An ex-”Jeopardy!” champ admitted Monday he catfished youngsters at elite personal colleges in Brooklyn in a twisted scheme to trick them into sending him little one porn footage and movies.
Winston Nguyen, who taught on the swanky Saint Ann’s Faculty in Brooklyn Heights, stated little as agreed to a plea deal that’s more likely to put him in jail for seven years — and ceaselessly deem him a registered intercourse offender.
The disgraced trivia whiz stated little as Decide Philip Tisne parsed by way of the costs to make sure Nguyen knew what he was pleading to.
“Do you admit … that on or about Could 7, 2024, within the county of Kings … you employed, licensed or induced a baby lower than 17 years of age to have interaction in a sexual efficiency — and that you simply dedicated this offense in complete or substantial half for you personal direct sexual gratification?” Tisne stated in court docket.
“Sure,” the 38-year-old former math trainer from Harlem stated.
Nguyen pleaded to that rely and 5 expenses of endangering the welfare of a kid, all of which stemmed from actions he took between October 2022 and Could 2024, the Brooklyn District Legal professional’s Workplace stated in an announcement.
Court docket officers cuffed him as his legal professional, Franklin Rothman, squeezed the again of his neck and gave his shopper a pat on the again.
Then the bailiffs led him out a facet door.
Nguyen surrendered to authorities final July when prosecutors introduced a 30-count prison criticism in opposition to him that claimed he posed as a teenage boy on Snapchat to participate in tons of of sexual chats with youngsters as younger as 13-years outdated.
He used two Snapchat accounts to troll for nudes and ask for movies of them performing sexual acts, prosecutors stated.
Nguyen victimized no less than six youngsters who attended a cadre of 4 Brooklyn personal colleges — together with Saint Ann’s, prosecutors stated.
The plea deal will land him behind bars for seven years, plus one other decade of supervised launch. He’ll additionally need to register as a intercourse offender.
Tisne will sentence Nguyen on March 17.
Rothman advised reporters outdoors the courtroom that there was “by no means actually a difficulty about whether or not or not he was going to need to plead responsible.”
“There’s little or no protection one can proffer when you will have photographs in your cellphone,” he stated. “So it was simply the query of attempting to barter the absolute best decision. There was by no means a difficulty with him denying duty, by no means, ever — fairly the alternative.
“He was resigned to the truth that he was going to go to jail for fairly some time, and he’s been coping with that actuality now for fairly a while,” the legal professional continued.
“And I don’t know what his first night time goes to be like, however at present, he acted and introduced to you a similar method he’s introduced to me. I don’t know the way he couldn’t be concerned going to jail as a intercourse offender. I feel he’s anxious, certain.”
Brooklyn District Legal professional Eric Gonzalez stated the plea held Nguyen “liable for his disturbing and predatory conduct whereas sparing younger and susceptible victims from ever having to testify about their traumatic experiences.”
“This sort of exploitation of youngsters, made much more distressing by the truth that the defendant was a trusted college determine, won’t ever be tolerated in Brooklyn,” Gonzalez stated in an announcement. “And we’ll proceed to reveal and root it out.”
Nguyen has an eye-popping rap sheet that included stealing greater than $300,000 from an aged couple who employed him as a house well being aide — an act that landed him in jail for 4 months in 2019.
The now-deceased household of the victims pilloried Saint Ann’s for hiring the fraudster, who used the older couple to fund a lavish New York Metropolis way of life earlier than a member of the family lastly caught on to his scheme.
Nobody from the varsity ever contacted sufferer Bernard Stoll’s household earlier than bringing Nguyen on board in 2020, in accordance with son Rand Stoll.
“If I used to be contacted, he by no means would have been employed,” Stoll advised The Put up final summer season. “It’s unbelievable to me that nobody did their due diligence.”
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