchat and engaging in hundreds of sexually-charged chats with boys as young as 13, trolling them for nude and sexually-charged videos of the boys. The boy turned himself in to authorities on July 25.
Prosecutors say Nguyen victimized at least six young people attending high-achieving groups at four Brooklyn private schools, including St. Ann’s.
Since the allegations, Nguyen’s employment at St. Ann’s has come under fire from the family of a now-deceased elderly couple who hired him as a home care aide but allowed him to use their credit card as a personal piggy bank.
Nguyen was serving a four-month prison sentence for theft in 2019.
“I can’t believe that no one did a thorough investigation,” the couple’s son told The Washington Post exclusively last week about St. Anne’s hiring of fraudulent ex-convicts.
Nguyen’s child pornography arrest also raised questions about whether he violated his probation, leading to Monday’s hearing.
Judge Hanshaft ordered that Nguyen be confined to the apartment he shares with two roommates on Madison Avenue in Harlem.
He also imposed strict electronic monitoring conditions that limit Nguyen’s use of his cellphone or computer outside of his twice-weekly virtual therapy sessions.
Hanshaft said Nguyen must report to the probation office every week and continue with the Mustard Seed program, warning that missing meetings would create problems.
“If there are any complications, you will be waiting in your cell,” Hanshaft told Nguyen. “Do you understand?”
Nguyen did not speak after the hearing, but was seen reading a copy of R.R. Martin’s hardback book “Fire & Blood” while waiting for his case to be called.
The lawyer said a plea deal in the Catfish case could be reached if authorities confirm they found inappropriate material on the former inmate’s devices.
“If there was merchandise there, he would plead guilty,” Rothman said. “It’s not someone else’s phone.”
