Day: March 3, 2025

Former Jeopardy! champion and Brooklyn private school teacher Winston Nguyen pleaded guilty on Monday afternoon to soliciting sexually explicit images of children, expecting to land him seven years behind bars.

The 38-year-old became famous after appearing on the hit game show in July 2014, becoming a Jeopardy! champion and appearing on two episodes. However, he hit the spotlight again a decade later for very different reasons.

According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, while working as a math teacher at St. Ann’s School, Nguyen posed as a teenager over the social media app Snapchat from October 2022 to May 2024.

Posing as a child himself, prosecutors said, he convinced some students to send him lewd photos and videos. His victims not only attended the school at which he worked, but also Poly Prep Country Day School, Berkeley Carroll School, and Packer Collegiate Institute.

“The fact that he was a teacher and a trusted figure among students make these allegations even more troubling. We will now seek to hold him accountable and will continue to work diligently to protect children from sexual exploitation,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement at the time of the arrest.

Nguyen was reportedly cuffed while working in front of students on July 25, 2024, and has been engaged in the ensuing legal battle since. 

According to court documents, Nguyen’s victims ranged in age between 13 and 16. Using the account name “hunterkristoff,” he not only requested that the victims send him the disturbing content, he also paid them for it.

This is not the first time he has been in trouble with law enforcement. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to stealing some $300,000 from his senior employers while he worked as a home health aid.

On March 3, Nguyen appeared before a Brooklyn judge and pleaded guilty to use of a child in a sexual performance as a sexually motivated felony and five counts of endangering the welfare of children under the age of 17. He was taken into custody and will undergo a pre-sentencing evaluation. He is expected to be sentenced to seven years in prison and ten years post-prison supervision. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

“Today’s plea holds this defendant responsible for his disturbing and predatory conduct while sparing young and vulnerable victims from ever having to testify about their traumatic experiences,” Gonzalez said. ”This kind of exploitation of children, made even more distressing by the fact that the defendant was a trusted school figure, will never be tolerated in Brooklyn, and we will continue to expose and root it out.”

FDNY IS TEMPORARILY relocating Engine 219 and Ladder 105, both currently located at 494 Dean St. to two different locations.

The post FDNY’s Engine 219 and Ladder 105 temporarily relocating appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn received an immediate raise on Saturday after their union and hospital administrators reached a last-minute contract agreement and narrowly avoided a strike.

The Federation of Nurses/UFT ratified the two-year contract late on Feb. 27, about 24 hours before the old agreement was set to expire. On Feb. 18, nurses — who said they were underpaid and their units understaffed — warned that they would strike starting March 1 if an agreement was not reached in time. 

“Our nurses are the backbone of NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn,” said UFT president Michael Mulgrew, in a statement. “The nurses forced the hospital to start paying the competitive salaries they deserve, and they forced management to drop the excuses and acknowledge that it is their responsibility to correctly staff the hospital.”

According to UFT, the roughly 1,000 unionized nurses at the hospital were granted a 9.25% raise on March 1, with an additional 6% raise set to take effect next March. By the end of the contract, staff nurses will have a base annual pay of $125,282, and nurses who stay on the same unit and shift for at least 18 months will be eligible for a one-time retention bonus of at least $3,750. 

The agreement also maintained the nurses’ premium-free health insurance and ensured an “employer-paid” pension. 

During contract negotiations, NYU Langone-Brooklyn nurses said they were underpaid compared to nurses at other hospitals in the area. Yusif Rahman, an RN in the hospital’s surgical intensive care unit, told Brooklyn Paper last month that he struggled to pay basic living expenses on his salary. 

“We had a focus — to increase our base salary to equal or surpass what was offered by the surrounding hospitals,” said nurse and union chapter leader Moncef Righi, in a statement. “We were determined to make this happen, for fairness and to be in a better position to recruit and retain nurses.”

The contract also required NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to post job listings for 100 full-time nurses by March 1 to “alleviate the chronic understaffing” at the hospital. 

NYU Langone-Brooklyn has been subject to thousands of short-staffing complaints in the last few years, and has reportedly repeatedly violated nurse-patient ratios required by both state law and the union contract. 

In addition to hiring new nurses, the hospital will pay a combined $1 million to nurses who were affected by understaffed shifts, according to UFT. 

“The contract gives our nurses the respect they deserve by raising salaries and requiring NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to hire the nurses they need to safely staff their hospital,” said Anne Goldman, head of the Federation of Nurses/ UFT, in a statement. “This opens the door to improving staffing, recruitment and retention and provides the economic equity our nurses have long deserved.”

NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn did not immediately return Brooklyn Paper’s request for comment. 

THE MTA IS SEEKING input on which stations to prioritize for accessibility improvements over the next five years.

The post Help MTA decide which subway stations to make accessible appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

THE NYC BAR ASSOCIATION called on Congress to preserve the international legal order, which it said is being dismantled by the Trump admin. 

The post NYC Bar calls on Congress to save international legal order from Trump’s ‘destruction’ appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

BROOKLYN DISTRICT ATTORNEY Eric Gonzalez on Monday announced that former St. Ann’s teacher Winston Nguyen has pleaded guilty to six counts.

The post St. Ann’s teacher pleads guilty to child sex offenses appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

A GROUP OF politicians and nonprofits are set to hold a rally in defense of migrants on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday, March 5.

The post Pols to rally in favor of ‘sanctuary city’ status appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.