School Officials: Ex-Con Teacher at Elite Private School Arrested for Sharing ‘Inappropriate Sexualized Images’
An ex-con Jeopardy! champion who taught at an elite New York City private school was arrested in front of students in connection with the “dissemination of intimate images via social media,” officials said.
Winston Nguyen, a math teacher who already has a criminal record for stealing $300,000 from an elderly couple he worked for, was taken into custody last Thursday from Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights, the New York Post reported.
“Nguyen wasn’t charged, but is being investigated by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, sources confirmed to The Post,” the outlet noted.
Nguyen was released on Saturday, but his defense attorney is awaiting information from prosecutors regarding potential charges.
“We are awaiting a decision from the Brooklyn DAs office regarding charges against Mr Nguyen,” lawyer Frank Rothman told the Post. “We are expecting some movement in the near future.”
Saint Ann’s Head of School Kenyatte Reid alerted parents that the educator, who taught junior high- and high school-aged students, was arrested as part of an investigation that “dates back to January 2024.”
Days after Nguyen’s arrest, Reid followed up with parents and notified them that the arrest had to do with “inappropriate sexualized images,” and that Nguyen was prohibited from contacting anyone at the school or entering campus, the Daily Beast reported.
“This incident is very disturbing to all of us,” Reid wrote. “We pride ourselves on our amazing faculty and a learning environment rooted in trust.”
A spokeswoman from Saint Ann’s, where parents of high schoolers shell out over $60,000 per year to send their children, confirmed to the Daily Beast that the teacher “is a suspect in an ongoing investigation related to the dissemination of intimate images via social media.”
“Upon his arrest on Thursday he was immediately placed on leave by the school and he remains on leave,” the spokesperson added.
Prior to his position at Saint Ann’s, Nguyen began a career as a caretaker for a blind 96-year-old man and his 92-year-old wife in 2009, according to Patch.
By 2015, prosecutors said Nguyen began stealing from the couple by using their bank account and credit cards to complete more than $100,000 in purchases and cash withdrawals, opening lines of credit, and writing himself more than $200,000 in checks.
While spending a stint at Rikers Island jail, Nguyen “publicly blasted” the city’s Department of Corrections, called into a radio show twice to speak with then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, and later filed a lawsuit against the city, according to the Post, which called him an “activist inmate.”
Just one year after being released from jail in 2019, Nguyen landed the job at Saint Ann’s.
The school said that nonviolent criminal records “may not preclude employment,” according to the Daily Beast.
“The school gives a careful and discerning assessment of a job candidate’s potential fit with the school,” she added.
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