When one of New York City's most famous private schools hired Winston Nuguen in 2020, administrators were aware of his felony conviction for troubled past fraud. But the second chance they backfired him. Almost four years later, mathematics teacher Nguyen was arrested again and accused of preying on his student. And St. Anne's School in Brooklyn faced a raucous crisis.
On Monday, Nguyen, 38, pleaded guilty to felony and several misdemeanors after being charged with soliciting indecent images and videos from students. When he was sentenced, perhaps later this month, he faces the possibility of a seven-year sentence.
His plea marks the latest chapter in a scandal that undermined the reputation of St. Anne's school and the administrators who hired him.
This is the second time Nguyen has been convicted of a felony. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to grand theft and other charges after being accused of stealing more than $300,000 from his employer and then accused of being an elderly couple who worked as a home health aide.
He served four months at the Rikers Island Prison complex, and about a year later he charged about $60,000 a year in tuition and was hired by St. Anne's, a school that caters to wealthy creative classes in New York.
In his former clothes, often in suits, and sometimes with bow ties, Nguyen has changed felony records from liability to resume builders at schools known for accepting unconventional educators. He taught a seminar called “Crime and Punishment” and quickly became a school equipment.
It was a kind of opportunity that most felons get.
In an interview with the New York Times last week, Nuguen tried to understand how he wasted it all and how it plummeted from his young man's promises.
“I hurt so many people,” he said.
Nguyen refused to directly address the students he targeted. He said he would do so when he was sentenced to prison — but expressed regret for the damage he caused to the school. “It's an incredible community for me and I really, really regret that my actions portrayed them from a horrifying perspective,” he said.
Neither Nguyen nor the students his family targets have spoken publicly, and prosecutors protect their privacy through legal procedures.
Sitting in the courtyard outside of his Harlem apartment, Nguyen shook between his tear recognition of his violation and occasionally a fierce burst of self-analysis. He said he suffers from bipolar II disorder, a mental illness. He said he was not treated during the Covid-19 pandemic and experienced sexual abuse as a child, but made no excuses for his behavior. “I'm very responsible for my actions,” he said. “I made a bad decision.”
Nguyen was hired as a management aide at Saint Ann's in the summer of 2020. He warned the administrators who interviewed him that he was convicted of a felony, urging at least one Saint Ann employee not to hire him from school leaders.
He quickly became an integral member of staff and helped manage logistics during the pandemic as he integrated himself into the school community.
The school promoted Nguyen to mathematics teacher in the fall of 2021, but did not warn his parents about his criminal records until the students discovered news stories about him online. In October 2021, then-president Vince Tompkins sent an email to his parents about his new mathematics teacher. “Like the teachers we hire, we can assure you that we are confident in Winston's ability to educate and care for students and fitness,” he writes.
Within a year, students from Saint Ann's and other Brooklyn Private Schools (13-year-old young) began receiving Snapchat, videos and videos via Snapchat. The user behind an anonymous Snapchat account sent a graphic video of a 16-year-old boy masturbating to one student.
By February 2024, St. Anne's had been informed by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office that she was investigating ongoing targeting of students through an anonymous Snapchat account looking for sexual photos and videos. School administrators did not notify their parents.
A few days before the end of the school year, Nguyen was arrested near St. Anne. He was charged in July with counts of 11 felony, including using children in sexual performances, promoting sexual performance by children and spreading obscene material to minors.
The news shocked parents and students, leading to a torrent of media coverage.
In December, St. Anne released the findings conducted by lawyers commissioned by the school's board to determine how the school began hiring felons.
The furious report said school administrators were “embarrassing” parents for expressing concern about Nguyen's background, suggesting they were not stepping into the school's progressive values.
“In some cases,” the report states that administrators “prioritized teachers, including Nguyen, over the concerns of students and their families about teacher background and behavior.”
For months after his arrest, Nguyen has been mostly confined to his apartment. He attended video therapy sessions, including group sessions with other people accused of sexual offences, and occasionally attended church services. Otherwise, he remains isolated, reading and watching TV.
He avoided contact with most of his friends, he said. Sometimes he is grabbed by depression and stayed in bed for days, he said.
His sister recently visited him from Houston to help him clean his apartment while he was preparing to grow up in a middle-aged state in prison. She brought a lot of St. Anne's sweatshirts and other school items from his apartment, he said, but the guard refused. “I don't deserve the family I have,” Nguyen said.
Over the past few weeks he has culled his belongings and throws and donates most of his items, but for a suit, a Latin dictionary, and a pair of point ballet slippers signed by ballerinas. During the packaging, he encountered a warm coat that Bernard Stoll had given him by Bernard Stoll, the man he worked and stole during the cold winter. “People are very, very incredibly good for me and I have betrayed their trust in a very profound way,” he said.
He didn't want to stand trial, he said.
“I'm somewhere where I know what I did,” he said. “I think part of the reason I feel so scared is that I don't know how to make it better for my kids, or for my family or for school. I know I've done something wrong, so I want to accept this sentence and answer it.”
