Poly Prep Settles Lawsuit Claiming Sex Abuse Cover Up

By on January 3, 2013  Featured story, News
Jan 032013
 
Photo: Brian Hedden/Bay Ridge Odyssey

Photo: Brian Hedden/Bay Ridge Odyssey

Here’s a news item from while we were on break that our readers may have missed:

Poly Prep Country Day School [9216 7th Ave], known as one of New York City’s most prestigious private schools, has agreed to settle a milestone lawsuit claiming its longtime football coach sexually molested hundreds of boys during a career that lasted a quarter century – and that administrators covered up the crimes for decades, as reported by Michael O’Keeffe for Daily News.

The settlement between the school and 12 plaintiffs – all of whom say they were abused by now-deceased football coach Phil Foglietta, “closes a case with all-too-familiar allegations of abuse shielded by power and prestige,” the NY Times poignantly observed. Continue reading »

Seen in Bay Ridge Weekender: White Rabbit With Orange Carrot

By on September 14, 2012  Seen In Photos
Sep 142012
 

This week’s photo, which is once again courtesy of Bath Beach photographer David Tan, shows one of the rabbits that reside on Poly Prep’s expansive lawn.

It was taken on September 1, 2012.

To see more of David’s highly-praised halftones, please visit his blog at dtan.blogspot.com.

If you have a photo you’d like us to publish as part of the Seen In Bay Ridge photo series, please send it to info@bayridgeodyssey.com. Be sure to let us know where and when the picture was taken, as well as how to credit the image (i.e. by your real name, pen name, anonymously, etc.).

Poly Prep Hires Prominent Former U.S. Attorney For Defense Team

By on June 18, 2012  News
Jun 182012
 

Poly Prep officials – while maintaining that they would like a “fair resolution” to a lawsuit filed by dozens of former students who say administrators covered up decades of sexual abuse – have also signaled that they have the legal wherewithal to defend the school should the case go to trial, writes Michael O’Keeffe for the Daily News.

On Friday school officials retained Mary Jo White – who was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 2002. White oversaw the prosecution of “Ramzi Yousef and others” convicted  in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Continue reading »

Poly Prep Grad David Zarnock Gives Graphic Details Of Alleged Sex Abuse

By on June 11, 2012  News
Jun 112012
 

David Zarnock, a former NYPD detective and Poly Prep Country Day School graduate who has had run ins with the law, has shared a graphically detailed account of the sexual abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of the school’s former football coach Phil Foglietta with reporter Michael O’Keeffe – who has been covering the story for the Daily News.

Former students, including David Hiltbrand – an entertainment reporter in Philadelphia who attended Poly Prep in the late 1960s, and Jonathan Enroth – who was enrolled at the school in the late 1970s and early 1980s, came forward to the New York Times in 2005 with detail-laden stories of abuse at the hands of the now-deceased Foglietta.

In the most recent account by Zarnock, the sexual assaults began in 1982 – when he was in 8th grade. Continue reading »

Judge Says Evidence Suggests Poly Officials Knew Of Sex Abuse Allegations Before 1991

By on June 7, 2012  News
Jun 072012
 

Source: Wikipedia Commons

Yesterday a Brooklyn federal judge ruled that there is enough evidence to suggest that officials at Poly Prep Country Day School [9216 7th Ave] were aware of sex abuse allegations against former football coach Phil Foglietta before 1991 – the year they claim to have first learned about them, reports Michael O’Keeffe for the Daily News.

The hearing, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollack, added new credibility to a law suit by former students that alleges school administrators have covered up sexual abuse since the 1960s.

“There have been serious questions raised as to whether defendants and their counsel were simply engaged in a good faith effort to vigorously defend this lawsuit or whether certain [aspects] of the alleged conduct was in furtherance of an effort to conceal the extent of the school’s knowledge and to hinder plaintiffs’ efforts in pursuing their case,” Pollak wrote in an order made public on Wednesday. Continue reading »

Poly Prep Headmaster David Harman Responds To Accusations With Letter To Alumni

By on June 6, 2012  Featured story, Schools & Libraries
Jun 062012
 

Source: Wikipedia Commons

According to the Daily News’ Michael O’Keeffe, Poly Prep Country Day School [9216 7th Ave] headmaster David Harman sent a letter to alumni this week, just days after attorney Kevin Mulhearn filed papers in Brooklyn federal court accusing administrators of lying – and possibly perjuring themselves.

The accusations arose when school officials denied having knowledge of sex abuse allegations against football coach Phil Foglietta until 1991 – Something Mulhearn, the attorney for a group of plaintiffs who claim they were molested – with charges spanning decades of the coach’s career, disputes.

According to the report, Harman’s letter “appears to be an attempt to reassure alumni and parents that the administration sympathizes with Mulhearn’s clients,” but some alumni of the elite private school tagged it as both “tone deaf” and “soul-less.” Continue reading »