NYC kids catfished for lewd images by ex-‘Jeopardy!’ champ share devastating details at his sentencing: ‘Ruined my life’
Brooklyn students fooled into sending nude images to an ex-”Jeopardy!” champ teacher were “ruined” by the catfishing scheme, according to victim statements read at his sentencing on Wednesday.
Former private school math teacher and TV trivia whiz Winston Nguyen, 38, will spend the next seven years in prison as punishment for his crimes after statements were read from his ashamed victims who revealed how he preyed on their innocence and trust.
“You took advantage of me when I was at a mental low,” one victim wrote in an impact statement read aloud to the courtroom. “You gave me the validation my young, impressionable mind needed. You used this to manipulate me into sending you explicit photographs of myself.”
Nguyen stood in court during the proceeding wearing a beige prison jumpsuit and a brand-new black eye — which his lawyer, Franklin Rothman, later said was the product of a jail assault that forced the disgraced trivia nerd into protective custody.
“I knew in my head it was wrong, and I should not have been doing it,” the victim statement continued. “But it was the only love my looks had ever received, and I was afraid of losing it.
“Now, every time I look at myself, I think of you,” she wrote. “I think of all the inappropriate things you said about my body. You sent these images to countless people … I do not know who knows and I feel like at any moment, people are going to find out the girl who sent nudes to the teacher was me.”
“The truth is, there’s never anything you can do to fix this. You ruined my life, broke my ability to trust.”
Nguyen, who taught at the swanky Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights, landed in hot water for posing as a teenage boy on Snapchat and taking part in hundreds of sexual chats with kids as young as 13-years old.
Prosecutors said Nguyen victimized at least six kids who attended a cadre of four Brooklyn private schools — including Saint Ann’s.
The disturbing actions — which authorities said happened between October 2022 and May 2024 — led to a 30-count indictment that compelled Nguyen to surrender to the authorities last July.
“I deeply regret my actions,” Nguyen said during the hearing. “Especially to a community that had gone out of its way to support me, giving me a second chance. As a teacher, my job was to protect students, and instead, I acted selfishly.
“I know my words today might be unsatisfying,” he said, adding that he would talk to “any families [who] wanted to have any conversations for closure.”
“I truly want them to know that I’m sorry.”
His apology rang hollow to another unidentified victim whose statement was also read in court — with the person writing that Nguyen “begged for sexually explicit images of me to the point where I felt trapped.”
“As a young child, with very little experience with any boys, I didn’t know what to do,” the victim wrote, adding Nguyen “wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“I was naive and insecure, you used my adolescence to manipulate me,” the victim said. “When I found out, I was horrified. You had saved and stored 80 pictures of me and sent them to other children. I was taken advantage of, exposed and humiliated by you.
“You’ve done far more than make bad decisions — [you] deeply hurt my friends and my family, and your actions will scar me for the rest of my life.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called Nguyen’s actions a “sickening betrayal of trust by a schoolteacher.”
“Today’s sentencing holds him accountable for his actions while sparing the young and vulnerable victims from having to relive this emotional abuse in court,” Gonzalez said in a statement.
“I commend the prosecutors and investigators who brought this defendant to justice, and the young survivors who bravely stepped forward.”
Nguyen — who pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of use of a child in a sexual performance as a sexually motivated felony and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child — will also register as a sex offender and serve 10 years of supervised release.
He also has an eye-popping rap sheet that included stealing more than $300,000 from an elderly couple who hired him as a home health aide — an act that landed him in jail for four months in 2019.
About The Author
